Transport, Land Use and Energy Interaction

Abstract

An analysis of data from London and Paris, using directly comparable methods of expressing all results in terms of distance from the centre, is undertaken of the following variables: population density, mean household income, car ownership, median daily travel time per traveller, and energy consumption. It is argued that the results demonstrate that population density and public transport provision are far less important influences on energy consumption than car ownership, and that it follows that economising energy consumed per car is far more important than policies concerned with decentralisation or public transport service levels. The importance of the rail network in setting road network speeds is also noted.