to: - Easy access to transit, making it easy to get around without a car. - Dense, due to TODs being made for getting around transportation, other than private vehicles, allowing access to stores and private business. - Improved access to jobs and city services. - Increased population near transit stops, such as a commuter rail stop, which ultimately increases transit ridership across the board. Opponents of compact, or transit oriented development typically argue that Americans, and persons throughout the world, prefer low-density living, and that any policies that encourage compact development will result in substantial utility decreases and hence large social welfare costs. Proponents of compact development argue that there are large, often unmeasured benefits of compact development or that the American preference for low-density living is a misinterpretation made possible in part by substantial local government interference in the land market. TOD in cities Many cities throughout the world are developing TOD policy. Toronto, Portland, Montreal, San Francisco, and Vancouver among many other cities have developed, and continue to write policies and strategic plans, which aim to reduce automobile dependency and increase the use of public transit. Latin America Curitiba, Brazil One of the earliest and most successful examples of TOD is Curitiba, Brazil. Curitiba was organized into transport corridors very early on in its history. Over the years, it has integrated its zoning laws and transportation planning to place high-density development adjacent to high-capacity transportation systems, particularly its BRT corridors. Since the failure of its first rather grandiose city plan due to lack of funding, Curitiba has focused on working with economical forms of infrastructure, so it has arranged unique adaptations, such as bus routes (inexpensive infrastructure) with routing systems, limited access and speeds similar to subway systems. The source of innovation in Curitiba has been a unique form of participatory city planning that emphasizes public education, discussion and agreement. Guatemala City, Guatemala In an attempt to control the rapid growth of Guatemala City, the long-time mayor, Álvaro Arzú, implemented a plan to control growth based on transects along important arterial roads and exhibiting transit-oriented development (TOD) characteristics. The plan adopted POT (Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial) aims to allow the construction of taller mixed-use building structures right by large arterial roads. The buildings would gradually decrease in height and density as distance would increase from arterial roads. That is being implemented simultaneously with a bus rapid transit