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The Eco-city: Ten Key Transport and Planning Dimensions for Sustainable City Development

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Abstract

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 city's 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 eco-city:
ten key transport and planning
dimensions for sustainable
city development
JEFFREY R KENWORTHY
ABSTRACT Making existing cities and new urban development more ecologi-
cally 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 develop-
ment of superior public transport systems and conditions for non-motorized
modes, with minimal road capacity increases, and protection of the city’s 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 environ-
mental, 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.
KEYWORDS eco-city / environmental technologies / public realm / sustainable
transport / urban centres / urban design / urban form
I. INTRODUCTION
Changing urban development from its present unsustainable forms and
patterns is a very challenging process. Not only do urban form, trans-
portation systems and water, waste and energy technologies have to
change, but the value systems and underlying processes of urban govern-
ance and planning need to be reformed to reflect a sustainability agenda.
Some would argue that we do not have much time left to make these
changes before the ecological processes that underpin all of humanity’s
activities on earth become so severely threatened that the situation will
pit nation against nation in a struggle to access the remaining ecological
services and resources that support life.(1)
The highly auto-dependent, resource-consuming cities in North
America and Australia account for a disproportionately high amount
of the energy, materials and waste production of today’s urban areas,
and require remedial actions on an unprecedented scale. Meanwhile,
Jeffrey Kenworthy is
Professor in Sustainable
Cities at the Institute for
Sustainability and
Technology Policy at
Murdoch University in
Perth. He is best known for
his international
comparison of cities
around the theme of
automobile dependence.
He has published
extensively in the
transport and planning
fields for 26 years and is
co-author with Peter
Newman of Sustainability
and Cities: Overcoming
Automobile Dependence
(1999) and The Millennium
Cities Database for
Sustainable Transport
(2001) with Felix Laube.
Address: Institute for
Sustainability and
Technology Policy, Murdoch
University, Perth, Western
Australia, 6150; e-mail:
J.Kenworthy@murdoch.
edu.au
1. Woodbridge, R (2004), The
Next World War: Tribes, Cities,
Nations and Ecological Decline,
University of Toronto Press,
Toronto, 328 pages.
67
Environment & Urbanization Copyright © 2006 International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Vol 18(1): 67–85. DOI: 10.1177/0956247806063947 www.sagepublications.com
urbanization proceeds at an alarming rate in newly industrializing cities,
creating major problems at every level.
This paper sets out ten critical responses to the challenge of changing
the nature of urban development to a more ecological, sustainable model.
These dimensions have at their core the issue of urban transport systems
and their relationship to urban form, and therefore focus primarily on
the problems of reducing automobile dependence in cities, building more
sustainable urban form and creating more liveable places. The paper is of
particular relevance to cities in wealthier nations and to those fast-
growing prosperous cities in low- and middle-income nations.
These ten dimensions are not comprehensive. For example, they do
not deal with issues of poverty and inequality, nor do they cover politics
and power or the many varied interests in urban decision-making
processes. Nor are these ten transport, planning and design-oriented
dimensions of sustainable city development exactly what other authors
have described, but there are significant overlaps(2) and they draw
heavily on my observations and comparative studies of cities around the
world over the last 26 years. Clearly, urban systems are very complex
and cannot be shaped by any simple set of guidelines, but it is argued
that not dealing with these ten dimensions will severely constrain any
attempt by a prosperous or less prosperous city to become more
sustainable.
The ten critical eco-city dimensions discussed here are the following:
The city has a compact, mixed-use urban form that uses land
efficiently and protects the natural environment, biodiversity and
food-producing areas.
The natural environment permeates the city’s spaces and embraces
the city, while the city and its hinterland provide a major proportion
of its food needs.
Freeway and road infrastructure are de-emphasized in favour of
transit, walking and cycling infrastructure, with a special emphasis
on rail. Car and motorcycle use are minimized.
There is extensive use of environmental technologies for water,
energy and waste management – the city’s life support systems
become closed loop systems.
The central city and sub-centres within the city are human centres
that emphasize access and circulation by modes of transport other
than the automobile, and absorb a high proportion of employment
and residential growth.
The city has a high-quality public realm throughout that expresses a
public culture, community, and equity and good governance. The
public realm includes the entire transit system and all the environ-
ments associated with it.
The physical structure and urban design of the city, especially its
public environments, are highly legible, permeable, robust, varied,
rich, visually appropriate and personalized for human needs.
The economic performance of the city and employment creation are
maximized through innovation, creativity and the uniqueness of the
local environment, culture and history, as well as the high environ-
mental and social quality of the city’s public environments.
Planning for the future of the city is a visionary “debate and decide”
process, not a “predict and provide”, computer-driven process.
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
2. Beatley, T (2000), Green
Urbanism: Learning from
European Cities, Island Press,
Washington DC, 491 pages;
also Register, R (2003),
Ecocities: Building Cities in
Balance with Nature, Berkeley
Hills Books, Berkeley,
California, 290 pages; and
Corbett, J and M Corbett
(2000), Designing Sustainable
Communities: Learning from
Village Homes, Island Press,
Washington DC, 235 pages.
68
THE ECO-CITY
All decision-making is sustainability-based, integrating social,
economic, environmental and cultural considerations as well as
compact, transit-oriented urban form principles. Such decision-
making processes are democratic, inclusive, empowering and engen-
dering of hope.
Some factors are discussed with reference to a set of international
comparative urban data.(3) The ten dimensions are drawn together into a
simple conceptual model organized around four core “Sustainable Urban
Form and Transport” dimensions, four “Sustainable Technologies, Econ-
omics and Urban Design” factors and two “Overarching Processes” for
sustainable city development.
II. TEN KEY DIMENSIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE CITY
DEVELOPMENT
a. The city has a compact, mixed-use urban form that uses
land efficiently and protects the natural environment,
biodiversity and food-producing areas
How much land a city requires to house its people and accommodate its
economic activities is critical in determining its sustainability, especially
its transport patterns and impacts. The shape and form of a city sets the
basic framework within which everything else about the city has to
operate. These urban form factors are especially important in how the city
relates to its bio-region, whether it consumes it for urban development
or whether the urban area is able to draw much of its food, materials and
water requirements from within its own boundaries or surroundings, thus
minimizing the city’s ecological footprint.
Urban form, as measured by urban density and the centralization of
jobs, is found to have a very strong relationship with transport patterns,
especially the level of car dependence and the effectiveness of public
transport.(4) For example, if we correlate urban density with private car
use,(5) urban density explains 84 per cent of the variance in car travel
(Figure 1).
The negative consequences of low-density urban development are at
the heart of many serious critiques of automobile cities and the environ-
mental impacts of cities.(6) The strong relationship revealed by many
studies between more compact, mixed-use urban form and reduced car
use is reflected in efforts around the world to reduce urban sprawl and
create more transit-oriented communities.(7) These efforts to achieve more
compact, people-scale, walkable development patterns are also associated
with a need to build more effective community in cities and to create a
much higher quality urban public realm that has a real sense of place and
meaning for people.(8) Joel Kotkin states:(9)
“The next great frontier is going to be the urbanization of suburbia.
We will see the development of more urban villages . . . Land pres-
sures, environmental pressures, NIMBY-ism and people’s exhaustion
with the commute will lead to the creation of denser, more self-
contained environments . . . The way we’re going to contain sprawl
will be by creating these village-like environments in suburbia, both
in the older suburbs and further out.”
3. Kenworthy, J and F Laube
(2001), The Millennium Cities
Database for Sustainable
Transport, CD-ROM database,
International Union of Public
Transport (UITP), Brussels, and
Institute for Sustainability and
Technology Policy (ISTP), Perth.
4. Thomson, J M (1977), Great
Cities and their Traffic, Penguin
Books, Middlesex, England, 344
pages; also Newman, P W G
and J R Kenworthy (1989),
Cities and Automobile
Dependence: An International
Sourcebook, Gower, Aldershot,
England, 388 pages; Newman,
P W G and J R Kenworthy
(1999), Sustainability and Cities:
Overcoming Automobile
Dependence, Island Press,
Washington DC, 442 pages;
Kenworthy, J and F Laube
(1999) (with P Newman, P
Barter, T Raad, C Poboon and B
Guia), An International
Sourcebook of Automobile
Dependence in Cities,
1960–1990, University Press of
Colorado, Niwot, Colorado, 704
pages; Cervero, R (1995),
“Sustainable new towns:
Stockholm’s rail served
satellites”, Cities Vol 12, No 1,
pages 41–51; Cervero, R (1998),
The Transit Metropolis, Island
Press, Washington DC, 464
pages; Holtzclaw, J (1990),
“Explaining urban density and
transit impacts on auto use”,
Report to the Natural
Resources Defence Council,
Washington DC and The Sierra
Club, San Francisco; Holtzclaw,
J (1994), “Using residential
patterns and transit to
decrease auto dependence
and costs”, Report to the
Natural Resources Defence
Council, Washington DC;
Naess, P (1993a), “Energy use
for transport in 22 Nordic
towns”, NIBR Report No 2,
Norwegian Institute for Urban
and Regional Research, Oslo;
and Naess, P (1993b),
“Transportation energy in
Swedish towns and regions”,
Scandinavian Housing and
Planning Research Vol 10,
pages 187–206.
5. See reference 3.
69
Data on the urban form of cities worldwide are contained in Table 1.(10)
European cities average 50 to 55 persons per hectare, automobile cities 15
to 26 persons per hectare, while Asian cities average 150 persons per
hectare. European and Asian cities still have around 20 per cent of jobs
in their central business districts, US cities average less than 10 per cent
and Canadian and Australia/New Zealand cities are in between, with 15
per cent. Both higher densities and higher centralization support a greater
role for public transport. More centralized cities tend to have less central
city parking, stronger rail systems and more use of public transport for
radial trips.(11) Higher density is also associated with greater mixing of
land uses and shorter travel distances, so dense cities also tend to have
higher use of non-motorized transport (Section c below).
Overall, the positive effects on urban transport patterns of higher
density and more centralized land use are clear, and are further elabor-
ated in subsequent sections. Higher densities can bring greater protection
of the natural environment and food-growing areas in and around cities.
Many European and Asian cities still embrace considerable local food
production in farms and gardens within the city and its hinterland.(12)
This is only possible where the demands of urban sprawl do not devour
most developable land.
b. The natural environment permeates the city’s spaces and
embraces the city, while the city and its hinterland provide a
major proportion of its food needs
A city that is striving to be more ecologically sound will inevitably be
concerned about access to green space and food security. The city for
many people will remain an object of ambivalence unless it can be seen
that cities can be genuinely “green”.
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
6. Bank of America (1994),
“Beyond sprawl: new patterns
of growth to fit the new
California”, Bank of America,
California Resources Agency,
Greenbelt Alliance and Low-
Income Housing Fund, San
Francisco, California; also
Kunstler, J H (1993), The
Geography of Nowhere,
Touchstone, New York, 304
pages; Gillham, O (2002), The
Limitless City: A Primer on the
Urban Sprawl Debate, Island
Press, Washington DC, 309
pages; and see reference 4,
Newman and Kenworthy
(1999).
7. Calthorpe, P (1993), The Next
American Metropolis: Ecology
and Urban Form, Princeton
Architectural Press, New
Jersey, 175 pages; also
Beimborn, E and H Rabinowitz
(1991) (with P Gugliotta, C
Mrotek and S Yan), “Guidelines
for transit sensitive suburban
land use design”, US
Department of Transportation
Report, DOT-T-91–13,
Washington DC; Bernick, M
and R Cervero (1997), Transit
Villages in the 21st Century,
McGraw Hill, New York, 387
70
FIGURE 1
Urban density versus private car travel in 58 higher-income cities, 1995
THE ECO-CITY
The potential for “green living” in the city depends significantly on
different views about the merits of low- versus high-density living and
the best way of “restoring the commons”. This is discussed in terms of a
“rural commons” view, which has its origins in strong anti-urban senti-
ments that are opposed to “density”, and an “urban commons” view,
which is pro-urban and values the city.(13) Both views are striving for
sustainable settlements based on respect for “the commons” – land held
in common trust for the use and benefit of all. “The commons” in reality
extends to the air, the water and the natural landscapes that permeate our
cities and natural areas.
The first view suggests that growing one’s own food, practicing
permaculture, recycling liquid and solid wastes, using decentralized
energy and water supplies, and generally “living green” is only possible
in a low-density rural or semi-rural context. The city is seen as needing
to be broken down into smaller settlements that will bring rural qualities
and values back to the city. However, this view ignores the fact that cities,
by their nature, are concentrations of people and diversity, and spread-
ing out activities will exacerbate many serious problems, particularly
automobile dependence.(14)
The second view is less concerned with self-sufficiency than with the
integrity of the urban system. It suggests that creating higher-density
development will mean less land devoted to sprawl and more land for
open space, gardens, urban agriculture, forestry and horticulture. Greater
emphasis on community spaces should also mean more opportunity for
locally managed systems for waste, energy and water. The “urban
commons” approach promotes a city that is “greener” in its overall func-
tioning through more use of green transport modes, traffic calming to
promote greener, safer streets, less energy use and less environmental
impact.
There are many examples of cities that have adopted the “urban
commons” approach and have become greener cities, including Zurich,
Stockholm, Helsinki and Freiburg.(15) Through compact planning, they
have provided for urban agriculture, forests and community gardens, as
well as excellent public transport systems and high levels of walking and
cycling. Environmental technologies such as renewable energy and local-
ized management of water are also helping to “green” these cities.
The two opposing views are seen as having a resolution. The city can
pages; and Williams, K, E
Burton and M Jenks (editors)
(2000), Achieving Sustainable
Urban Form, E and FN Spon,
London, 388 pages.
8. Langdon, P (1994), A Better
Place to Live: Reshaping the
American Suburb,The
University of Massachusetts
Press, Amherst, 270 pages;
also Moe, R and C Wilkie
(1997), Changing Places:
Rebuilding Community in the
Age of Sprawl, Henry Holt and
Company, New York, 288
pages; Calthorpe, P and W
Fulton (2001), The Regional
City: Planning for the End of
Sprawl, Island Press,
Washington DC, 304 pages;
Benfield, F K, J Terris and N
Vorsanger (2001), Solving
Sprawl: Models of Smart
Growth in Communities Across
America, Island Press,
Washington DC, 200 pages.
9. Pedersen, M C (2004), “Cities
in the digital age: city scholar
Joel Kotkin argues against the
idea of an urban revitalization
panacea”, accessed 26
September 2004 at www.
metropolismag.com/html/
content_0104/ob/ob01_0104.
html.
10. The data summarized by
region in Table 1 and
subsequent tables refer to a
total of 84 cities worldwide in
developed and developing
countries. The abbreviations
are as follows: CHN – Chinese
71
TABLE 1
Urban form in a global sample of cities, 1995
CHN LIA LAM AFR MEA EEU WEU HIA ANZ USA CAN
Urban density
(persons/ha) 146 204 75 60 119 53 55 150 15 15 26
Proportion of jobs
in CBD (%) 51 17 29 15 13 20 19 19 15 9 16
SOURCE: Kenworthy, J and F Laube (2001), The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport, CD-ROM
database, International Union of Public Transport (UITP), Brussels, and Institute for Sustainability and
Technology Policy (ISTP), Perth.
become more compact and urban, which can provide more space for
nature in the city. This will help prevent cities from devouring rural and
bushland areas through sprawl, and will reduce automobile dependence.
Rural areas can grow in population and diversity through a “rural
commons” approach to development (e.g. permaculture villages). Re-
population of declining country areas can help to develop economic
vitality and diversity and enhance their sustainability. The key seems to
lie in recognizing and respecting the inherent urban qualities of the city
and the rural qualities of the country, and not trying to meld one into
the other.
c. Freeway and road infrastructure is de-emphasized in
favour of transit, walking and cycling infrastructure, with a
special emphasis on rail. Car and motorcycle use are
minimized
Private transport patterns. Table 2 reveals vast differences in private trans-
port infrastructure and use in different cities. In 1995, car usage was lowest
in the Chinese cities, at just 4 per cent of the level found in US cities.
In the Chinese and Low-Income Asian clusters, motorcycles account
for a sizeable one-quarter of total private motorized passenger kilometres.
There is some evidence that motorcycles have flourished in high-density,
congested urban areas where segregated public transport systems are weak
or absent. Motorcycles can avoid traffic queues and are the cheapest form
of motorized private transport for moderate-income people, but they are
also a major cause of air pollution, noise and transport deaths in these
cities.(16)
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
cities; LIA – Low-Income Asian
cities; LAM – Latin American
cities; AFR – African cities;
MEA – Middle Eastern cities;
EEU – Eastern European cities;
WEU – Western European
cities; HIA – High-Income Asian
cities; ANZ – Australia/New
Zealand cities; USA – American
cities; CAN – Canadian cities.
11. See reference 4, Thomson
(1977).
12. See reference 2, Beatley
(2000).
13. Newman, P (1991),
“Sustainable settlements:
restoring the commons”,
Habitat, August, pages 18–21.
14. Schneider, K R (1979), On
the Nature of Cities: Toward
Enduring and Creative Human
Environments, Jossey-Bass
Publishers, San Francisco, 352
pages.
15. See reference 2, Beatley
(2000); also see reference 4,
Newman and Kenworthy
(1999).
72
TABLE 2
Private mobility and private transport infrastructure in a global sample of cities, 1995
Travel CHN LIA LAM AFR MEA EEU WEU HIA ANZ USA CAN
Car passenger kilometres
per capita 814 1,855 2,862 2,652 3,262 2,907 6,202 3,614 11,387 18,155 8,645
Motor cycle passenger
kilometres per capita 289 684 104 57 129 19 119 357 81 45 21
Non-motorized modes
(% daily trips) 65 32 31 42 27 26 31 28 16 8 10
Motorized public modes
(% daily trips) 19 32 34 26 18 47 19 30 5 3 9
Infrastructure
Length of freeway per
person (metres/1,000
persons) 3 15 3 18 53 31 82 20 129 156 122
Parking spaces per
1,000 CBD jobs 17 127 90 252 532 75 261 105 505 555 390
SOURCE: Kenworthy, J and F Laube (2001), The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport, CD-ROM
database, International Union of Public Transport (UITP), Brussels, and Institute for Sustainability and
Technology Policy (ISTP), Perth.
THE ECO-CITY
Automobile use is linked closely to the provision of roads and
parking. The most auto-dependent US cities in 1995 had the highest
length of freeway per person in the world, followed by Australia/New
Zealand and Canadian cities. Outside of these regions, freeway and
parking provision falls away rapidly, as does car use. Since as early as 1974,
higher freeway provision has been linked with higher car and energy use
in cities.(17) The mechanism for this has been explained in terms of longer
travel distances rather than savings in time.(18)
Overall modal split patterns. Walking and cycling are the most
sustainable modes of transport, and Chinese cities had the highest use of
non-motorized modes (65 per cent). The other classes of cities were the
automobile-dependent, wealthy cities with low walking and cycling
(Australia/New Zealand, Canada and the USA); the wealthy cities with
strong public transport and non-motorized mode use (Western Europe,
High-Income Asia); and the low-income cities where public transport and
non-motorized modes maintain large shares, serving huge urban poor
populations, while the wealthy use private motor vehicles (Low-Income
Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe).
Continued walking and cycling in poorer cities is threatened by increas-
ing motorization, and is a major problem for these cities in achieving
more sustainable transport systems.(19)
Public transport supply patterns. Table 3 shows that in 1995, public
transport supply was lowest in Chinese, Middle Eastern and US cities. In
1995, Chinese cities still relied heavily on non-motorized modes and had
the lowest public transport service in the world, with the least rail. US
cities have had a long history of decline in public transport, notwith-
standing a recent renaissance.(20) The Western and Eastern European
cities, High-Income Asian cities, and Latin American and African cities
provided the greatest amount of public transport service. However,
European and High-Income Asian cities offered 46 to 62 per cent of public
transport services by rail, which was arguably more competitive with
automobiles due to high reliability and speed.
Public transport usage patterns. Table 4 shows that US cities in
1995 had the lowest rate of boardings per capita on public transport,
while the Eastern European cities had the highest (12 times more). This
difference was also reflected in the modal split, in which US urban resi-
dents had 3 per cent of total daily trips on transit compared to 47 per
cent in Eastern Europe (Table 2). The other high users of public trans-
port, either in terms of boardings per capita or modal share (but not
always both) were High- and Low-Income Asian cities, Western
European cities, and Latin American, African and Chinese cities. For
example, Chinese cities, despite poor transit service, had high per capita
transit usage (375 boardings per capita), but the share of total trips was
low (19 per cent).
Importance of rail and comparative modal speeds. The data high-
light the integral role of urban rail systems in achieving high public trans-
port ridership. Only the Western and Eastern European and High-Income
Asian cities had public transport systems that captured a large share of
the overall transport market, and these were the cities where urban rail
systems were strongest. Table 5 shows that the ratio of segregated transit
infrastructure to urban freeways in these high-income cities ranged from
three to nine, while in their more automobile-dependent counterparts the
ratio ranged from 0.4 to 2. As noted, a lack of segregated public transport
16. Barter, P A (1998), An
International Comparative
Perspective on Urban
Transport and Urban Form in
Pacific Asia: Responses to the
Challenge of Motorisation in
Dense Cities, PhD Thesis,
Murdoch University, Perth; also
Badami, M G (2005), “The
urban transport challenge in
India: considerations,
implications and strategies”,
International Development
Planning Review Vol 27, No 2,
pages 169–194.
17. Watt, K E F and C Ayres
(1974), “Urban land use
patterns and transportation
energy cost”, Paper presented
at the Annual Meeting of the
American Association for the
Advancement of Science, 24
February–1 March 1974, San
Francisco.
18. Newman, P W G and J R
Kenworthy (1984), “The use
and abuse of driving cycle
research: clarifying the
relationship between traffic
congestion, energy and
emissions”, Transportation
Quarterly Vol 38, No 4, pages
615–635; also Newman, P W G
and J R Kenworthy (1988), “The
transport energy trade-off:
fuel-efficient traffic versus fuel-
efficient cities”, Transportation
Research Vol 22A, No 3, pages
163–174; and see reference 4,
Newman and Kenworthy
(1989).
19. Kenworthy, J R and G Hu
(2002), “Transport and urban
form in Chinese cities: an
international and comparative
policy perspective with
implications for sustainable
urban transport in China”, DISP
Vol 151, pages 4–14; also
Kenworthy, J R and C Townsend
(2002), “An international
comparative perspective on
motorisation in urban China:
problems and prospects”, IATSS
Research Vol 26, No 2, pages
99–109; and see reference 16,
Badami (2005).
20. Pucher, J (2002),
“Renaissance of public
transport in the United States?”,
Transportation Quarterly Vol 56,
No 1, pages 33–49.
73
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
74
TABLE 3
Public transport supply and service in a global sample of cities, 1995
CHN LIA LAM AFR MEA EEU WEU HIA ANZ USA CAN
Total public transport seat
kilometres of service
per capita 1,171 2,699 4,481 5,450 1,245 4,170 4,213 4,995 3,628 1,557 2,290
Percentage public
transport seat
kilometres on rail 4 15 7 31 10 59 62 46 68 48 29
Overall average speed of
public transport (km/h) 14 18 18 31 21 21 26 30 33 27 25
Average speed of buses
(km/h) 12 16 18 26 18 19 20 16 23 22 22
Average speed of metro
(km/h) 35 34 32 n/a* n/a 29 31 37 n/a 37 34
Average speed of
suburban rail (km/h) n/a 33 41 34 37 38 49 47 45 55 49
Ratio of public versus
private transport
speeds 0.73 0.81 0.60 0.80 0.68 0.71 0.79 1.04 0.75 0.58 0.57
SOURCE: Kenworthy, J and F Laube (2001), The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport, CD-ROM
database, International Union of Public Transport (UITP), Brussels, and Institute for Sustainability and
Technology Policy (ISTP), Perth.
*n/a = not applicable
TABLE 4
Public transport mobility patterns in a global sample of cities, 1995
CHN LIA LAM AFR MEA EEU WEU HIA ANZ USA CAN
Total public transport
boardings per capita 375 231 265 195 152 711 297 430 84 59 140
Rail boardings per capita
(tram, LRT, metro,
suburban rail) 23 40 19 37 18 409 162 238 42 22 44
Proportion of public
transport boardings
on rail (%) 6 17 7 19 12 57 55 55 51 37 32
Proportion of total
motorized passenger
kilometres on public
transport (%) 55 41 48 51 29 53 19 46 7 3 10
SOURCE: Kenworthy, J and F Laube (2001), The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport, CD-ROM
database, International Union of Public Transport (UITP), Brussels, and Institute for Sustainability and
Technology Policy (ISTP), Perth.
THE ECO-CITY
infrastructure is linked to high use of motorcycles, which compete for
passengers with bus systems that are engulfed in traffic.(21)
The highest average bus speed in any cluster was 26 kilometres/hour,
and across the 11 groups it was only 19 kilometres/hour. Chinese urban
buses operated at about the same speed as bikes. Metro systems operated
at between 30 and 37 kilometres/hour (average 34 kilometres/hour),
while suburban rail systems averaged 43 kilometres/hour, compared to
road traffic speed of only 34 kilometres/hour. Only rail systems compete
with cars in terms of speed, which is, in turn, linked to the provision of
reserved alignments. This relative speed between public transport and
private transport has been shown to be critical in cities.(22)
Without a commitment to better quality public transport systems,
especially rail, and better conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, it is
difficult for any city to become more sustainable.
d. There is extensive use of environmental technologies for
water, energy and waste management – the city’s life
support systems become closed loop systems
Cities are consumers of natural capital such as water, energy and other
resources, and producers of large quantities of wastes, which must be
absorbed by the natural systems upon which cities depend. There is now
a well-documented view that cities are “parasitic organisms”. It has been
shown that the ecological footprint of prosperous cities already extends
many times beyond the areas of land that they actually occupy, while
innumerable other less resource-consuming, though fast-growing, cities
in lower-income nations are increasing their impacts at an alarming
rate.(23) Indeed, there is now a global movement which argues that, given
the profligate resource consumption and waste in wealthy nations, and
the pace of urbanization, especially in developing countries, cities must
become more sustainable ecosystems in their own right(24) in order to
21. See reference 16.
22. Newman, P and
J Kenworthy (1999), “‘Relative
speed’ not ‘time savings’: a
new indicator for sustainable
transport”, Papers of the 23rd
Australasian Transport
Research Forum, 29
September–1 October, Perth,
Western Australia, Vol 23, Part
1, pages 425–440.
23. See reference 1; also
Wackernagel, M and W Rees
(1996), Our Ecological
Footprint: Reducing Human
Impact on the Earth, New
Society Publishers,
Philadelphia, 176 pages.
24. Newman, P and I Jennings
(2004), Cities as Sustainable
Ecosystems, United Nations
Environment Programme,
Osaka, 196 pages.
75
TABLE 5
Public transport infrastructure in a global sample of cities, 1995
CHN LIA LAM AFR MEA EEU WEU HIA ANZ USA CAN
Total length of reserved
public transport routes
(m/1,000 persons) 2 16 19 40 16 201 192 53 215 49 55
Total length of reserved
public transport routes
per urban hectare
(m/ha) 0.32 2.50 1.15 2.39 2.18 10.67 9.46 5.87 3.41 0.81 1.44
Ratio of segregated
transit infrastructure
versus expressways 0.77 1.33 3.36 3.16 3.54 9.11 3.12 3.34 2.00 0.41 0.55
SOURCE: Kenworthy, J and F Laube (2001), The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport, CD-ROM
database, International Union of Public Transport (UITP), Brussels, and Institute for Sustainability and
Technology Policy (ISTP), Perth.
avoid serious ecological collapses during this, the “century of cities”.(25)
Still others have suggested that “. . . social, economic and cultural systems
cannot escape the rules of abiotic and biotic nature.”(26)
If cities are to become sustainable, they must reduce their use of all
resources and decrease their waste outputs. At the same time, they must
increase their liveability in terms of health, employment, income,
education, housing, leisure activities, accessibility, urban design quality
and sense of community and neighbourhood. This argument has been
systematized in terms of an “extended metabolism” model of human
settlements.(27)
One response to the issues described above is deployment of local-
ized or regional-scale, decentralized environmental technologies, as
opposed to large-scale, highly centralized systems that are managed by
government authorities or, increasingly, corporatized entities with a
public charter given by government. Renewable energy can be supplied
through solar hot water technologies and photovoltaics, wind energy
systems and methane, etc. Buildings can maximize passive solar design,
thus minimizing heating and cooling needs. For transport, it is very diffi-
cult to find viable alternatives to oil in sufficient quantities to meet
current and future demands.(28) Electrically powered vehicles using
renewable energy sources are probably the most promising option to date.
Water can be harvested and stored at a local level to provide a signifi-
cant proportion of drinking and other needs. Stormwater can be managed
on-site through drainage swales and retention ponds that can also form
water features within an urban development. Sewage can be treated using
local biological treatment systems,(29) and there are good examples of
such local sewerage treatment systems on a district scale, for example in
Kolding, Denmark.(30)
The overall aims of environmental technologies are to maximize the
possibility that cities can meet their needs from the natural capital of their
own bio-regions in a renewable way and to move to closed loop infra-
structure systems that recycle and re-use their own wastes, so that the
absorptive capacities of natural systems are not overwhelmed with the
waste loads from urban areas.
A recent global competition has drawn attention to the issues above
by asking a range of cities to develop a realizable 100-year staged vision
for transforming their city into an ecologically sustainable system. These
cities are Vologda, San Diego/Tijuana, Changshu, Vancouver, Numazu,
Mishima, Chuo City, Goa, Berlin and Buenos Aires, and virtually all the
visions incorporate innovative systems for water, energy and waste,
adapted to their respective natural setting. All presented a vision where
nature and natural processes are much more visible and accessible, and
all incorporated public transport, pedestrian and bicyclist systems to elim-
inate car dependence.(31) Indeed, virtually none of the visions would work
without the city moving away from a dependence on cars.
e. The central city and sub-centres within the city are human
centres that emphasize access and circulation by modes of
transport other than the automobile, and absorb a high
proportion of employment and residential growth
Among the most important parts of any city are its central business
district and sub-centres. The greatest concentration of jobs in most cities
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
25. See reference 1.
26. Tjallingii, S P (1991), “The
responsible city”, International
Federation for Housing and
Planning (The Hague),
International Conference,
Berlin, page 7.
27. See reference 4, Newman
and Kenworthy (1999), pages
7–14.
28. Fleay, B J (1995), The
Decline of The Age of Oil, Pluto
Press, Sydney, 152 pages.
29. Niemczynowicz, J (1992),
“Water management and
urban development: a call for
realistic alternatives for the
future”, Impact of Science on
Society Vol 42, No 2, pages
131–147; also Niemczynowicz,
J (1993), “New aspects of
sewerage and water
technology”, Ambio Vol 22, No
7, pages 449–455.
30. See reference 4, Newman
and Kenworthy (1999).
31. Itoh, S (editor) (2003),
Proposals for the International
Competition of Sustainable
Urban Systems Design: Report
of the International Gas Union
Special Project, The Institute of
Behavioural Sciences, Tokyo,
311 pages.
32. See reference 3; also see
reference 4, Kenworthy and
Laube (1999) (with Newman,
Barter, Raad, Poboon and
Guia).
33. Monheim, R (1988),
“Pedestrian zones in West
Germany – the dynamic
development of an effective
instrument to enliven the city
centre”, in C Hass-Klau (editor),
New Life for City Centres:
Planning Transport and
Conservation in British and
German Cities, Anglo–German
Foundation, London, pages
107–130; also Gehl, J and L
Gemzøe (1996), Public Spaces,
Public Life, The Danish
Architectural Press and the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts School of Architecture
Publishers, Copenhagen, 96
pages; and Jacobs, J (1961),
The Death and Life of Great
American Cities, Vintage Press,
New York, 474 pages.
76
THE ECO-CITY
remains in the central city, despite the suburbanization of work and the
falling percentage of people employed in city centres.(32) The high and
generally increasing number of jobs and amount of floor space mean that
the central city still significantly shapes transport patterns. Public trans-
port systems, especially rail, are focused on central cities, and congestion
on radial routes is widespread.
The high profile status of the central city and intense traffic pressure
mean that this area is almost always the focal point for new rail systems,
and is the first to adopt such sustainable transport and planning policies
as pedestrianization, urban design and streetscape improvements, traffic-
calming schemes, control over parking provision, road-pricing schemes
to reduce traffic, and residential revitalization. Examples include Portland
(Oregon), Singapore, Toronto, Freiburg, Copenhagen and many other
European cities.(33) Toronto, for example, experienced huge increases in
central city housing, and reduced commuting due to more workers
walking, cycling and taking public transport.(34) The size of the resident
population of a central city appears to be inversely proportional to the
amount of car parking it accommodates, since parking is an aggressive
competitor for space.(35)
Many schemes to control the automobile in central cities (and sub-
centres) have also aimed to improve economic performance. There is now
considerable information showing that central cities with strong traffic
restraint are better-off economically than those with generous parking.(36)
It is also increasingly clear that attractive, human-scale centres with good
public transport systems and diverse cultural and entertainment attrac-
tions are preferred sites for globally mobile jobs linked to the new infor-
mation economy.(37) A further study states that: “The new world will largely
depend, as the old world did, on human creativity; and creativity flourishes
where people come together face-to-face.”(38)
A report on a global survey(39) showed that: “A global average of 77 per
cent of respondents felt proximity to good public transport was a critical factor
in location decisions, particularly for firms in tight labour markets.”
It is extremely important in developing more sustainable cities to
address these issues of quality and accessibility of central cities and sub-
centres.
f. The city has a high-quality public realm throughout that
expresses a public culture, community, and equity and good
governance. The public realm includes the entire transit
system and all the environments associated with it
A compelling factor that distinguishes “good” cities from “bad” cities is
how they address the public realm.(40) Mike Davis writes about urban
communities that have abandoned their sense of responsibility concern-
ing “the commons”, the most obvious components of which are shared
urban spaces, streets, parks and transit systems.(41) He suggests Los
Angeles has become a highly privatized, fear-driven environment that he
characterizes as the “Ecology of Fear” or “Fortress LA” in the following
way:
“A megalopolitan sprawl . . . economically and ecologically
moribund, ravaged by social polarization and racial tensions that
have provided fertile ground for: the criminalizing of non-whites,
34. Nowlan, D M and G Stewart
(1992), “The effect of
downtown population growth
on commuting trips: some
recent Toronto experience”,
Journal of The American
Planning Association Vol 57, No
2, pages 165–182.
35. Newman, P W G and J R
Kenworthy (1988), “Parking and
city centre vitality: an
international assessment”,
Proceedings of the First
International Parking
Convention, Perth, Western
Australia, October, pages
320–333.
36. TEST (1989), Quality Streets:
How Traditional Urban Centres
Benefit from Traffic Calming,
Transport and Environment
Studies, London, 252 pages;
also Hass-Klau, C (1993),
“Impact of pedestrianization
and traffic calming on retailing:
a review of the evidence from
Germany and the UK”,
Transport Policy Vol 1, No 1,
pages 21–31.
37. Newman, P W G, J R
Kenworthy and F Laube (1999),
“The global city and
sustainability – perspectives
from Australian cities and a
survey of 37 global cities”, in J
Brotchie, P Newton, P Hall and
J Dickey (editors), East–West
Perspectives of 21st Century
Urban Development:
Sustainable Eastern and
Western Cities in the New
Millennium, Ashgate, Aldershot,
England, pages 327–354.
38. Hall, P (1997), “Reflections
past and future on planning
cities”, Australian Planner Vol
34, No 2, page 89.
39. Survey by Jones Lang
LaSalle and LaSalle Investment
Management, summarized in
the Bangkok Post, 21 June
2001 (Real Estate section).
40. Newman, P (1990), “The
search for the good city”, Town
and Country Planning Vol 59,
No 10, pages 272–275.
41. Davis, M (1990), City of
Quartz: Excavating the Future
in Los Angeles, Vintage,
London, 462 pages.
77
urban youth and the homeless; . . . the privatizing of public space
and the proliferation of fortified suburban enclaves whose lawns
bristle with warnings of ‘armed response’ . . . where public space and
civil rights have been willingly relinquished by homeowners fearful
of racial unrest and gang violence; and where upper- and middle-class
citizenry has incarcerated itself in gated communities, or on family
outings in surveilled, privately patrolled malls, ‘historic districts’ or
theme parks.”(42)
Robert Putnam addresses the breakdown (and rediscovery) of communal-
ism in American society, at the core of which is the fragmentation and
alienation that has occurred in American cities over the last 50 years
under automobile-based planning policies.(43)
Australian cities suffer from similar, although perhaps not as extreme,
examples of retreat from the public realm and communal life. Social
commentator Hugh Mackay laments thus:(44)
“If you’ve decided to be a two- or three-car household, you’ve . . .
increased the probability that you will continue to be a stranger to
neighbours you never meet on the footpath. We may complain about
the loss of a sense of belonging to a local community but, by our
perfectly understandable enthusiasm for the car, we’ve taken such
giant strides away from a communal life that we can hardly expect
the community to re-emerge all by itself . . . The fear of urban
violence . . . has already gripped many older people and many
parents of young children . . . But many of us have already decided
to create a climate of fear, which is conducive to violence, by teaching
our children to avoid eye contact with strangers and by staying away
from public spaces, such as streets and parks, which if only we
thronged them would remain safe.”
Discussions on eco-cities too easily focus on physical and biological
systems, forgetting that cities have been created to enrich humankind
and enable its progress.(45) If we forget this, we lose sight of the qualities
needed to make great cities. In a wide-ranging article, Barber discusses the
problems and possibilities confronting Canadian cities:(46)
“A growing body of research is proving the effectiveness of civic
engagement and its product, social capital . . . no combination of
traditional policies can ever in itself bring about good government
and prosperity; that result depends entirely on the pre-existence of
choral societies, sports clubs, interest groups and all other associ-
ations that stream like corpuscles through the urban body politic.”
In order to maximize the possibilities of social capital (and economic
growth), cities must make their public realms humane, equitable places.
Barber continues:(47)
“The quality of the natural and built environment is an increasingly
important determinant of regional economic health [and] a healthy
and socially stable workforce. In other words, governments must
invest in the dignity of their cities . . . Nothing can be more demo-
cratic than investment in the public realm of a city.”
Alan Jacobs also espouses the great importance of a high-quality urban
public realm expressed through the vibrancy of the streets. Great streets
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
42. Mike Davis, interviewed by
Mark Dery (1995) in an article
entitled “Future Noir”, in 21-C
No 3, pages 43–47.
43. Putnam, R (2001), Bowling
Alone: The Collapse and
Revival of American
Community, Simon and
Schuster, New York, 544 pages.
44. Mackay, H (1994), “The
future stops here”, The
Weekend Australian (Weekend
Review), 3–4 September, page
16.
45. Mumford, L (1961), The City
in History, Penguin,
Harmondsworth, England, 696
pages.
46. Barber, J (1995), “Mending
our lovely metros”, The Globe
and Mail (Focus Section D), 9
September.
47. See reference 46.
78
THE ECO-CITY
depend upon managing cars, so that the needs of people and other modes
are properly catered for.(48) Donald Appleyard demonstrated this with
great clarity in his famous comparative study of streets in San Francisco
with different levels of traffic and social interaction.(49)
g. The physical structure and urban design of the city,
especially its public environments, are highly legible,
permeable, robust, varied, rich, visually appropriate and
personalized for human needs
The physical layouts and designs that make the most enduring and loved
cities have long been known. A range of authors provide detailed
accounts of the design of Greek, Roman, Chinese, Japanese and new
world cities such as Boston and Los Angeles, showing the central import-
ance of, for example, permeable street patterns based on regular or
deformed grids, and legible streetscapes punctuated by well-placed land-
marks and significant buildings.(50) Others have developed a host of
measurable design qualities that need to be incorporated into urban
development, as follows:(51)
Permeability – places that are permeable provide access and a number
of alternative routes through an area, a choice of how to get to places
and have a clear definition between public and private places.
Variety – variety is concerned with the range of uses available to
people. Places that have variety offer experiential choice, but only if
they can be accessed, and they attract a variety of people at various
times for varied reasons.
Legibility – legibility is about how easily people can understand a
place, and how quickly they can interpret what goes on there. Legible
places enable an understanding of how to negotiate an area. Legibil-
ity can be achieved through street function, landmarks and different
land uses.
Robustness – robustness is the flexibility to use a place for a variety
of purposes, especially over a long period of time. Robustness is the
means by which cities survive and are “recycled” according to the
needs of each era.
Visual appropriateness, richness and personalization – these qualities
are about the appearance and enjoyment of places. Places that display
visual appropriateness and richness contain buildings that seem to
“fit” with the streetscape. They can be interpreted easily by many
people and create satisfying sensory experiences. Visually appropri-
ate places have uses that match their physical appearance. Personal-
ization is concerned with how comfortable and familiar a place is and
how well it engenders a sense of belonging.
It is difficult to create a city that truly meets human needs for inter-
action, support and community, or one that functions well in an
economic sense, without embodying the principles outlined above,
which reflect centuries of wisdom in place-making. Automobile cities,
however, have largely ignored them, but are now rediscovering these
principles through movements such as The New Urbanism.(52)
48. Jacobs, A B (1993), Great
Streets, The MIT Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
344 pages.
49. Appleyard, D (1981),
Liveable Streets, University of
California Press, Berkeley, 382
pages.
50. Lynch, K (1960), The Image
of The City, The MIT Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
194 pages; also Lynch, K
(1981), Good City Form,The
MIT Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 514 pages;
Kostoff, S (1991), The City
Shaped: Urban Patterns and
Meanings through History,
Thames and Hudson, London,
352 pages; and Bacon, E N
(1974), Design of Cities,
Penguin Books, New York, 336
pages.
51. Bentley, I, A Alcock, P
Murrain, S McGlynn and G
Smith (1985), Responsive
Environments: A Manual for
Designers, Architectural Press,
Oxford, 152 pages.
52. Katz, P (1994), The New
Urbanism: Toward an
Architecture of Community,
McGraw Hill, New York, 288
pages.
79
h. The economic performance of the city and employment
creation are maximized through innovation, creativity and
the uniqueness of the local environment, culture and history,
as well as the high environmental and social quality of the
city’s public environments
Jane Jacobs shows that cities are the key sites and drivers of national econ-
omies, and cities themselves cannot survive without a viable economic
base.(53) Any city aspiring to sustainability cannot ignore its economic
dimension. Since Jacobs’ time, globalization has strengthened the role of
cities in driving the global economy. Indeed, there is now a global hier-
archy or network of world cities which are tightly interconnected and
dependent on each other for their sustainability. For example, Egger(54)
states that:
“. . . through globalization . . . cities more than ever before are
becoming increasingly dependent upon other cities and regions in
the world city network . . . The new economy consists of a global
meta-network of complex technological and human interactions . . .
a city’s sustainability is now far more dependent upon the world city
network within which it exists than its previous raison d’être.”
This world city network has heightened the competition between urban
regions for global capital and jobs. Rather than employees going to where
companies are locating, the new “creative class” of employees dictate, to
some extent, where companies locate, according to the quality of life
being offered by the city, and demand that cities be vibrant, liveable and
indeed walkable places, offering a wide range of attractions. Richard
Florida offers a detailed insight into what he calls “the rise of the creative
class” and its impacts on cities,(55) although Florida’s perspective has its
critics, such as Joel Kotkin, who claims that cities don’t attract a middle
class, they create one.(56)
Charles Landry describes how cities have to become creative to
develop economic activities that help them compete for economic
success, while at the same time respecting their local environments, skills
and traditions.(57) Landry’s approach is based on discovering the unique-
ness of a particular city in order to promote economic growth. Globaliz-
ation is thus a two-edged sword, linking cities in ways that are
unprecedented and causing a global homogenizing effect on culture, but
also driving cities to better distinguish themselves from each other.
Despite some disagreement, there is little argument that part of the
struggle today to develop a better urban economy is to create places that
are environmentally and socially attractive, whereas it can be argued that
cities that do not have the automobile under control run their environ-
ments down. In the 2003 Mercer(58) worldwide quality of life survey,
Zurich was ranked first and Geneva, Vancouver and Vienna, all cities with
excellent public transport systems and very attractive public realms,
shared second place. Vancouver has no freeways and is an exemplar in
the creation of convivial, vibrant and liveable urban environments, as
explained by Punter.(59) It has been ranked as one of the top three most
liveable cities in the world for the past three years. Interestingly, Atlanta,
the highest car-using and most sprawling major city in the USA and the
world,(60) was deemed the least liveable of all US cities in the 2004 survey,
while the cities of San Francisco and Honolulu, which have good public
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
53. Jacobs, J (1969), The
Economy of Cities, Random
House, New York, 288 pages;
also Jacobs, J (1984), Cities and
The Wealth of Nations,
Penguin, Harmondsworth, 257
pages.
54. Egger, S (2003),
“Globalisation and the
sustainability of cities: a
methodology for determining
their relationship”, Presented
to MODSIM 2003, Townsville,
Australia, pages 1–2.
55. Florida, R (2002), The Rise
of the Creative Class: And How
It’s Transforming Work, Leisure,
Community and Everyday Life,
Perseus Books Group, New
York, 416 pages; also Florida, R
(2004), Cities and the Creative
Class, Routledge, New York,
208 pages.
56. See reference 9.
57. Landry, C (2000), The
Creative City: A Toolkit for
Urban Innovators, Earthscan
Publications, London, 300
pages.
58. www.mercerHR.com
59. Punter, J (2003), The
Vancouver Achievement:
Urban Planning and Design,
UBC Press, Vancouver, 447
pages.
60. See reference 3.
80
THE ECO-CITY
transport systems by US standards and a range of high-density, mixed-use
environments set within good public realms, ranked highest of the US
cities. While the quality of life ranking of the cities in this survey depends
on many more dimensions than just transport, no highly automobile-
dependent cities ranked well, while all the most liveable cities had, at
least, respectable if not very good public transport systems.
i. Planning for the future of the city is a visionary “debate
and decide” process, not a “predict and provide”,
computer-driven process
“Predict and provide” planning. For any city aspiring to greater sustain-
ability, the way it envisions its future and, in particular, the way it plans
its future transport systems in relation to land use, will be critical. After
WWII, cities in the developed world became preoccupied with planning
for a growth in the number of automobiles. In 1954, Mitchell and Rapkin
showed that traffic demand could be modelled based on land use in
different areas.(61) This, coupled with emerging computer technology,
fostered the development of “transportation/ land use planning models”
(4-step gravity models), which eventually became known as the Urban
Transportation Planning (UTP) process. A new “scientific” and professional
endeavour was born through the transport planning and traffic engineer-
ing disciplines. The basic philosophy of the UTP process was to plan for
infrastructure supply to meet projected traffic growth – a “predict and
provide” approach. This approach became characterized by self-fulfilling
prophecies of spiralling traffic growth, congestion and road building.(62)
This method of transport planning has proven damaging to cities
around the world. Freeways have been punched through neighbour-
hoods, demolishing large sections of urban fabric, severing communities
and destroying natural environments and food-producing areas. Roads
have been built and widened to accommodate more traffic, reduce
congestion, save fuel and reduce emissions, despite evidence that this
approach fails.(63) Public transport, and particularly non-motorized
modes, have been big losers in a planning process optimized for the auto-
mobile. This is true in many newly industrializing cities today, such as in
China and India, where non-motorized modes and public transport are
declining rapidly.(64)
In particular, the UTP process did not recognize “induced traffic”,
whereby new road facilities generate completely new trips that were never
predicted rather than freeing up the road system for the existing traffic.(65)
Research is also showing conclusively that, just as new roads induce new
traffic, removing road space can cause traffic to dissolve or disappear.(66)
It suggests that traffic does not behave like a “liquid” and maintain a
constant “volume” but, rather, behaves more like a “gas” that expands
and contracts to fill the space provided for it. In many cities, there is thus
now a countervailing trend of transport demand management (TDM),
which attempts to match demand for travel to the supply of infrastruc-
ture rather than endlessly expanding supply to meet demand.(67) Unfor-
tunately, in lower-income cities undergoing rapid motorization, “predict
and provide” is still common.
“Debate and decide” planning. Congestion relief and ever-
expanding mobility, rather than accessibility, have been pillars of the UTP
process for many years. There is now, however, an awareness that the
61. Mitchell, R B and C Rapkin
(1954), Urban Traffic: A
Function of Land Use,
Columbia University Press,
New York, 226 pages.
62. Kenworthy, J R (1990),
“Don’t shoot me I’m only the
transport planner (apologies to
Elton John)”, in P Newman, J
Kenworthy and T Lyons,
(editors), Transport Energy
Conservation Policies for
Australian Cities: Strategies for
Reducing Automobile
Dependence, Murdoch
University, Perth, Western
Australia, Chapter 16.
63. See reference 18, Newman
and Kenworthy (1984); also see
reference 18, Newman and
Kenworthy (1988).
64. See reference 19.
65. Goodwin, P B (1997),
“Solving congestion (when we
must not build roads, increase
spending, lose votes, damage
the economy or harm the
environment, and will never
find equilibrium)”, Inaugural
Lecture for the Professorship
of Transport Policy, University
College, London, 23 October;
also Samuels, T (1994), “Traffic
expands to fill the available
road space: understanding
North America’s traffic
congestion crisis”, The Better
Transportation Coalition,
Toronto, Ontario, November.
66. Surface Transportation
Policy Project (1998), Three
short articles by Hank Dittmar,
Donald D T Chen and Jill Kruse,
Progress Vol VIII, No 2, March.
67. See reference 65, Goodwin
(1997).
81
road-building treadmill created by over-reliance on computer model
predictions of traffic growth needs to change. This awareness has mani-
fested itself in some basic questions being asked in cities, in particular
about the goals and modus operandi of transport planning.
What kind of city do we want in the future?
Can our urban environment sustain the predicted levels of future
traffic?
Would we not benefit more from actually reducing traffic?
Are there other options, and how do we break out of trend-based
planning?
What are the land use options for the city that will curb automobile
travel?
Can we manage demand for private transport and optimize use of
the existing road network by making strategic investments in public
transport, walking and cycling?
Can the process of the last 50 years be reversed by reducing, not
expanding, road space?
No city will be able to aspire to greater sustainability unless it
responds to the issues discussed above. This will require engagement with
communities as part of a process of envisioning the future for the city,
rather than just “predicting and providing” for more traffic. What is
needed is a new “debate and decide” process, where computer models are
used to help envision a more ecological, sustainable future for the city.
j. All decision-making is sustainability-based, integrating
social, economic, environmental and cultural considerations
as well as compact, transit-oriented urban form principles.
Such decision-making processes are democratic, inclusive,
empowering and engendering of hope
Ray Bradbury states that:(68)
“[A]t its deepest level it can be argued that sustainable development
is not a motherhood issue at all, it is a subversive issue . . . This is a
debate about how we should understand difficult things . . . It is the
Galilean dialogue of our times.”
It is not surprising then that for sustainable development to be imple-
mented, quite radical departures from normal planning and decision-
making processes in cities will be required. This is why there are many
activities in cities around the world that are establishing visions of
sustainable development and how these can be realized. The key defining
characteristics of these efforts are their engagement with diverse
“communities” or “stakeholders” that constitute any city today, and their
capacity to infuse a new sense of hope about urban futures. A handful of
the better examples are summarized here. Newman and Jennings provide
a detailed overview.(69)
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Green
Community Visioning. The USEPA provides a toolkit for “Green
Community Visioning”,(70) designed to bring together a comprehensive
range of people in a community to envision where they would like to be
in stages over 30 years. The steps in the process are: Where are we now?
Where are we going? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? Let’s
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
68. Bradbury, R H (1998),
“Sustainable development as a
subversive issue”, Nature and
Resources Vol 34, No 4, page
1, accessed at
www.tjurunga.com/thinking/pa
pers/sustain.html.
69. See reference 24.
70. www.epa.gov/greenkit
82
THE ECO-CITY
go! Smart growth principles that limit sprawl and automobile depen-
dence, and that integrate social, economic and environmental goals into
decision-making rather than just focusing on congestion relief, are central
to such visioning processes; and the process results in a vision statement
towards which all can work.
Portland, Oregon. Portland is perhaps the most successful and well-
known example in the USA of a city that has reshaped itself under a
strong vision extending as far back as the 1970s. At this time, it estab-
lished an urban growth boundary to limit sprawl, decided to build a light
rail system call Metropolitan Area Express (MAX), which opened its first
line in 1986, and scrapped a freeway that would have destroyed 3,000
homes.(71) LRT stations are now the major focus for all new growth in the
Portland region, with numerous attractive, compact, mixed-use centres
developing along an extended LRT system and new tram system in the
inner-city. Parks and green spaces have been created and property values
have risen on the back of strong population growth and company
location decisions. Portland now has a visioning process called Region
2040, a broad-based community representation process involving 44
stakeholders, who are developing a vision and strategic goals for the
region. At the heart of Portland’s growing success over many years has
been strong community engagement and empowerment through groups
such as 1,000 Friends of Oregon, who have fought for a sustainability-
based vision for their region, focused on reducing automobile depen-
dence and radically improving public transport options.
Perth, Western Australia. Perth engaged in a community visioning
process in 2003 called “Dialogue With The City”, which evolved out of a
broader state sustainability strategy involving 42 areas of government,
together with business and civil society. The human settlements part of
this strategy emphasizes innovative and efficient use of resources, less
waste output, enhanced equity and liveability, and a greater sense of place
in local communities.
Faced with a huge increase in urban sprawl and car dependence, the
state government decided to involve the community on an unprece-
dented scale to develop a future vision for Perth for 2030. The process
involved a community survey of over 1,700 households and a one-day
forum involving 1,000 participants. A critical part of the forum was a
game played by groups of ten people to plan for the expected increase in
population. Each decision taken had a flow-on effect, which was either
positive or negative. People were thus forced to confront the dilemmas
of urban planning, trading off personal lifestyle preferences with systems
effects, such as loss of bushland, traffic congestion and other impli-
cations. All the results were recorded and a final report was published.(72)
The next phase of the exercise is an action plan called “The Network
City,” which calls for around 60 per cent of new dwelling construction
to take place within existing built-up areas, to reduce car dependence and
sprawl. The process forced participants to consider the social, economic
and environmental considerations wrapped up in all urban planning, i.e.
to adopt sustainability-based thinking.
Vancouver, British Columbia. A 100-year sustainability vision for
the Vancouver region was developed by the citiesPLUS team (Planning for
Long-term Urban Sustainability), using collaborative planning and
engagement over a very short period of time. It involved government,
business, utilities, the civil sector, the research community based in
71. See reference 4, Newman
and Kenworthy (1999), pages
226–230.
72. The final report can be
found at http://www.dpi.wa.
gov.au/dialogue/finalproc.pdf
83
universities, and regional, national and international networks, and the
resulting vision won the International Competition of Sustainable Urban
Systems Design.(73) John Punter further elaborates Vancouver’s present
achievements in the sustainable cities field, involving extensive
community consultation and integrated thinking and professional
practice.(74)
Lower-income cities. Numerous examples of the success of such
sustainability-based decision-making, leadership and engagement have
emerged in cities in, for example, Asia and Latin America. The Kampung
Improvement Programme, a community-based programme in some Indo-
nesian cities such as Surabaya, shows what can be done to simultaneously
improve the social, economic and environmental conditions through
changes in housing, transport and public environments in what would
previously have been classed as slums.(75) Over many years, Curitiba has
transformed itself into something of a “model” ecological city, through
its innovative public transport system and many other integrated sustain-
ability-based projects that have engaged the community (e.g. recycling,
business development for lower-income people, food programmes, flood
control and green space expansion projects).(76) To this list can now be
added activities in Bogotá, Colombia, for its excellent bus-based public
transport system (especially the Transmilenio) and extensive improve-
ments for pedestrians and cyclists. Through its broad-based, sustainabil-
ity-oriented and socially inclusive projects in the transport field, Bogotá
is now a great source of inspiration and hope to many lower-income cities
worldwide.
III. CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this paper can be summarized in Figure 2, which concep-
tualizes and organizes the ten key dimensions into four critical “Sustain-
able Urban Form and Transport” factors, four essential factors under the
heading of “Sustainable Technologies, Economics and Urban Design” and
two “Overarching Process” dimensions related to planning and decision-
making for sustainable cities. This “model” suggests that sustainable
urban form and transport are at the core of developing an eco-city. These
factors form the shell or framework in which everything else is embedded
and must operate. Compact, mixed-use urban form is critical, along with
ensuring that the city protects and enhances its green spaces, including
natural areas and food-producing areas. The city should be strongly
centralized around well-defined higher-density centres linked to the
public transport system. These must be the focal points for population
and employment growth. Priority must be given to the development of
first-class public transport systems; walking and cycling environments
must be of exemplary quality; and road capacity increases should be
minimal in order to curb automobile dependence.
Within this framework there are four key things that need to occur.
Environmental technologies, ideally closed loop systems, need to be
applied. Economic growth needs to emphasize creativity and innovation
and to contribute to, and feed off, the growing environmental, social and
cultural amenities. The public realm throughout the city needs to be high
quality, and sustainable urban design principles need to be applied.
Finally, all these dimensions need to operate within two key processes
ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION Vol 18 No 1 April 2006
73. Itoh, S (editor) (2003),
Proposals for the International
Competition of Sustainable
Urban Systems Design: Report
of the International Gas Union
Special Project, The Institute of
Behavioural Sciences, Tokyo,
311 pages.
74. See reference 59.
75. Silas, J (1993), Surabaya:
1293–1993: A City of
Partnership, Municipal
Government of Surabaya,
Surabaya, Indonesia.
76. See reference 4, Newman
and Kenworthy (1999), pages
198–200.
84
THE ECO-CITY
that involve vision-oriented, reformist thinking (“debate and decide”)
rather than extrapolation of existing trends (“predict and provide”), and
a strong, community-oriented sustainability framework for decision-
making.
This paper makes no claim to have addressed everything that is
important within the intense complexity of urban systems, but it suggests
that ignoring these dimensions will thwart any efforts to develop sustain-
able eco-cities.
85
FIGURE 2
A conceptual model for eco-cities based on urban planning,
urban transport and urban design considerations
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