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A supportive distribution of residential density is perceived to be an essential component of strategies aimed at increasing the use of public transit. To alter substantially land use-transport dynamics in a fashion that favours public transit patronage, residential density policies must be deployed over long periods and unfold at local and metropolitan levels simultaneously. The article narrates policies that attempted, since the late 1950s, a juxtaposition of high residential density and quality public transit services in the Toronto metropolitan region. Findings highlight the difficulties of pursuing such policies due to the power of neighbourhood-based interests, disagreement among jurisdictions within the metropolitan region and changes in priorities and intervention capacity. The article ends with proposals that seek to enhance the possibility of transforming the structure and dynamics of cities in ways that are compatible with smart growth principles.

IntroductionHigh-density housing is heralded as a foremost smart-growth instrument apt to reduce land consumption and automobile dependence (American Planning Association, 1998;Holtzclaw, 1994; Local Government Commission, 2003). But on its own it has little effect on journey patterns. To modify travel behaviour, density must be associated with a walking-conducive layout, proximity to quality public-transit services, nearby concentrations of diversified activities, and attitudes and socioeconomic attributes which are conducive to public-transit use and walking.In this paper we have two objectives. First, we evaluate the impact of highresidential-density distribution on modal shares, bearing in mind that many of the policies guiding this distribution in the metropolitan region under investigation were intended to raise public-transit use and walking levels. Our second objective is to draw lessons from past density-distribution policies, which can be conducive to an elevated reliance on public transit and walking. In this paper we adhere to the smart-growth perspective. The work is part of efforts to find ways of reducing dependence on the car and thus lessen traffic congestion, improving air quality, lowering households' transportation expenditures, and providing nonautomobile-oriented lifestyle options. In this paper we explore the feasibility of a car-use reduction strategy that entails minimal infringement of individuals' freedom of choiceöthe juxtaposition of high residential density and high-quality public-transit services.The empirical focus is on policies related to residential density adopted over the last five decades in the Toronto metropolitan region, an urban area long known for its public-transit orientation and metropolitan-wide planning capacity. Toronto is well suited for an examination of obstacles hampering a coordination of high residential density and high-quality public-transit services. Over the last fifty years, density-related policies have not elevated modal shares of walking and public-transit use as much as

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The prospects for expanded citizen involvement in environmental decision-making through public consultation are explored based on survey results and review of three case studies in the Grand River watershed. Public participation in watershed planning has expanded greatly during the last three decades, largely in response des differentes theories portant sur le role de la participation des citoyens aux d6cisions 6tatiques. Les trois 6tudes de cas introduits dans le texte font oart d'une 6ventail d'enjeux environnementaux qui ont fait l'objet de participation du public, allant des disputes reli6es a l'environnement, aux politiques d'am6nagement a long terme. Les r6sultats de l'enquete font part de l'attitude de la population au sujet de la participation aux d6cisions environnementales. L'analvse des r6sultats 1. Department of Sociology 2. School of Urban and Regional planning

The article measures the intensity of interaction between activities within suburban mixed-use centers (also referred to as suburban downtowns or edge cities), and the reliance on walking for intra-center journeys. It examines whether or not these centers are achieving, as intended in planning documents, an inner dynamic that distinguishes them from typical suburban commercial developments. A survey of office workers within the Greater Toronto Area's three most developed suburban mixed-use centers reveals a moderate level of inner synergy (interaction between activities beneficial to all those involved) and of walking for intra-center journeys. The article highlights the advantages of such an inner dynamic for activities located within suburban mixed-use centers. It also points at the surveyed centers' car orientation and the inhospitality of their walking environment to explain why synergy and pedestrian movements are not any higher. This leads to an examination of the advantages that would accrue from a more intense pedestrian-based synergy and of the means of achieving such an outcome. Are suburban mixed-use centers evolving into integrated business and residential districtswhere an intense pedestrian-based interaction prevails between their different functions? Or do these developments simply reproduce a typical suburban dispersed layout, characterized by functional specialization and automobile orientation? These questions are particularly relevant in metropolitan regions like the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) where planning agencies have turned to mixed-use centers as a means of increasing density within the suburban realm