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

摘要

Automobile dependence, expressed through comparative levels of carownership and use and transit service and use, varies widely andsystematically across a large sample of international cities. UScities exhibit the most extreme dependence on the automobile,followed by Australian and Canadian cities, with European and Asiancities having very much more transit-oriented cities with greaterlevels of walking and cycling. These patterns are not stronglyrelated to differences in wealth between cities, but do vary in aclear and systematic way with land use patterns. The total fixed andvariable cost of cars per kilometre is also significantly related tothe degree of automobile dependence in cities, though not as stronglyas land use. The data suggest that the most auto-dependent cities areless wealthy than some other more transit-oriented cities. They havethe worst operating cost recovery in transit, have far higher roadconstruction and maintenance costs, spend the highest proportion oftheir wealth on passenger transportation but have roughly similarjourney-to-work trip times and much longer trip lengths. Thesepatterns suggest some important policy implications which stress theneed to strategically reshape urban land use, to emphasise investmentin non-auto infrastructure and to ensure that any physical planningstrategies aimed at reducing automobile dependence work in concertwith economic policies directed at increasing the real cost of bothcar ownership and car use.