Measuring metro station area's TODness: An exploratory study of Shenyang based on multi‐source urban data

Transit‐oriented development (TOD) promotes sustainable urban growth by integrating land use and transportation systems around public transportation nodes. Many high‐density Chinese cities have effectively applied TOD. However, studies on TODness in cities with relatively less‐developed metro networks are still nascent. This study developed a new geographic information system‐based method to assess TODness utilizing data from official departments and open sources. We employed 15 sub‐indicators of “Transit (T),” “Oriented (O),” and “Development (D)” dimensions to assess the TODness of Shenyang metro station areas (MSAs). We tested the validity of this tool by examining the relationship between TODness and urban vitality using an ordinary least squares model. Each MSA was comprehensively quantified and organized by categorizing their TODness into five types. The results indicate that the TODness index was closely associated with urban vitality, thereby validating the reasonableness of the proposed tool. Furthermore, the TODness of Shenyang's MSAs presents a spatial distribution of “high, medium, and low” from the urban center to the periphery. The proposed method is expected to enhance the effectiveness of TOD planning by providing a comprehensive and data‐driven approach.