Occupation of the Territory and Sustainability in Transport in Madrid

Abstract

The use of private car plays a fundamental role in the GHG. This work analyzes the effect that the changes in the model of land occupation, in the last two decades in the Community of Madrid, have had on mobility. It has produced a high consumption of land in the last two decades, in an increasingly peripheral way, in increasingly distant nuclei and explained in part by the increase of single-family housing. These growths, functionally specialized, have been supported in the network of radial roads, losing density, diversity and the compact model of the Mediterranean city. At the same time, it is verified the relocation of the industry and the set of increasingly peripheral and unconnected employment to the residential space, together with the change in the labor model and the scarce residential mobility, the product of a model of housing in property, it generate an increase of the mobility due to work. The appearance of shopping centers once more peripheral, based on the road network and unrelated to the residence, leads to an increase in private vehicle travel due to the impossibility of providing support with public transport. These changes have resulted in an increase in private vehicle travel, with a clear loss of the percentage in public transport, which contributes significantly to the generation of GHGs and thus to climate change, as well as a high energy consumption. Therefore, the land occupation model has a clear effect on the mobility of the metropolitan area, requiring coordination between the urban model and the transportation model that leads to a more balanced region.