Jeffrey Kenworthy

Gasoline Consumption and Cities: A Comparison of U.S. Cities with a Global Survey

Gasoline consumption per capita in ten large US cities is found to vary by up to 40 per cent, due primarily to land use and transport planning factors, rather than price or income variations. The same patterns, though more extreme, are seen in a global sample of thirty two cities where average gasoline consumption in US cities was nearly twice as much as in Australian cities, four times higher than european cities and ten times as much as asian cities. Allowing for gasoline price, income and vehicle efficiency explains only half of these differences. Physical planning and transport planning policies are suggested for reducing gasoline consumption (a).

Patterns of automobile dependence in cities: an international overview of key physical and economic dimensions with some implications for urban policy

Automobile dependence, expressed through comparative levels of car ownership and use and transit service and use, varies widely and systematically across a large sample of international cities. US cities exhibit the most extreme dependence on the automobile, followed by Australian and Canadian cities, with European and Asian cities having very much more transit-oriented cities with greater levels of walking and cycling. These patterns are not strongly related to differences in wealth between cities, but do vary in a clear and systematic way with land use patterns. The total fixed and variable cost of cars per kilometre is also significantly related to the degree of automobile dependence in cities, though not as strongly as land use. The data suggest that the most auto-dependent cities are less wealthy than some other more transit-oriented cities. They have the worst operating cost recovery in transit, have far higher road construction and maintenance costs, spend the highest proportion of their wealth on passenger transportation but have roughly similar journey-to-work trip times and much longer trip lengths. These patterns suggest some important policy implications which stress the need to strategically reshape urban land use, to emphasise investment in non-auto infrastructure and to ensure that any physical planning strategies aimed at reducing automobile dependence work in concert with economic policies directed at increasing the real cost of both car ownership and car use.

The eco-city: ten key transport and planning dimensions for sustainable city development

Making existing cities and new urban development more ecologically based and liveable is an urgent priority in the global push for sustainability. This paper discusses ten critical responses to this issue and summarizes them in a simple conceptual model that places the nexus between transport and urban form at the heart of developing an eco-city. This involves compact, mixed-use urban form, well-defined higher-density, human-oriented centres, priority to the development of superior public transport systems and conditions for non-motorized modes, with minimal road capacity increases, and protection of the citys natural areas and food-producing capacity. These factors form the framework in which everything else is embedded and must operate, and if they are not addressed only marginal changes in urban sustainability can be made. Within this framework, environmental technologies need to be extensively applied. Economic growth needs to emphasize creativity and innovation and to strengthen the environmental, social and cultural amenities of the city. The public realm throughout the city needs to be of a high quality, and sustainable urban design principles need to be applied in all urban development. All these dimensions need to operate within two key processes involving vision-oriented and reformist thinking and a strong, community-oriented, democratic sustainability framework for decision-making.

The land use—transport connection

There is a growing international movement, ‘The New Urbanism’, which seeks to reconnect transport with land use and in particular to establish transit-oriented development where higher-density, mixed-use areas built around high-quality transit systems provide a focused urban structure that can help to loosen the grasp of automobile dependence. There are many case studies around the world of cities which demonstrate this process of reconnecting land use and transport. The cases of Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich (Switzerland), Copenhagen (Denmark), Freiburg (Germany), Toronto and Vancouver (Canada), Portland, Oregon (USA) and Perth (Australia) are briefly described here to show the various levels of achievement in very different environments around the world.

AUTOMOBILE DEPENDENCE IN CITIES: AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF URBAN TRANSPORT AND LAND USE PATTERNS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY

A comparison of global cities over the period 1980 to 1990 reveals large differences in automobile dependence with implications for the future sustainability of cities in different countries. Cities in the United States have accelerated dramatically in their dependence on the automobile between 1980 and 1990, whereas urban transit has remained at very low levels, though with some modest success stories. US cities in 1990 have levels of per capita auto use that are some two times higher than Australian cities, the next most auto-dependent cities in the study, and have transit use rates that are the lowest in the world by a significant margin. Toronto, European cities, and modern Asian cities on the other hand have experienced much smaller increases in automobile use with some very large increases in transit use; their car use remains much lower again than in US and Australian cities. Developing Asian cities such as Bangkok, while still at very low levels of auto use and high transit use by international standards, are experiencing rapid increases in automobile dependence, which is not explainable by rising incomes alone. This study explores some of the underlying land use, transport, and economic reasons for these different transport patterns. It briefly reviews what the sustainability agenda means for transport and land use patterns in cities and suggests a suite of targets or goals for sustainability by which cities might measure their current directions and plans.

The transport energy trade-off: Fuel-efficient traffic versus fuel-efficient cities☆

Improving fuel efficiency in vehicular traffic by increasing average speeds is shown to have a major trade off through land use changes and modal shifts that result in an overall loss in fuel efficiency for the total urban area. In Perth, even though vehicles in central areas have a 19 percent lower fuel efficiency than average due to congestion, the central area residents still use 22 percent less actual fuel on average due to their locational advantages. On the other hand outer suburban traffic is 12 percent more efficient than average but residents use 29 percent more actual fuel. The implications for energy conservation programmes and road funding are discussed. (Author/TRRL)

TRANSPORT AND URBAN FORM IN THIRTY-TWO OF THE WORLD'S PRINCIPAL CITIES

A study of thirty two major world cities shows that there are very clear relationships between transport and urban form. Economic factors such as income and petrol price are less important than the direct policy instruments of the transport planner and urban planner, such as the relative provision of infrastructure for automobiles and rapid transit, or the density of population and jobs. Transport and urban planning policies are developed with quantitative guidelines that can help cities ease their dependence on the private car, for example, exponentially increasing usage of automobiles is found in cities with population densities under 30/ha (a).

UNDERSTANDING AND PREDICTING PRIVATE MOTORISED URBAN MOBILITY

Dimensional analysis is used to derive a simple model of private motorised mobility for any urban area based on detailed land use and travel pattern data from a large international sample of cities. This highlights the dependence of vehicle kilometres of travel on urban population and area and shows that despite time, social and cultural differences, urban areas behave in a systematic way. Private motorised mobility, although arising from local decisions, is in the mean determined by the structure of the urban environment. As private motorised mobility is based on vehicle kilometres of travel, which in turn is a surrogate for urban transportation emissions, urban air quality is directly linked to urban structure. This has implications for further research in urban air pollution and supports arguments in favour of the compact city.

An international urban air pollution model for the transportation sector

Analysis of cities across the globe illustrates a strong relationship between vehicle kilometres of travel (VKT) and urbanised land area. As VKT can be used as a surrogate for vehicular emissions, this provides a method of estimating urban vehicular pollution. These emission rates are incorporated with simple meteorological forcing into a box model to provide a generalised urban air pollution model for transportation within any city and validated against published data. The results suggest direct air pollution benefits from minimising the outward growth of cities, and add weight to urban policies that emphasise compact city planning principles.

Transport and urban form in Chinese cities: An international comparative and policy perspective with implications for sustainable urban transport in China

Chinese cities are acknowledged worldwide as being the leaders in non-motorised transport. Many other aspects of their transport and urban form are also conducive to low levels of automobile dependence. However, urban China is changing rapidly with very high rates of motorisation and a number of policies and factors that are pushing their transport systems towards greater reliance on cars and motor cycles. Development of quality public transport systems appears not to be keeping pace with the emphasis on private transport. This paper briefly explores how Chinese cities compared on key transport and urban form factors to a large sample of other cities from around the world in 1995. It further examines a range of important policies and factors that are shaping Chinese urban transport systems and explores the potential of Chinese cities to embrace the ideal of “sustainable urban transport”, as opposed to increasing automobile dependence.