Urban Planning and Transport Paradigm Shifts for Cities of the Post-Petroleum Age

Abstract

Urban transportation systems are very dependent on oil, and thus vulnerable to potential shortages and price increases. This paper examines data on 58 cities in developed countries and 26 cities in developing countries in order to explore the range of urban transportation and land-use patterns in the world today, understand the resulting transportation energy consumption patterns, and isolate the key factors that underpin these patterns. The findings suggest that cities vary considerably in their transportation patterns, energy use, infrastructure systems and urban forms. Significant factors in understanding transportation and energy use patterns include low-density land uses, building freeways instead of speed-competitive transit systems, and treating congestion as a malady to be eradicated. Many cities are responding to the need to reduce automobile dependence through changes in transportation policies that are generating attractive and well-utilized transit systems. Significant and positive changes in land use around these systems are also occurring.