the land use transport connection

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<p>Pergamon</p><p>0264-8377(95)00027-5</p><p>Land Use Policy, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-22, 1996</p><p>Copyright ~ 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd</p><p>Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved</p><p>0264-8377/96 $10.00 + 0.00</p><p>The land use-transport</p><p>connection</p><p>An overview</p><p>Peter W G Newman and Jeffrey R Kenworthy</p><p>There is a growing international move-</p><p>ment, 'The New Urbanism', which seeks</p><p>to reconnect transport with land use</p><p>and in particular to establish transit-</p><p>oriented development where higher-</p><p>density, mixed-use areas built around</p><p>high-quality transit systems provide a</p><p>focused urban structure that can help</p><p>to loosen the grasp of automobile de-</p><p>pendence. There are many case studies</p><p>around the world of clues which de-</p><p>monatrate this process of reconnecting</p><p>land use and transport. The cases of</p><p>Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich (Switzer-</p><p>land), Copenhagen (Denmark), Freiburg</p><p>(Germany), Toronto and Vancouver</p><p>(Canada), Portland, Oregon (USA) and</p><p>Perth (Australia) are briefly described</p><p>here to show the various levels of</p><p>achievement in very different environ-</p><p>ments around the world.</p><p>Peter W G Newman is Associate Profes-</p><p>sor in City Policy, and Director, Institute for</p><p>Science and Technology Policy, Murdoch</p><p>University, Perth, Western Australia, 6150.</p><p>Jeffrey R Kenworthy is Lecturer in Urban</p><p>Environments, Institute for Science and</p><p>Technology Policy, Murdoch University,</p><p>Perth, Western Australia, 6150.</p><p>1Kunstler, J H The Geography of Nowhere:</p><p>The Rise and Decline of America's Man-</p><p>Made Landscape Touchstone, New York</p><p>(1993); Trancik, R Finding Lost Space:</p><p>Theories of Urban Design Van Nostrand</p><p>Reinhold, New York (1989)</p><p>2Calthorpe, P The Next American Metro-</p><p>polis: Ecology, Community and the Amer-</p><p>ican Dream Harper & Row, New York</p><p>(1993); Katz, P The New Urbanism: To-</p><p>continued on page 2</p><p>One of the features of 20th century modernism is functional isolation:</p><p>architects, for example, believed that they could 'make a s ta tement '</p><p>with their buildings as though they did not relate to an urban context</p><p>with a history or a local community. ~ The same can be said about</p><p>t ransport planning in its modernist phase which has been touched by a</p><p>similar kind of arrogance. The civil engineer or economist who became</p><p>a transport planner tended to see transport as isolated patterns of</p><p>origins and destinations which were floating entities to be joined up by a</p><p>straight line and be as fast moving as possible.</p><p>Postmodernism has many guises. One of its expressions in the</p><p>planning of cities is known today as 'The New Urbanism' . 2 This</p><p>movement in its essence is putting planning, especially transport plan-</p><p>ning, back in its urban context. Cities are much more organic, living</p><p>entities than the simplistic transport models ever managed to express. 3</p><p>Perhaps the most obvious way this is being at tacked is to reassert the</p><p>fundamentals of the land use- t ranspor t connection.</p><p>This paper will provide:</p><p>• an overview of the land use- t ranspor t connection as seen in historical</p><p>context;</p><p>• the patterns of different cities today;</p><p>• the problems of unconnected automobile cities and how they can be</p><p>overcome; and</p><p>• a series of case studies which demonstra te the new awareness of how</p><p>to reconnect urban land use and transport.</p><p>History of cities in transport-land use terms</p><p>People throughout urban history have shown one characteristic that has</p><p>shaped the nature of our cities: they do not like to travel more than half</p><p>an hour to major urban destinations. 4 This has caused three types of</p><p>cities to develop as transport technologies have evolved towards greater</p><p>speed and freedom. These are set out in Figures 1-3.</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>• High Densi ty</p><p>• Mixed Use</p><p>• Organic Structure</p><p>Figure 1. The traditional walking city.</p><p>Up to 1850 in Europe.</p><p>continued from page 1</p><p>ward an Architecture of Community</p><p>McGraw Hill, New York (1994)</p><p>3Kenworthy, J 'Don't shoot me I'm only the</p><p>transport planner (apologies to Elton John)'</p><p>in Newman, P, Kenworthy, J and Lyons, T</p><p>Transport Energy Conservation Po/icies</p><p>for Austra/ian Cities: Strategies for Reduc-</p><p>ing Automobile Dependence ISTP, Mur-</p><p>doch University (1990); Kenworthy, J R 'An</p><p>invited submission on the Wellington Re-</p><p>gional Council's Environmental Impact Re-</p><p>port for the future state highway Number 1</p><p>route: comments on the transport modell-</p><p>ing, air pollution and energy aspects of the</p><p>report' in Audit of the Future State High-</p><p>way Number One Route Environmental</p><p>Impact Report, Vol 1, Main Report, Office</p><p>continued on page 3</p><p>The wa lk ing city</p><p>Figure 1 shows that the traditional walking city which developed around</p><p>10 000 years ago and still exists today in some places; it is characterized</p><p>by high density (100-200 people per ha), mixed land use, joined</p><p>together by narrow streets in an organic form that fits the landscape. In</p><p>walking cities all destinations can be reached on foot in half an hour and</p><p>thus these cities are rarely more than 5 km across. Many cities today</p><p>have parts which either retain historical walking characteristics, or the</p><p>municipal authorities have purposely built new sections at a walking</p><p>scale, eg the medieval core areas of many European cities, new</p><p>suburban centres along Stockholm's rail system or new district centres</p><p>such as Arabella Park (Bogenhausen District Centre) in Munich. Much</p><p>larger parts of Third World cities retain their high-density, mixed land</p><p>use, walking characteristics.</p><p>• Med ium Density</p><p>• Mixed Use</p><p>• Grid Based</p><p>• Centralised</p><p>Figure 2. The transit city.</p><p>1850-1940 dominant city form in industrial</p><p>world.</p><p>Suburbs</p><p>Suburbs</p><p>2</p><p>The land use-transport connection." P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>. L ,</p><p>• L o w D e n s i t y</p><p>• S e p a r a t e d u s e s</p><p>• A r t e r i a l G r i d a n d</p><p>c u l d e s a c B a s e d</p><p>• D e c e n t r a l i s e d</p><p>Post 60's Res ident ia l</p><p>Cul De Sacs "~ . , .</p><p>(</p><p>Figure 3. The automobile city.</p><p>1940-Present, US and Australian cities mostly.</p><p>The central parts of all US and Australian cities were once walking</p><p>cities, but this characteristic has largely disappeared now: a few historic</p><p>precincts retain this old form such as the Rocks in Sydney, the West End</p><p>of Fremantle, Society Hill in Philadelphia or the North End in Boston.</p><p>For some who live in newer high-density precincts in central parts of</p><p>New York, San Francisco, Melbourne or Sydney, it is possible to reach</p><p>a majority of destinations by walking, but these are rare in US or</p><p>Australian cities.</p><p>continued from page 2</p><p>of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the</p><p>Environment, Wellington, New Zealand</p><p>(1990) Appendix B2; Kenworthy, JR,</p><p>Newman, Peter, Mouritz, Mike and Burke,</p><p>Gary Greening the City: Can the Ecologic-</p><p>al and the Human Dimensions of the City</p><p>be Part of Town Planning Greening Aus-</p><p>tralia Conference, Perth, October, 1994;</p><p>Newman, P W G 'SustainabUity and the</p><p>post modern city' Paper presented to Sus-</p><p>tainable Future: Promoting Sustainable</p><p>Development Conference, the academic</p><p>follow-up to Global Forum '94, Manchester,</p><p>UK, July 1994</p><p>4Manning, I The Journey to Work George</p><p>Allen & Unwin, Hornsby, NSW (1979);</p><p>Pederson, E O Transportation in Cities</p><p>Pergamon, New York (1980)</p><p>The transit city</p><p>In the latter part of the 19th century cities pushed increasingly outwards</p><p>as the train and tram allowed faster travel to occur (Figure 2). The trains</p><p>generally created sub-centres at railway stations that were small 'cities'</p><p>with walking scale characteristics. Trams, on the other hand, created</p><p>linear development that followed the routes in corridors or 'main</p><p>streets'. In both cases medium-density, mixed-use areas were formed at</p><p>the rail nodes and along the tram routes. The city could now spread</p><p>20-30 km based on these technologies and where the rail lines met at the</p><p>city centre very intense activity resulted, and the central area became a</p><p>dominant focus for the city. The</p><p>through reconnecting land use and transport. Singapore and Hong Kong</p><p>are showing how this can be done in spectacularly successful ways within</p><p>booming economies susceptible to rapid motorization. There. are some</p><p>inspiring success stories in Europe as well. Very heavy automobile</p><p>dependence in North American and Australian cities means that success</p><p>21</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>stories are harder to find there; however, the case studies presented</p><p>here show that there are the first signs of a commitment to tackling</p><p>automobile dependence through planning that puts greater emphasis on</p><p>transit. The case studies outlined offer some hope, though few US and</p><p>Australian cities yet have integrated, coherent plans to overcome</p><p>automobile dependence and most are relying too much on technological</p><p>advances in the automobile to resolve fundamental planning problems.</p><p>Sustainable and civilized cities are achievable with low automobile</p><p>dependence, but they are unlikely to occur without a significant</p><p>commitment to reconnecting their cities through transit and transit-</p><p>based planning.</p><p>22</p><p>overall density of transit cities reduced</p><p>to between 50 and 100 people per ha.</p><p>Most US and Australian cities were formed by the train and tram era</p><p>and retain characteristics from this period. Melbourne and Philadelphia</p><p>retain their tram-based linear developments in the inner suburbs, and</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>even though the trams were removed in other cities the basic form can</p><p>still be seen, such as in Los Angeles, Melbourne or Sydney. 5 Railway</p><p>station sub-centres are still very clear in most US and Australian cities,</p><p>and both tram-based 'main streets' and high-density station nodes are</p><p>very prevalent in a city such as Toronto (see case study below).</p><p>European cities have tended to retain their transit-oriented form,</p><p>though in recent decades they have begun to disperse around their main</p><p>corridors based on automobile travel.</p><p>SDavison, G The Rise and Fall of Marvel-</p><p>lous Melbourne University of Melbourne</p><p>Press, Melbourne (1978); Spearitt, P Syd-</p><p>ney Since the 20's Hale & Ironmonger,</p><p>Sydney (1978)</p><p>The automobile city</p><p>Beginning before the second world war but really accelerating after it,</p><p>the automobile progressively became the transport technology that</p><p>shaped the city. Together with the bus it made it possible to develop in</p><p>any direction, first filling in between the train lines and then going out as</p><p>far as 50 km (Figure 3). Low-density housing became more feasible, and</p><p>as a reaction to the industrial city, town planning began separating</p><p>functions by zoning. This also increased journey distances but again</p><p>could be managed due to the flexible and fast transport afforded by cars.</p><p>The city began to decentralize and disperse. The auto city reduced in</p><p>density to between 10 and 20 people per ha.</p><p>Australian and North American cities have grown most of all in the</p><p>automobile era. Cities such as Canberra and Phoenix have grown</p><p>almost exclusively in this era; others like Denver, Houston and Perth</p><p>are mostly post-1940s cities. Now, after 50 years of such automobile-</p><p>based growth, such cities have spread almost to the limits of comfortable</p><p>car commuting. Their automobile-based, low-density suburbs have</p><p>become a normal living environment for their citizens who largely have</p><p>known no other style of city despite its relative novelty in urban history.</p><p>But new suburbs beyond 40-50 km from the city centre have an extra</p><p>dimension of isolation from traditional urban functions. And the level</p><p>of automobile-based problems in such cities is growing rapidly, lead-</p><p>ing to many questions that lie behind this special issue of Land Use</p><p>Policy.</p><p>Cities in the Third World have also grown in this post-1940s period</p><p>but have not developed in this pattern. In general they have a more</p><p>walking and transit oriented urban form, though in cities such as Kuala</p><p>Lumpur and Bangkok large 'footloose' residential areas based pre-</p><p>dominantly on car access have been spreading rapidly across the land-</p><p>scape in the 1980s and 1990s.</p><p>European cities vary between cities like Stockholm with its strongly</p><p>maintained commitment to transit-based corridor development and</p><p>sub-centres, to cities like Oslo, Frankfurt and many in the UK where</p><p>car-based suburbs and scattered 'villages' on the fringe have been</p><p>allowed to proliferate.</p><p>Most cities today contain some elements of all three city types; as</p><p>the data on New York, San Francisco and Melbourne reveal, there</p><p>are considerable variations in car use with density across cities</p><p>(Table 1).</p><p>Figure 4 shows the variations in public transport for the journey to</p><p>work in Melbourne, which again indicates the close link between land</p><p>use and transport. The same pattern is seen in all Australian cities,</p><p>where income is highest in inner and middle areas (the opposite of US</p><p>cities, where income is often the primary variable used to explain the</p><p>variations in transport).</p><p>4</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Table 1. Variations in car use with urban density across cities, 1980 (as reflected by petrol use per capita).</p><p>City Core suburbs Inner and middle suburbs</p><p>(walking oriented) (transit oriented)</p><p>Patrol use Urban density Patrol use Urban density</p><p>(G J/person) (persons/ha) (G J/person) (persons/ha)</p><p>New York 11.9 251 20.1 107</p><p>San Francisco 17.5 128 33.3 57</p><p>Melbourne 13.2 32 20.3 20</p><p>Outer suburbs</p><p>(automobile oriented)</p><p>Patrol Urban density</p><p>(GJ/peraon) (persons/ha)</p><p>59.6 13</p><p>49.6 10</p><p>26.9 10</p><p>Note: Variations in petrol use per capita between the US cities and the Australian city are partly due to the very much higher fuel use of US vehicles in</p><p>1980.</p><p>Source: Newman and Kenworthy op cit Ref 7</p><p>eKenworthy op cit Ref 3</p><p>Problems of unconnected automobile cities</p><p>The significance of the automobile city is that it appeared to provide a</p><p>means of overcoming the transport-land use connection. It offered</p><p>freedom in space and time - to live anywhere and get quickly to all</p><p>destinations regardless of location. The transport engineering and</p><p>planning models of this era merely had to predict the necessary</p><p>infrastructure to provide this. 6</p><p>Unfortunately for the engineers and those who felt transport utopia</p><p>had arrived, it was never possible to truly reach this freedom. The road</p><p>and parking requirements became a bottomless pit that seemed to</p><p>absorb any traffic solution and replace it with a new set of congestion</p><p>constraints. Individual desires for mobility in a city where individualized</p><p>locations are not subject to constraint will inevitably mean traffic rises at</p><p>super-exponential rates.</p><p>The unfettered automobile city 'dream' soon becomes a 'nightmare'.</p><p>This journal's special issue is a response to the demise of the thinking</p><p>which allowed such a dream to be created.</p><p>Fundamental to its demise is the limit now being experienced by most</p><p>larger cities that have gone the way of the automobile. They cannot</p><p>work when:</p><p>• their land use pattern assumes all parts of the city are to be easily</p><p>reached from everywhere else, and</p><p>• the city spreads beyond 40-50 km (the half-hour limit when the best</p><p>road-based solutions are working).</p><p>These assumptions lead to the auto city, where dependence on the</p><p>automobile is almost complete (witness Detroit and Houston, where</p><p>F igu re 4. Urban dens i ty versus the</p><p>proport ion of workers using transit to</p><p>work in Melbourne, 1986.</p><p>on° 4O 1</p><p>~'~ lo</p><p>0 10 20 30</p><p>i t</p><p>40 50 60</p><p>Urban Density (persons/ha)</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Table 2. Problems of automobile dependence.</p><p>Environmental Economic Social</p><p>Oil vulnerability External costs from accidents, Loss of street life</p><p>Photochemical smog pollution, health impacts... Loss of community</p><p>Lead, benzene... Congestion costs, despite Loss of public safety</p><p>High greenhouse gas endless road building Isolation in remote</p><p>contributions High infrastructure costs in new suburbs</p><p>Urban sprawl sprawling suburbs Access problems for the</p><p>Greater stormwater problems Loss of productive rural land carless and those with</p><p>from extra hard surface Loss of urban land to b i tumen disabilities</p><p>Traffic problems- noise, Loss of time due to sprawl,</p><p>severance increasing distances</p><p>ZNewman, P WG and Kenworthy, J R</p><p>Cities and Automobile Dependence: An</p><p>International Sourcebook Gower, Alder-</p><p>shot, UK (1989)</p><p>8Hart, S i and Spivak, A L The Elephant in</p><p>the Bedroon: Automobile Dependence and</p><p>Denial New Paradigm, Pasadena, CA</p><p>(1993)</p><p>9Zuckermann, W End of the Road: The</p><p>World Car Crisis and How to Solve It The</p><p>Lutterworth Press, Cambridge, UK (1992)</p><p>fewer than 1% of total passenger km are on public transport). 7 Such a</p><p>city will rapidly fill with traffic at most times of the day, it will show</p><p>severe environmental problems, it will be economically inefficient, and</p><p>it will show few signs of community (as outlined in Table 2).</p><p>The problem of the car in cities is that the freedom and power it gives</p><p>us come at a cost. It is easy to see some</p><p>of the car-based environmental</p><p>costs in polluted air, noisy environments and acres of bitumen for</p><p>parking and roads. But problems such as urban sprawl are also</p><p>fundamentally due to an overemphasis on cars which facilitates dis-</p><p>persed, low-density suburbs. Even stormwater pollution is found to be</p><p>greater in car-based cities due to the higher proportion of bitumen</p><p>surface. Now an increasing number of economic and social issues are</p><p>also associated with excessive car use, due fundamentally to the way</p><p>that freedom over space and time undermines community.</p><p>Thus the problem is not the automobile in itself but an overuse and</p><p>dependence on it. As with many things that we enjoy, excessive use is</p><p>when we no longer exercise any conscious discretion but become</p><p>addicted or develop a physical dependence problem. When cities are</p><p>developing an automobile dependence problem they are usually very</p><p>aware of it, though there can also be an element of denial. Hart and</p><p>Spivak have written a book which suggests that many US cities have the</p><p>problem of denial. 8 The 20th century problem of automobile depend-</p><p>ence is, however, an urban sickness facing cities from Boston to Buenos</p><p>Aires, Bangkok to Brisbane and now Budapest.</p><p>Automobile dependence is where a city develops on the assumption</p><p>that automobile use will predominate so it is given priority in infrastruc-</p><p>ture and in the form of urban development. Whereas automobile</p><p>dependence was once assumed as a feature of the modern world, it is</p><p>now being questioned everywhere in cities in all parts of the globe. 9 The</p><p>unsustainability of automobile dependence is now on the global agenda:</p><p>it was a major issue in Rio, a clear focus at the Global Forum '94 in</p><p>Manchester and now perhaps the central issue for Habitat 2 in Istanbul</p><p>in 1996. However, the understanding of how to overcome automobile</p><p>dependence is not as clear as in many other global issues.</p><p>Solutions to automobile dependence</p><p>Automobile technology</p><p>Civilizing the car through technological advances is part of the solution,</p><p>but increasingly it has been seen as insufficient as the sheer volume of</p><p>cars overwhelms cities. Despite a doubling in fuel efficiency for new cars</p><p>between 1973 and 1988, the USA increased oil consumption by 20% and</p><p>is now 35% dependent on oil imports. Heavy oil dependence is a</p><p>1°Campbell, C J The Golden Century of</p><p>Oil: 1950-2050 Kluwer Academic, Dord-</p><p>recht, The Netherlands (1991)</p><p>11Tranter, P Children's Mobility in Canber-</p><p>ra: Confinement or Independence Uni-</p><p>versity College, The University of NSW,</p><p>Australian Defence Force Academy (1993)</p><p>12Hart, S 'The real cost of operating an</p><p>automobile in America' The Oregonian 9</p><p>November 1990</p><p>13Newman, P WG and Kenworthy, J R</p><p>'The potential for the application of policies</p><p>to influence urban car travel demand'</p><p>Transportation Planning Systems 1995 3</p><p>(1)</p><p>14Newman, P WG, Kenworthy, J R and</p><p>VintUa, P Housing, Transport and Urban</p><p>Form Background Paper 15 to National</p><p>Housing Strategy, Commonwealth of</p><p>Australia (1992)</p><p>~SAschauer, D A and Campbell, E J Trans-</p><p>portation Spending and Economic Growth</p><p>Bates College, reported in Earthword 1991</p><p>4 (38)</p><p>18Cervero, R 'Transportation shapes the</p><p>city' in Perth Beyond 2000: A Challenge for</p><p>a City Proceedings of The City Challenge</p><p>Conference, Perth, September 1992</p><p>~ZVuchic, V R Urban Public Transportation</p><p>Systems and Technology Prentice Hall,</p><p>Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1981)</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>significant blot on the sustainability of many cities as we move to the end</p><p>of the 'golden century of oil'. 10 And now we must face up to planning for</p><p>reduced greenhouse gases as part of the 1995 Berlin Mandate, which in</p><p>a time of continuing urban population growth does not seem achievable</p><p>by technology alone.</p><p>Many economic and social issues are also not addressed by cleaning</p><p>up cars. People who do not have access to a car are significantly</p><p>disadvantaged as automobile dependence is increased; the disempower-</p><p>ment of teenagers, the elderly and the poor in automobile-dependent</p><p>cities is now evident.11 And of course the sheer space consumption of</p><p>cars is not dealt with by better technologies. For example, it has been</p><p>estimated that, for every car added to a US city, about eight parking</p><p>spaces are required. 12 This will be as true of electric vehicles as gas</p><p>guzzlers, except that parking spaces may be a little smaller.</p><p>E c o n o m i c s</p><p>Policy makers everywhere are attempting to reduce car use and</p><p>dependence by ensuring that users pay properly for it. Many studies in</p><p>different parts of the world have found that the subsidy provided to the</p><p>car is around US$4000 per vehicle per year for the roads, parking,</p><p>health costs, pollution costs and so on. 13</p><p>This is good economics but difficult politics. While they are an</p><p>essential part of any long-term strategy, large increases in fuel costs or</p><p>parking charges are not easily introduced and have immediate equity</p><p>impacts. In an automobile-dependent city many people and firms will</p><p>just pay more, causing inflation and hardship. Other choices for travel</p><p>need to be provided along with a phasing in of true costs. Singapore is a</p><p>good example of a handful of places which have simultaneously</p><p>introduced severe economic restrictions on car ownership and use, while</p><p>dramatically improving public transport and, more recently, walking</p><p>environments. Cities without the political ability to increase the price of</p><p>automobile use to account for its true costs will need to do even more in</p><p>the planning area to minimize car use expansion. Thus interest has</p><p>shifted to the planning process.</p><p>Transit-oriented p lanning</p><p>Despite widespread cynicism that the car cannot be controlled, there is a</p><p>growing awareness of the need for transit-oriented planning to address</p><p>auto dependence effectively. 14 There is a new awareness that this makes</p><p>economic sense:</p><p>• Transit investment has twice the economic benefit to a city of</p><p>highway investment. 15</p><p>• Transit can enable a city to use market forces to build up densities</p><p>near stations where most services are located, thus creating more</p><p>efficient sub-centres and minimizing sprawl. ~6</p><p>• Transit enables a city to be more corridor oriented where it is easier</p><p>to provide infrastructure.~7</p><p>But perhaps the strongest appeal of transit-oriented planning today is</p><p>that it offers genuine, high-profile solutions to the environmental and</p><p>social problems of the automobile-dependent city. This is not only</p><p>because energy, emissions and noise can be reduced dramatically with</p><p>electric rail, but so much more can be done with the urban space it</p><p>creates. A double-track light rail system occupies 50 times less urban</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>space than the highways and parking needed for cars. As Trancik shows,</p><p>this can mean the renewal of much 'lost space' in automobile-dependent</p><p>cities as most light rail projects are accompanied by urban design</p><p>programmes. ~8</p><p>Today cities are pedestrianizing their old walking cores and building</p><p>new walking-scale urban villages as people discover the joys of good</p><p>pedestrian areas, and there is much talk about the need for transit-</p><p>oriented development as the basis for any sustainable city. ~9 The basis of</p><p>this New Urbanism approach is a good transit system and rediscovering</p><p>how planning and design can better incorporate less automobile-</p><p>dependent land use. At its heart it is a process of reconnecting transport</p><p>and land use.</p><p>The political imperative to overcome the negative aspects of auto-</p><p>mobile dependence is now appearing in all cities, including those in the</p><p>developing world. TM The OECD, the EC, the UN and the World Bank</p><p>have all begun to recognize this and are stressing how transport funding</p><p>needs to be more critically evaluated, zl This is particularly poignant in</p><p>the cities of developing countries where traffic issues are so obvious.</p><p>But</p><p>in a globally connected world the reduction of auto dependence (and its</p><p>associated energy, greenhouse and air pollution) is also an issue of</p><p>international agreements where the major responsibility is on the</p><p>developed world to give a lead. As shown below, this is where the</p><p>majority of automobile dependence can be found.</p><p>18Trancik op cit Ref 1</p><p>19Calthorpe op cit Ref 2; Katz op cit Ref 2;</p><p>Whitelegg, J Transport for a Sustainable</p><p>Future: The Case for Europe Belhaven,</p><p>London (1993)</p><p>2°Laquian, A A 'Planning and development</p><p>of metropolitan regions' in Proceedings of</p><p>Conference, Bangkok, June/July, Asian</p><p>Urban Research Network, Centre for Hu-</p><p>man Settlements, School of Community</p><p>and Regional Planning, UBC, Canada</p><p>(1993)</p><p>21Kreimer, A, Lobo, T, Menezes, B, Muna-</p><p>singhe, M and Parker, R Towards a Sus-</p><p>tainable Urban Environment: The Rio de</p><p>Janeiro Study Discussion Paper 195,</p><p>World Bank, Washington, DC (1993);</p><p>Serageldin, I and Barrett, R Environmen-</p><p>tally Sustainable Urban Transport: Defin-</p><p>ing a Global Policy World Bank, Washing-</p><p>ton, DC (1993)</p><p>22Newman and Kenworthy op cit Ref 7</p><p>23Kenworthy, J R and Newman, P W G</p><p>Automobile Dependence: 'The Irresistible</p><p>Force?' ISTP, Murdoch University, Perth</p><p>(1993)</p><p>Patterns of cities</p><p>Our book Cities and Au tomob i l e Dependence 22 summarizes work over</p><p>10 years in collecting data on 32 global cities to characterize the extent</p><p>of automobile dependence - see Table 3. The data highlight the picture</p><p>outlined in the historical section - that US and Australian cities are the</p><p>most automobile dependent, and European and Asian cities are some</p><p>twice to six times less so.</p><p>The implication of the data in Table 3 is that the cities which should</p><p>be doing most to extend their transit systems are those in the USA.</p><p>However, that is not what has occurred in the past decade. Instead, the</p><p>rich cities in terms of transit seem to have become richer and the poor</p><p>transit cities seem to have become poorer. 23 Figures 5 and 6 set out the</p><p>comparison of Los Angeles, Zurich and Singapore in their car use and</p><p>transit use from 1980 to 1990. Los Angeles continued to grow exponen-</p><p>tially in its car use and declined marginally in transit use, whereas</p><p>Zurich and Singapore had far lower per capita increases in car use and</p><p>considerable increases in transit. The increase in per capita transit trips</p><p>in Zurich (and almost as much in Singapore) is about the same as the</p><p>total level of per capita transit use found in New York - the best transit</p><p>city in the USA. This is a remarkable achievement.</p><p>Thus the substantial income increases which have occurred in the past</p><p>10 years in Zurich and Singapore are reflected in greatly expanded use</p><p>of very high quality transit, not so much in extra car use. These patterns</p><p>reflect their cities' overall plans and priorities to achieve transit-oriented</p><p>development.</p><p>Los Angeles, on the other hand, has not at tempted to control</p><p>automobile dependence; it has until very recently shown little belief in</p><p>transit-oriented planning. The use of automobiles has almost inevitably</p><p>grown as a result. The increase in car use per capita in the 1980s in Los</p><p>8</p><p>Sources: Newman and Kenwotthy op cit Ref 7;</p><p>Kenworthy, J R and Newman, P W G 'Toronto</p><p>paradigm regained' Australian Planner 1994 31</p><p>(3) 137-147 for corrected Toronto data</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Table 3. Transport and land use patterns in 32 global cities, 1980.</p><p>US cities Australian cities Toronto European cities Asian cities</p><p>Transport</p><p>Car use (pass</p><p>km/cap) 12 586 10 729</p><p>Public transport use</p><p>(pass km/cap) 522 816</p><p>Total travel</p><p>(pass km/cap) 13 108 11 545</p><p>% transit (of total</p><p>travel) 4.4 7.2</p><p>Walking/biking</p><p>(% journey to work) 5.3 5.4</p><p>Transport</p><p>infrastructure</p><p>Transit service</p><p>(kin/cap) 30 57</p><p>Road provision</p><p>(m/cap) 6.6 8.8</p><p>Relative provision</p><p>for transit (km</p><p>service/km of road) 5 690 7 063</p><p>Parking spaces in</p><p>CBD (per 1000 CBD</p><p>workers) 380 401</p><p>Land use</p><p>Urban density</p><p>(metro area)</p><p>Population 14 13</p><p>Jobs 7 5</p><p>Central area density</p><p>Population 54 12</p><p>Jobs 500 314</p><p>Inner city density</p><p>Population 45 22</p><p>Jobs 30 24 -</p><p>Outer area density</p><p>Population 11 12</p><p>Jobs 5 4</p><p>5 933 5 600 1 799</p><p>1 976 1 791 3 059</p><p>7 909 7 391 4 858</p><p>25.0 24.8 64.1</p><p>5.5 21.3 25.1</p><p>78 79 103</p><p>2.7 2.1 1.0</p><p>30 545 40 621 242 491</p><p>198 211 67</p><p>40 54 160</p><p>20 31 71</p><p>25 92 149</p><p>757 361 692</p><p>57 91 464</p><p>38 79 296</p><p>34 43 115</p><p>14 17 43</p><p>24Gobor, P 'Americans on the move'</p><p>Populat ion Bulletin 1993 48 (3) 1-40</p><p>25Poboon, C, Kenworthy, J R, Newman, P</p><p>and Barter, P 'Bangkok: anatomy of a</p><p>traffic disaster' Paper delivered to Asian</p><p>Studies Association of Australia Confer-</p><p>ence, Environment, State and Society in</p><p>Asia: The Legacy of the Twentieth Cen-</p><p>tury, hosted by the Asia Research Centre,</p><p>Murdoch University, Perth, 1994</p><p>Angeles is equal to the total level of per capita car use in London or</p><p>Paris in 1980. The 1990s are now seeing billions of dollars going into</p><p>transit in Los Angeles, but the question remains whether it is possible to</p><p>turn around a city so firmly dependent on the automobile. Recent</p><p>evidence of a 15-year migration of middle-class professionals out of Los</p><p>Angeles (due to the smog and crime) may suggest that the city will rue</p><p>its missed opportunities in the 1980s, when the economy was growing. 24</p><p>Cities need to grasp the critical opportunities for change that present</p><p>themselves or they can spiral into a decline that is very difficult to</p><p>reverse.</p><p>It is suggested here that excessively automobile-dependent cities will</p><p>decline in the 21st century, probably along the same path as heavy-</p><p>industry cities in the last half of this century, unless they adapt to the</p><p>new urban reality. People are not going to want to live, work or invest in</p><p>cities that are polluted, congested by traffic, and with dangerous and</p><p>unattractive streets. Evidence is already available in Bangkok that the</p><p>horrendous traffic and environment are deterring firms from locating</p><p>there and driving out existing ones. 25 Transit-oriented planning offers a</p><p>way out as it is a sustainable solution, ie it offers a simultaneous</p><p>improvement in the environment and the economy of a city. Post-</p><p>industrial cities, with their emphasis on services and information,</p><p>require sustainable solutions to automobile dependence.</p><p>Some US cities have shown that transit is far from finished, though</p><p>the picture is very patchy, as set out in Table 4. This compares with the</p><p>The/and use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Figure 5. The growth in private car</p><p>travel in Los Angeles, Zurich and</p><p>Singapore between 1980 and 1990</p><p>(km/year). [ ] Los Angeles ~ r ~ ~ i a ~</p><p>picture for car use, which uniformly increased in all major US cities at</p><p>much the same level as shown for Los Angeles. Transit success stories</p><p>are evident in Boston, Washington, New York and San Diego. San</p><p>Diego had reached almost rock bottom in its transit service and use, but</p><p>chose to implement a cost-effective light rail service. The data now show</p><p>it has more than doubled per capita patronage. The level of transit use</p><p>in the city is still very low, but the importance is in the direction of</p><p>change and the commitment to continue working to overcome auto-</p><p>mobile dependence.</p><p>However, the best performances were in Europe and Asia, as set out</p><p>in Figure 7; here many of the major global cities in our survey showed</p><p>significant increases in transit usage per capita. These cities are showing</p><p>how transit-oriented planning will give them the competitive advantage</p><p>in the 21st century.</p><p>Reconnecting the unconnected city</p><p>New Urbanism is the movement towards a city where there is more</p><p>emphasis on transit, with inherently much less travel needed through</p><p>higher densities and mixed land use; Cervero shows that density is by far</p><p>the biggest factor in determining whether transit is used but that mixed</p><p>Figure 6. Changes in transit use be-</p><p>tween 1980 and 1990 in</p><p>Los Angeles,</p><p>Zurich and Singapore (passenger</p><p>trips per capita).</p><p>10</p><p>Source: Kenworthy and Newman op cit Ref 22</p><p>260ervero, R 'Mixed land uses and com-</p><p>muting: evidence from the American Hous-</p><p>ing Survey' Transportation Research 1995</p><p>(in press)</p><p>2ZBrotchie, J, Batty, M, Blakely, E, Hall, P</p><p>and Newton, P Cities in Competition: Pro-</p><p>ductive and Sustainable Cities for the 21st</p><p>Century Longman Australia, Melbourne</p><p>(1993); Cervero, R 'Sustainable New</p><p>Towns: Stockholm's rail-served satellites'</p><p>Cities 1995 12 (1) 41-51; Naess, P Energy</p><p>Use for Transport in 22 Nordic Towns</p><p>NIBR Report No 2, Norwegian Institute for</p><p>Urban and Regional Research, Oslo</p><p>(1993)</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Table 4. Transit use trends in US cities, 1960-90 (passenger trips per person).</p><p>City 1960 1970 1980 1990 % % % %</p><p>change change change change</p><p>1960-70 1970-80 1980-90 1960-90</p><p>Houston 29 16 15 26 -45 -6 + 73 -10</p><p>Phoenix 14 5 9 15 -64 +80 +67 +7</p><p>Detroit 49 38 26 24 -22 -32 -6 -51</p><p>Denver 43 .13 27 30 -70 +108 +11 -30</p><p>Los Angeles 37 25 59 55 -32 + 136 -7 +49</p><p>San Francisco t 03 93 115 112 -10 +24 -3 +9</p><p>Boston 105 88 80 117 -16 -9 +46 +11</p><p>Washington 99 48 91 107 -51 +90 +18 +8</p><p>Chicago 145 109 115 96 -25 +5 -16 -34</p><p>New York 202 145 121 155 -28 -16 +28 -23</p><p>Portland 38 21 46 46 -45 + 119 0 +21</p><p>Sacramento 18 9 17 15 -50 +89 -12 -17</p><p>San Diego 31 12 12 29 -61 0 +142 -6</p><p>Average 70 48 57 64 -31 + 18 + 12 -9</p><p>use adds the extra component of encouraging walking. 26 The New</p><p>Urbanism seeks to reconnect the city, to reassert the importance of land</p><p>use in making a city sustainable, efficient, equitable and livable.</p><p>The key characteristics of how land use patterns need to be related</p><p>more fundamentally and clearly to transport are expressed visually in</p><p>Figure 8 for a city that was once highly automobile dependent but</p><p>changed through new transit systems linked to high-density, walking-</p><p>based sub-centres. The role of sub-centres with a strong commitment to</p><p>information-oriented services is universally recognized to be a feature of</p><p>the Future City; however, not all cities are intending to link these</p><p>nodal/information centres by good transit systems; only Stockholm and</p><p>other Nordic cities are using the new technological imperatives to help</p><p>create or maintain a connected city of communities rather than a</p><p>disconnected city of individual households as in automobile-dependent</p><p>cities. 27</p><p>This special issue of Land Use Policy describes the responses that are</p><p>being adopted in:</p><p>• the UK (particularly new moves to reduce the need to travel);</p><p>• the USA (particularly how the new ISTEA and Clean Air Act</p><p>Amendments now emphasize the reconnection of land use to trans-</p><p>port decisions);</p><p>259-</p><p>Tra n large European</p><p>~"g1980-90</p><p>......... i ] i ; %</p><p>..... ~!i~</p><p>;i!~il ~ 515</p><p>:1-17</p><p>295</p><p>570</p><p>Figure 7. Increases in transit use</p><p>between 1980 and 1990 in some key</p><p>cities around the world (passenger</p><p>trips per capita).</p><p>[ ]</p><p>Par is M un ich Z~ri~ i H(~ng Korl~</p><p>11</p><p>Fhe land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>.' / + y ~ s ~ R . . ~ / L ~. ' ~ "Extended Transit (heavy and</p><p>/ ~ ~ i ~ . ~ i ,'"> l ight rail).</p><p>/ ~ . ~ ~ ~ . ~ • Urban Villages (walking distance</p><p>~ ' ~ ~ bus or cycle distance of transit/</p><p>. ) ~ ~ ~ ~ . 7 ~ t Urban Villa~.e.</p><p>/</p><p>Urban ViUases</p><p>Figure 8. Conceptual future plan of a 'reconnected' automobile city.</p><p>28Wang, L H and Yeh, A G O (eds) Keep a</p><p>City Moving: Urban Transportation Man-</p><p>agement in Hong Kong Asian Productivity</p><p>Organisation, Tokyo (1993)</p><p>• Curitiba (a success story from Latin America with transit-oriented</p><p>planning); and</p><p>• Asia (particularly responses from China, Japan and Indonesia).</p><p>The present article now sets out some other case studies from selected</p><p>cities that have chosen to reconnect their cities by moving away from</p><p>automobile dependence.</p><p>Case Study 1: The Singapore and Hong Kong success stories</p><p>Both Singapore (with a population in 1990 of 2 705 115) and Hong</p><p>Kong (with a population in 1991 of 5 522 281) have remarkably</p><p>successful transit systems and very low car usage, as mentioned earlier.</p><p>Hong Kong's increase in per capita car use between 1981 and 1991 was</p><p>only 146 km (compared to 2584 km in Los Angeles) and its transit use</p><p>increased by 104 trips per capita, as in Singapore. Like other cities,</p><p>these cities face the dilemma of the automobile, but are opting to</p><p>provide more for transit than for the car.</p><p>In order to achieve this, Singapore and Hong Kong have made</p><p>city-wide planning a very high priority. 28 The transit system in both</p><p>cities is at once fixed, rapid and comfortable (electric rail) and is also</p><p>flexible and local (standard buses and minibuses). It is supplemented by</p><p>high levels of walking and cycling in the dense mixed-use settings where</p><p>the main component of many trips is a vertical trip in an elevator.</p><p>12</p><p>29Kenworthy, J R, Barter, P, Newman, P</p><p>and Poboon, C 'Resisting automobile de-</p><p>pendence in booming economics: a case</p><p>study of Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong</p><p>within a global sample of cities' Paper</p><p>presented at the Asian Studies Association</p><p>of Australia Conference, Environment,</p><p>State and Society in Asia: The Legacy of</p><p>the Twentieth Century, hosted by the Asia</p><p>Research Centre, Murdoch University,</p><p>Perth, 1994</p><p>3°Newman, P W G 'Cities and develop-</p><p>ment - an emerging Asian model' De-</p><p>velopment Bulletin 1993 27 20-22</p><p>31Poboon et al, op cit Ref 25; Kenworthy et</p><p>al, op cit Ref 29</p><p>32Kingsley, T Managing Urban Environ-</p><p>mental Quafity in Asia Technical Paper</p><p>220, Washington, DC (1993)</p><p>33Kenworthy op cit Ref 3</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Central to the success of this model is high-density urban develop-</p><p>ment that is closely integrated around the transit system. Singapore's</p><p>basic urban structure plan shows a series of radial and circumferential</p><p>mass transit lines with major and minor sub-centre nodes developed at</p><p>high densities around the intersections of all these lines, e9 Such densities</p><p>seem excessive to most Anglo-Saxon eyes, but are not so culturally.</p><p>unacceptable in Asian environments, particularly when they are associ-</p><p>ated with good planning that results in high levels of health and other</p><p>quality of life indicators. 3° Neither are the densities involved unheard of</p><p>in some parts of the Anglo-Saxon world such as Toronto or Vancouver,</p><p>and they are not generally as high as Manhattan.</p><p>Singapore's successful transit system has not been without its battles.</p><p>The advice from the World Bank and some US consultants in the 1970s</p><p>was that it would be wrong to invest in an expensive, high-profile, fixed</p><p>rail facility. All that was needed was to upgrade the buses. However,</p><p>Singapore chose to go ahead with its rail system as it realized that buses</p><p>alone do not offer a competitive service to the car and it would not be</p><p>able to implement its transit-oriented city plan without a high-capacity</p><p>rail service linking the city's sub-centres both to the city centre and</p><p>across the city in a series of circumferential rings. The service has been</p><p>highly successful in both economic and environmental terms since it</p><p>opened in 1987.</p><p>Many cities in the developing world, for instance Bangkok, Manila,</p><p>Jakarta and now the Chinese cities, are rapidly modernizing with</p><p>significant car ownership and are putting most of their transport capital</p><p>into new roads and parking. These cities have huge traffic problems as</p><p>well as associated environmental and social problems. For them there is</p><p>the obvious solution - to implement public transport systems on the</p><p>model of Hong Kong or Singapore. The high-density and in many cases</p><p>pre-existing linear form of development in many Third World cities is</p><p>more than adequate to enable good transit systems to be built. There</p><p>are many proposals and plans for rail transit systems in these cities,</p><p>which have huge fleets of buses and other smaller collective modes</p><p>such</p><p>as t uk - tuks . Although essential for local transit services, these modes</p><p>cannot cope with passenger demand and cannot compete in speed terms</p><p>in the constrained, traffic-dominated streets. These rail transit proposals</p><p>(usually associated with finance from both private and public sources)</p><p>offer the only true rapid-transit option across the city. The results of</p><p>implementing such systems in the rapidly motorizing cities of the Third</p><p>World would be spectacularly successful, on the evidence of Singapore</p><p>and Hong Kong, because their land use is already transit-oriented. 31</p><p>The key problem seems to be the lack of a politically powerful and</p><p>well-coordinated city planning system which could approve and imple-</p><p>ment the building of such transit infrastructure. The participation of the</p><p>public in city planning is essential, particularly when the city becomes</p><p>stuck in an inappropriate Western paradigm, as it has in cities like</p><p>Bangkok. 32 The solution is thus to express community values more</p><p>adequately through the planning system and to cease importing out-</p><p>dated and discredited Western planning techniques such as traditional</p><p>four-stage land use-transport models which generate self-fulfilling</p><p>prophecies of roads and congestion in endless cycles. 33 These matters</p><p>are discussed in much greater detail by Hook and Replogle elsewhere in</p><p>this issue. Recognizing the physical context of cities in China, Japan and</p><p>Indonesia to be far less automobile based, highlights the inappropriate-</p><p>13</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>ness of policies which promote automobiles and destroy non-motorized</p><p>modes.</p><p>Case Study 2: Zurich, Copenhagen and Freiburg - European transit-</p><p>oriented planning at its best</p><p>Zurich (population in 1990 of 787 740), Copenhagen (population in</p><p>1990 of 1 711 254) and Freiburg (population in 1990 of 178 343) are</p><p>examples of European cities that have made concerted efforts to contain</p><p>automobile dependence while improving the quality of life of their</p><p>citizens. Many others such as Stockholm, Munich and Amsterdam could</p><p>be studied, but these three have been chosen.</p><p>34Begbie, R 'There's nobody in the street</p><p>to talk to today' Canberra Times 3 May</p><p>1992</p><p>3SLaube, F B 'Fully integrated transport</p><p>networks: an international perspective on</p><p>applied solutions' Paper delivered to Tick-</p><p>eting Technologies Conference, Parkroyal,</p><p>Darling Harbour, Sydney, 1995</p><p>Zurich. We have already noted that Zurich has had a spectacular</p><p>increase in its transit service and managed to contain its growth in car</p><p>use. This has occurred despite substantial growth in per capita incomes.</p><p>How has Zurich managed to channel its wealth into such positive</p><p>city-building processes rather than the city-destroying processes of</p><p>dispersal, pollution and community disturbance associated with auto-</p><p>mobile dependence? In the 1970s Zurich had to make decisions about its</p><p>trams. Instead of bowing to the car lobby it expanded its old tram</p><p>system and upgraded the services so that its citizens never had to wait</p><p>more than 6 minutes and trams and buses were given right of way at</p><p>traffic lights.</p><p>'Suddenly trams became popular in Zurich. We found it impossible to</p><p>attack the use of the tram . . . People simply won't accept it,' says</p><p>consultant Willi Husler. As trams became fashionable, public attention</p><p>was directed to other amenities - pedestrian malls and outdoor caf6s,</p><p>which were allowed to take up road space and parking lots. The</p><p>strategy, says Husler, was 'to point out other, better possibilities of use.</p><p>That way we can fight a guerrilla war against the car and win.' 34 People</p><p>began to respond to the attractions of the public realm and made private</p><p>sacrifices to be part of it.</p><p>In the 1980s Zurich continued to dramatically improve its public</p><p>transport offering. An S-Bahn system was fully developed and coordin-</p><p>ated with other public transport modes. Many lines use new high-quality</p><p>double-decker train sets. Large shopping centres under transit authority</p><p>control have been developed under and around major stations. In</p><p>addition, the very effective transit services were brought to the attention</p><p>of the population in dramatic and appealing ways through effective</p><p>marketing and high-quality information systems. Environmental travel</p><p>cards or Rainbow tickets were introduced and appealed to people's</p><p>environmental consciousness, especially the peculiar Swiss problem of</p><p>destructive avalanches caused by forests dying from automotive air</p><p>pollution. Young people were particularly targeted in marketing cam-</p><p>paigns. Now 80% of trips made on Zurich's transit system are from</p><p>pre-sold tickets, and 25% of the population are classed as 'committed'</p><p>transit users (people who possess a pass of 28 days or longer duration).35</p><p>So effective has the coordinated transit campaign been that the modal</p><p>share of car trips in Zurich for the journey to work fell by 10% between</p><p>1980 and 1990. This is the key to resolving the problem of automobile</p><p>dependence: a city should provide something more appealing to its</p><p>citizens than automobile-based decisions can provide.</p><p>Copenhagen. Resistance to automobile dependence can be found in</p><p>most European cities, but Copenhagen has shown that the dilemma of</p><p>14</p><p>38Gehl, J 'The challenge of making a hu-</p><p>man quality in the city' in Perth Beyond</p><p>2000: A Challenge for a City Proceedings</p><p>of the City Challenge Conference, Perth,</p><p>September 1992</p><p>37Pucher, J and Clorer, S 'Taming the</p><p>automobile in Germany' Transportation</p><p>Quarterly 1992 46 (3) 383-395</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>the automobile can be resolved using innovative social planning.</p><p>Copenhagen has a transit-oriented urban form (a 'finger plan' based</p><p>on radial rail lines) which includes cases such as at Ballerup at the end of</p><p>one 'S-tog' line (Copenhagen's local electric train service) where a</p><p>shopping centre, office complex, community facilities and apartments</p><p>have been built over and around the station. The station environment</p><p>includes pedestrianized boulevards, a large bus feeder station and</p><p>extensive provision for bikes (racks and cycle paths).</p><p>However, the transit-oriented urban form alone was not enough as</p><p>the car was taking over and the city authorities needed to resist it.</p><p>Professor Jan Gehl has described the process by which the city was won</p><p>back over a 20-year period: 'By the 60s American values had begun to</p><p>catch on - separate isolated homes and everyone driving. The city was</p><p>suffering, so how could we reverse these patterns? We decided to make</p><p>the public realm so attractive it would drag people back into the streets,</p><p>whilst making it simultaneously difficult to go there by car. ,36</p><p>Each year the city authorities reduced the central area parking by 3%.</p><p>Each year they pedestrianized more streets. Each year they built or</p><p>refurbished city housing. Each year they introduced into the streets all</p><p>kinds of attractive landscaping, sculptures and seating (including 3000</p><p>seats along footpath caf6s). And each year they introduced more</p><p>buskers, markets and other street life and festivals that became more</p><p>and more popular. In Gehl's words, 'The city became like a good party.'</p><p>The result has been not only a reduction in the traffic but growth in</p><p>the vitality of the city area. Social and recreational activity has tripled in</p><p>Copenhagen's major streets - and this despite pleas that 'Denmark has</p><p>never had a strong urban culture', 'Danes will never get out of their cars'</p><p>and 'Danes do not promenade like Italians'.</p><p>Now they do just that - and the turn-around has taken a mere 20</p><p>years. They are finding that the public realm of the city is so attractive</p><p>that there is a declining market for single detached homes on the urban</p><p>fringe - they are apparently 'too far away' and 'too private'. The</p><p>authorities are now building a light rail system in response to the</p><p>increased demand for travel to the city and between its</p><p>sub-centres.</p><p>Freiburg. Another city which has shown that it is indeed possible to</p><p>virtually stop the growth of car use, even when car ownership is</p><p>growing, is Freiburg, Germany. According to Pucher and Clorer,</p><p>Freiburg's car ownership has risen from 113 per 1000 people in 1960 to</p><p>422 per 1000 in 1990, only a little under the average for the Zurich</p><p>agglomeration, and only 12% less than the national average for West</p><p>Germany (481 per 1000). 37</p><p>Table 5 shows how, despite this growth in the availability of cars, car</p><p>use has virtually remained constant since 1976. Transit passengers</p><p>increased by 53% and bicycle trips grew by 96% between 1976 and 1991.</p><p>Freiburg's growth in car trips in 15 years was only 1.3%, yet total trips</p><p>increased by 30%. The city's growth in mobility was supplied principally</p><p>by increased public transport and bicycling. In fact the share of trips by</p><p>car reduced over the 15 years from 60% to 47%. Pucher and Clorer also</p><p>show how the growth in car ownership has begun to slow down</p><p>(Freiburg had previously had a higher level of car ownership than West</p><p>Germany as a whole, whereas now it has less). They attribute Freiburg's</p><p>success in 'taming the automobile' to a combination of transportation</p><p>and physical planning strategies:</p><p>15</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Table 5. Transport trends in Frelburg, Germany, 1978-91.</p><p>Transport factor 1976 1991</p><p>Source: Pucher and Clorer op cit Ref 35</p><p>Total daily trips 385 000 502 000</p><p>Total daily auto trips 231 000 234 000</p><p>Auto's share of non-pedestrian trips (%) 60 47</p><p>Bicycle's share of non-pedestrian trips (%) 18 27</p><p>% increase</p><p>1976-91</p><p>+30.4</p><p>+1.3</p><p>na</p><p>na</p><p>381bid 37</p><p>First, it has sharply restricted auto use in the city. Second, it has provided</p><p>affordable, convenient and safe alternatives to auto use. Finally, it has strictly</p><p>regulated development to ensure a compact land use pattern that is conducive</p><p>to public transport, bicycling and walking. 38</p><p>Restricted auto use has been achieved through mechanisms such as</p><p>pedestrianization of the city centre, area-wide traffic calming schemes</p><p>(such as a citywide speed limit of 30 km/h in residential areas) and more</p><p>difficult, expensive parking. Freiburg's improvements to transit have</p><p>focused on extending and upgrading its light rail system as opposed to</p><p>buses. Buses are used as feeders to the light rail system. Land use</p><p>regulations are similar to many other parts of Europe and have involved</p><p>limiting the overall amount of land available to development and strictly</p><p>zoning land for agriculture, forests, wildlife reserves or undeveloped</p><p>open space.</p><p>Pucher and Clorer stress the important automobile use savings of the</p><p>more compact urban patterns that have resulted from these latter</p><p>policies. It is also worth noting that after the second world war it was</p><p>decided to rebuild Freiburg, which had been totally destroyed by the</p><p>war, on the old model, not on an auto-orientated model. Pucher and</p><p>Clorer note that even in the post-1960s period, as Freiburg expanded on</p><p>flatter land to the west, the resulting development 'is at a much higher</p><p>density than outlying portions of American metropolitan areas', as well</p><p>as being within easy reach of public transport and well served by</p><p>bikeways.</p><p>Case Study 3: Toronto, Vancouver and Portland- North American</p><p>success stories</p><p>North America has been the area most associated with the automobile.</p><p>Its cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit and Houston face the largest</p><p>dilemmas in resolving their automobile problems. However, there are</p><p>also success stories in North America as some cities have begun to show</p><p>how to resolve the dilemma. Toronto (population in 1991 of 4 235 156),</p><p>Vancouver (population in 1991 of 1 602 502) and Portland, Oregon</p><p>(population in 1990 of 1 412 344) have all to varying degrees overcome</p><p>the dominant paradigm of automobile-based planning. Central to all</p><p>their stories is how the community forced planners to think again about</p><p>freeway proposals.</p><p>Toronto. Toronto has deliberately pursued a policy of transit-oriented</p><p>development for several decades. While this has not always been con-</p><p>sistently applied, it has been more successful than any other North</p><p>American city. Its success is seen most of all by comparison with its</p><p>neighbouring city, Detroit. Toronto and Detroit have had similar</p><p>histories, they are only about 100 miles apart and they are very similar</p><p>in climate, but they have very different transport patterns. In 1991</p><p>16</p><p>39Kenworthy, J R and Newman, P W G</p><p>'Toronto paradigm regained' Australian</p><p>Planner 1994 31 (3) 137-147</p><p>~Nowlan, D M and Stewart, G 'The effect</p><p>of downtown population growth on com-</p><p>muting trips: some recent Toronto experi-</p><p>ence' Journal of the American Planning</p><p>Association 1992 57 (2) 165-182</p><p>41Eggteton, A 'The Toronto experience' in</p><p>Perth Beyond 2000: A Challenge for a City</p><p>Proceedings of City Challenge Confer-</p><p>ence, Perth, September 1992</p><p>42jacobs, J The Death and Life of Great</p><p>American Cities Vintage Press, New York</p><p>(1961)</p><p>43Nowlan and Stewart op cit Ref 40</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and ] R Kenworthy</p><p>Greater Toronto had 51% of the per capita car use found in Detroit,</p><p>and it is managing to control its growth better (Greater Toronto grew</p><p>by 873 km per capita in cars between 1980 and 1990, while Detroit rose</p><p>by 1298 km per capita). In Detroit less than 1% of its passenger travel</p><p>(passenger km) is by public transport, whereas the figure for Metro</p><p>Toronto is 25% and growing. Detroit 's density is also considerably</p><p>lower than Toronto's.</p><p>Toronto is far less dominated by cars and indeed is the best North</p><p>American example of transit-oriented development. 39 From 1960 to</p><p>1980 there was a large growth of 48% in Metro Toronto's transit use</p><p>(passenger km per capita), while Detroit 's declined. Greater Toronto</p><p>had 210 trips on transit per capita in 1990, by far the highest in North</p><p>America and some 35% higher than the next best city, New York. The</p><p>central city of Toronto has continued to grow in population over the</p><p>past decades (some 20 000 new dwellings were added between 1975 and</p><p>1988), 4° and Metro Toronto's density increased by 8% (particularly</p><p>along its transit lines), whereas Detroit 's city centre spiralled down very</p><p>rapidly and the overall density of the city dropped by 25%. Two cities -</p><p>two different histories. Why?</p><p>The Mayor of Toronto from that period, Art Eggleton, has told the</p><p>story of how it happened. 41 The city authorities were very influenced by</p><p>the author Jane Jacobs, whose wonderful book The Death and Li fe o f</p><p>Great Amer ican Cities 42 stressed the need for people to go back to a</p><p>more urban character and to rediscover the public spaces. She went to</p><p>live in Toronto and was very influential in a movement there to stop the</p><p>building of a major freeway called the Spadina Expressway (they built</p><p>the Spadina subway line instead). From this experience a whole public,</p><p>community-based move for a different kind of city sprang up.</p><p>Once the freeway issue had defined the city's direction, the author-</p><p>ities decided to emphasize transit-oriented development in their plan-</p><p>ning priorities. Toronto changed in 20 years quite dramatically from a</p><p>city that was becoming increasingly car based to one that is now</p><p>substantially based around a transit network. As a result it has been able</p><p>to revitalize the downtown area and develop a series of transit-centred</p><p>sub-cities. In addition, Toronto has a strong 'Main Street' programme</p><p>aimed at increasing the inner-city population and revitalizing light</p><p>rail/tram streets by incorporating a large quantity of new shop-top</p><p>housing and other infill residential development.</p><p>In most automobile-dependent cities the car drains the city centre of</p><p>its life and disperses it. Toronto has many smaller centres, mostly based</p><p>around its transit system, that have appeared in the past few decades</p><p>together with an expanding city centre. The</p><p>city centre and the</p><p>sub-centres are complementary.</p><p>The overall process was something that the Mayor said they were</p><p>never confident about; they were not sure that they would be able to</p><p>achieve a city that was moving away from the automobile. But they were</p><p>surprised by how well it worked. It is now a very vibrant city and a</p><p>model for transit-oriented planning in North America. The new central</p><p>city housing has reduced the morning peak by 100 cars for every 120</p><p>units built. 43 There are families living in the city centre in the European</p><p>tradition, which of course does wonders for the vitality and safety of the</p><p>public spaces. Meanwhile in Detroit 's city centre, as in so many other</p><p>car-dominated cities, the downward spiral appears to continue despite</p><p>the efforts to bring people there to shop with the promise of free and</p><p>easy car parking.</p><p>17</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Toronto's Mayor concluded his story in the following way: 'Good</p><p>efficient public transit and scarce costly parking is a key to being a</p><p>successful c i t y . . . The other significant policy in Toronto was bringing</p><p>people to live in the city centre and sub centres.'44</p><p>Vancouver. Vancouver still does not have an urban freeway. This is one</p><p>claim which it can now justifiably suggest is a sign of progress - towards</p><p>sustainability. Its transport patterns and land use characteristics are</p><p>consistent with this claim of sustainability compared to most American</p><p>and Australian cities. Vancouver enjoys quite high levels of transit use</p><p>(123 trips per person in 1991, compared to the average for 13 large US</p><p>cities of 64 trips per person in 1990 - see Table 4 - and Australian</p><p>capitals with an average of 91 trips per capita in 1991).</p><p>Vancouver has achieved the following:</p><p>• Intensification of housing in the inner area through small to medium-</p><p>scale compact infill projects near to good transit services. The City of</p><p>Vancouver (inner Vancouver) population rose by 40 000 people</p><p>between 1986 and 1991 due to high dwelling construction rates.</p><p>• Development of large-scale urban villages close to the city centre</p><p>with a good transit service. False Creek at the foot of Vancouver's</p><p>CBD and containing around 10 000 residents was started in the late</p><p>1970s on derelict land and is still being extended. It is linked together</p><p>by a generous, meandering boulevard for pedestrians and cyclists</p><p>along which there are some local shops and facilities built into the</p><p>housing areas. The historic West End around English Bay is an</p><p>extremely dense, high-rise neighbourhood (second only to Manhat-</p><p>tan in North America) which continues to intensify and retain a</p><p>strong transit orientation through a good trolley bus service. It is also</p><p>strong in walking and cycling due to the intense mixture of land uses</p><p>along the main street (Robsonstrasse) and the attractive public</p><p>environment.</p><p>• Integration of new residential and mixed use development in strong</p><p>nodes around stations on its driverless, elevated train service known</p><p>as Skytrain, eg Metrotown and New Westminster and smaller</p><p>developments at other stations.</p><p>The larger nodes on Skytrain have mixed commercial, office, residen-</p><p>tial, retail and market facilities within a short walk of the station and are</p><p>set in attractive public areas which encourage walking and cycling for</p><p>local needs and to transit. At Metrotown, development is connected to</p><p>the station by a covered, elevated walkway and buses provide a web of</p><p>feeder services to all stations. The new housing along Skytrain consists</p><p>of quality high-rise towers, three- to four-storey condominium-style</p><p>developments and town houses.</p><p>Long-range planning in Vancouver is focused on strengthening its</p><p>land use-transport connection and containing urban sprawl. Plans call</p><p>for further rail development to improve transit and provide more</p><p>development opportunities. The absence of freeways will be a con-</p><p>tinuing factor in improving the attractiveness of the inner city and</p><p>precincts around existing and future stations for residential and com-</p><p>mercial development.</p><p>44Eggleton op cit Ref 41</p><p>Portland. Portland went through a painful period of assessing its future</p><p>during the 1970s when there was a plan to build the Mt Hood</p><p>18</p><p>4SArrington, G B 'Portland: transportation</p><p>and land use - a shared vision' Passenger</p><p>Transport 1993 2 (3) 4 -14</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Expressway through the city. When the community decided not to build</p><p>this road but instead to opt for a light rail system (MAX), the majority</p><p>of transport experts laughed. It was dubbed the 'streetcar named</p><p>Expire' as everyone knows that in a modern city you cannot get people</p><p>out of their cars, so it was bound to be a hopeless failure.</p><p>It is very hard to find any of those people today. The MAX is a"</p><p>transport success story. It enjoys double the patronage of the bus system</p><p>it replaced and a large off-peak usage by families going into the city. The</p><p>only political problem with the decision to go for light rail instead of a</p><p>freeway is that now so many other corridors want MAX. So plans are</p><p>being developed to extend it, and the first stage is being built.</p><p>There have been several other important side-effects. One is that the</p><p>city centre has come alive after the business community recognized the</p><p>opportunity provided by MAX and took the initiative to help repave the</p><p>city streets and put in lots of seats, flower planters, sculptures and all the</p><p>other elements of good urban design at the street level. Also, lanes have</p><p>been taken away from traffic on the two main streets along which MAX</p><p>runs. The space has been used to provide an exclusive right of way for</p><p>the trains and to widen footpaths and plant trees. Bus priority streets</p><p>running across MAX lines have also limited cars to one lane and have</p><p>been significantly improved with generous tree planting and high-</p><p>quality bus shelters incorporating comprehensive transit system in-</p><p>formation. The city centre is now probably the most attractive in the</p><p>USA.</p><p>The Downtown district increased from 5% to 30% of the metropoli-</p><p>tan area's total retail turnover because of a combination of enhanced</p><p>transit access, human attractions and extra housing, rather than more</p><p>road space and parking. A central city car park was torn down and</p><p>replaced with a public meeting place, and a downtown freeway was</p><p>replaced with a riverfront park. During this period central city employ-</p><p>ment rose by 50% but there was no increase in car commuting to the</p><p>central area.</p><p>The other spin-off has occurred in the suburbs where citizens, bouyed</p><p>up by their victory over the freeway, have started to push for traffic</p><p>calming. In response the city government has launched a 'Reclaim Your</p><p>Street' project in which residents and the government architect together</p><p>are planning h o w to slow down traffic and make life easier for</p><p>pedestrians and cyclists. Finally, the city has now recognized that</p><p>MAX provides the opportunity to develop an integrated approach to</p><p>land development. There is a plan to curtail outer area growth and</p><p>redirect it to urban redevelopment around transit stops; 85% of all new</p><p>growth must now be within five minutes' walk of a designated transit</p><p>stop. 45</p><p>A city cannot change overnight, and Portland's overall transit patron-</p><p>age is still low despite the good results in the MAX corridor, but this will</p><p>grow as the LRT is extended. Portland has shown it has a new direction</p><p>based on reconnecting the city to good transit services and that it is not</p><p>inevitable for the automobile to continue to dominate the city.</p><p>Case S t u d y 4: P e r t h a n d 'Be t t e r Ci t ies ' - a h e s i t a n t s tar t in A u s t r a l i a</p><p>For over 50 years new suburbs have been built in Australia on the</p><p>assumption that the majority of people will not need a high-profile</p><p>transit service. Thus suburbs were built at uniformly low densities of</p><p>10-15 persons</p><p>per ha and without access to rail services. They relied</p><p>19</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>upon a subsidized bus service that rarely came more than hourly at</p><p>off-peak times. It is not surprising that the Australian suburban lifestyle</p><p>rapidly became highly automobile dependent.</p><p>Australian cities are second only to US cities in their degree of</p><p>automobile dependence. 46 However, recent trends show a slowing down</p><p>in the use of cars in all Australian cities and a turnaround in transit in</p><p>some cities. 47 This seems to be a reflection of a growing desire for</p><p>Australians to return to the city. The decline of the inner city has</p><p>reversed, and now 50% of all development is in established areas, with a</p><p>strong demand for housing close to good urban facilities, particularly</p><p>rail services. 4s This trend towards more transit-oriented urban life is</p><p>now becoming apparent in some very car-dependent suburbs.</p><p>One such corridor in Perth (population in 1991 of 1 142 646) is the</p><p>city's northern suburbs, which grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s on</p><p>the low-density, car-dependent model. Two rail reserves from the</p><p>original city plan of 1955 were removed in the 1960s as planners saw no</p><p>future for transit other than back-up bus services. However, by the</p><p>1980s the freeway serving the corridor was clogged at peak hour and the</p><p>community was dissatisfied with the bus service. A strong political push</p><p>for a rail service resulted in the Northern Suburbs Rapid Transit</p><p>System. 49 The 33 km electric rail service has only seven stations, which</p><p>allows a very rapid service reaching a maximum speed of 110 km/h. The</p><p>service runs down the centre of a freeway. It also features trains that are</p><p>linked by bus services interchanging passengers directly onto the</p><p>stations. This allows cross-suburban bus services to be provided because</p><p>the station nodes rather than the CBD have become the focus for bus</p><p>routes.</p><p>The new service has been extremely successful, but it reveals more</p><p>than anything the problem of transport planners not having enough faith</p><p>that good transit can succeed in modern cities. Three predictions were</p><p>made which all proved to be wrong, as summarized in Table 6.</p><p>Perth has a long way to go before it overcomes its automobile</p><p>dependence. One of the positive trends has been the planned growth in</p><p>transit-oriented urban villages around the new electric rail service</p><p>stations. These urban villages provide not only a good, close, rail option</p><p>for residents and employees in the villages but much of the need for a</p><p>car is replaced by a short walk to local services. This process can</p><p>continue as more and more people discover the value of a less</p><p>automobile-dependent lifestyle.</p><p>The federal government in Australia is funding $850 million of</p><p>transit-oriented urban villages in all major cities as a way of demonstrat-</p><p>ing this new and important way of coping with the automobile. The</p><p>programme, called 'Better Cities', has been shown to save Australian</p><p>cities very large amounts of money because they can spend less on new</p><p>infrastructure and transport compared to development at the urban</p><p>fringe, and it also results in a much-improved environment. 5°</p><p>4°Newman and Kenworthy op cit Ref 7</p><p>4ZKenworthy and Newman op cit Ref 39</p><p>48Cardew, R and Williamson, P 'Residen-</p><p>tial construction on Melbourne's urban</p><p>fringe' Urban Futures 1994 4 (2/3) 31-39</p><p>49Newman, P W G 'The rebirth of Perth's</p><p>suburban railways' in Hedgcock, D and</p><p>Yiftachel, O (eds) Urban and Regional</p><p>Planning in Western Australia Paradigm</p><p>Press, Perth (1993)</p><p>S°Kenworthy, J R and Newman, P W G</p><p>The Economic and Wider Community Be-</p><p>nefits of the Proposed East Perth Rede-</p><p>velopment Commissioned Report to the</p><p>East Perth Redevelopment Authority, Insti-</p><p>tute for Science and Technology Policy,</p><p>Murdoch University, Perth (1992)</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The history of cities extends back some 10 000 years. For all but the last</p><p>50 years of this history, land use and transport have been closely</p><p>connected - first in the dense, mixed-use, walking-scale city whose</p><p>limited transport options and travel speeds ensured that urban land use</p><p>remained tightly knit together, and later in the transit city with its fixed</p><p>20</p><p>The land use-transport connection: P W G Newman and J R Kenworthy</p><p>Table 6. The Northern Suburbs Transit System in Perth - predictions, results and conclusions.</p><p>1 Prediction:</p><p>Result:</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>2 Prediction:</p><p>Result:</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>3 Prediction:</p><p>Result:</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>Rail will lose patronage over the already existing express buses as people do not like transferring from bus to rail.</p><p>40% increase with rail-bus over bus-only in the corridor.</p><p>People will transfer if they can move to a superior, reliable form of service.</p><p>You will never get people out of their cars as the freeway is so good and parking is so easy in Perth.</p><p>25% of the patrons on the northern line gave up using their cars for work.</p><p>Even in an automobile-dependent city people can give up their cars.</p><p>It will be a financial disaster,</p><p>It was completed on budget and on time, winning many awards for engineering and architecture. It is almost breaking even in running</p><p>costs, though, unlike roads whose capital funds come from grants in Australia, it must still service a $260 million capital debt.</p><p>If people are given a good option then rail infrastructure can be viable in modern automobile-dependent cities, and can do better than</p><p>roads financially given a level playing field in funding.</p><p>train and tram systems, which also ensured that development was</p><p>closely tied to quite narrow transport corridors. However, the advent of</p><p>the automobile, and to a lesser extent the diesel bus, meant that for the</p><p>first time in history houses and businesses could locate almost anywhere</p><p>they wantedbecause personalized transport could be used to join them</p><p>together. Thus the transport- land use connection was broken. How-</p><p>ever, as cities were to discover, this disconnection came at a great cost.</p><p>These costs involved building an almost open-ended supply of trans-</p><p>port infrastructure which was to cater for exponential growth in demand</p><p>for car travel. This process had huge impacts on the environment of</p><p>cities from the paving over of natural areas and farm land, air pollution</p><p>from increasingly uncontrollable motor vehicles, urban noise on a scale</p><p>previously unthinkable, severance of communities, very large infra-</p><p>structure costs (water, sewerage, roads, etc), congestion costs, depend-</p><p>ence on increasingly tenuous international supplies of oil, and a whole</p><p>array of unforeseen social costs such as isolation, destruction of</p><p>community and degradation of the public realm. Excessive urban</p><p>automobile travel is now also a focus of attention globally due to its</p><p>contribution to the accumulation of greenhouse gases.</p><p>These combined environmental, economic and social costs of auto-</p><p>mobile dependence are today forcing a widespread rethink of the way</p><p>cities are built. In particular cities are attempting to reconnect land use</p><p>with transport in order to reduce costly and destructive levels of</p><p>automobile travel. For cities in China and India, for instance - where</p><p>transport and land use are still tightly connected and there are still very</p><p>low levels of auto ownership and high levels of walking, cycling and</p><p>public transport - the realities of exponential motorization are begin-</p><p>ning to be appreciated within the world community. Could the world</p><p>cope with a quadrupling in automotive use? Could these cities cope?</p><p>The local and global problems of automobile dependence are forcing a</p><p>reassessment of the way cities are built and regenerating a synergism</p><p>which might be thought of as equal in strength to the power of the urban</p><p>reform movements during the Industrial Revolution which gave birth to</p><p>town planning.</p><p>The New Urbanism and transit-oriented planning are now well</p><p>established as means to tackle the host of automobile-based problems</p>