ABSTRACT
As megacities face unprecedented demands on their transportation systems, planners, engineers, and public officials will need to think differently about how they plan and design transportation networks and how they integrate multiple modes into complex systems. This chapter explores regional transportation planning and questions the validity of network concepts that rely primarily on dominant city centers or downtowns as a regional hub. In contrast, megacities operated as complex, multilayered urban systems with numerous hubs and centers that are more apt to resemble spiderwebs than hub-and-spoke wagon wheels. The implications for how transportation networks are planned, designed, and built are significant. This chapter explores a “3D transportation planning” framework where facilities are networked through multiple layers and modes, drawing on specific examples from cities such as Beijing, Chicago, Guangzhou, Los Angeles, and Paris.
