Bryan Willis

In recent years, rapid urban development and population growth have led to problems like urban sprawl, and traffic congestion. Suburban and car-centric cities like Calgary and Edmonton have adopted smart growth policies, like Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), to mitigate these problems by integrating their Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems with land use planning. This paper focuses on assessing the areas around the LRT systems of both cities to determine which areas would present opportunities for TOD. Principal Component Analysis and K-means clustering were used to create a typology system that grouped together areas with similar demographics into 6 distinct groups. Local Moran’s I was then applied to the 6 clusters to analyze the spatial patterns of each cluster. The analysis revealed that areas in the downtown core and in the Northeastern quadrant of both cities had the greatest opportunity for TOD and reflected the plans and policies currently in place.