Visualizing the potential for transit-oriented development: Insights from an open and interactive planning support tool in Flanders, Belgium

This paper reports on the development trajectory of an empirical tool for transit-oriented development planning in Flanders, Belgium. The tool, StationsRadar, draws on a branch of empirical railway station assessment tools that aim to support transit-oriented development planning processes by visualizing the performance of station locations for a range of transport ('node') and land use ('place') accessibility indicators. At the root of this paper lies the observation that, while the vast majority of reviewed studies highlight the relevance of the developed tools for planning practice, little work is undertaken to systematically verify that claim. Against this backdrop, we invoke an experiential research strategy as recently proposed in the field of planning research; we organize a series of experiential workshops in which we probe the tool's added value for regional planning in Flanders. In the process, we specifically work towards a qualitative appraisal of tool 'usability' and discuss how our findings bear relevance to the well-rehearsed practice of developing empirical transit-oriented development support tools. Additionally, we elaborate on and illustrate the ramifications of our findings in terms of the subsequent/iterative technical revision of the tool. We conclude this paper by putting forward three major usability recommendations pertaining to: interactive and diversified data visualizations, actor-mobilizing momentum in light of data transparency, and the integration of 'hard' and 'soft' data in light of crowdsourcing aspirations. We reflect on the broader technical and methodological challenges that come with implementing these in practice.