Monocentric City Research Articles

Urban Growth, Transport Planning, Air Quality and Health: A Multi-Objective Spatial Analysis Framework for a Linear Monocentric City

In this paper, we propose a multi-objective spatial analysis framework to evaluate the economic, environmental and health impacts of transport investment strategies under different urban growth scenarios. We consider a linear monocentric city (LMC) wherein residents are distributed continuously along an urban corridor and commute daily to a common destination, the central business district (CBD), represented by one end of the linear city. Two modes are available: car and rail. Users can travel from their residence to the CBD by car on a congestible highway with stochastic travel time, or by rail from the most convenient nearby station, which they reach by walking or cycling. Travellers throughout the city have a distribution of reliability preferences. Individual mode choice is determined using the notion of travel time budget surplus to take into consideration the travel time, travel time reliability and monetary cost associated with each mode. We assume users would like to minimise travel time, monetary cost, and maximise travel time reliability. The resulting formulation is a three-objective user equilibrium model (TBSmaxTUE). For the continuous monocentric city model, TBSmaxTUE can be formulated as a fixed point problem. To admit a numerical solution the continuum is discretised, allowing it to be expressed as a standard network equilibrium assignment problem. The performance of this LMC model can then be analysed against multiple objectives. We consider the economic objective to minimise total system travel time; the environmental objective to minimise total tailpipe emissions from car trips; and health objectives to minimise pollutant uptake while also maximising the level of physical activity during the journey to work.

Income segregation in monocentric and polycentric cities: Does urban form really matter?

We estimate the effect of urban spatial structure on income segregation in Brazilian cities between 2000 and 2010. Our results show that, first, local density conditions increase income segregation: the effect is higher in monocentric cities and smaller in polycentric ones. Second, the degree of monocentricity-polycentricity also affects segregation: while a higher concentration of jobs in and around the CBD decreases segregation in monocentric cities, a higher employment concentration in and around subcenters located far from the CBD decreases segregation in polycentric cities. Third, results are heterogeneous according to city size: local density does not increase segregation in small (monocentric) cities, it increases segregation in medium size cities, and it decreases segregation in large (polycentric) cities. Finally, results also differ between income groups: while local density conditions increase the segregation of the poor, a more polycentric configuration reduces the segregation of the rich.

Informal housing, spatial structure, and city compactness

AbstractThis paper develops a monocentric city model with a formal and an informal sector in the housing industry. While formal developers build houses renting land from landowners, informal developers use land for free. However, informal developers must incur defensive expenditures to avoid government intervention. In equilibrium, at any distance of the central business district (CBD), informal developers use land until the value of the marginal productivity of land equals the defensive expenditures per unit of land. The model shows the land allocated to produce short informal (tall formal) buildings increases (decreases) with distance to the CBD. Thus, the model introduces a new source of spatial variation of building height. The model also shows that a higher level of informal housing increases the spatial size of a city and reduces the height of its buildings.

Park-and-ride service design under a price-based tradable credits scheme in a linear monocentric city

This study conducts a multimodal analysis in a competitive railway/highway system along a linear traffic corridor. A price-based tradable credits scheme is introduced into the park-and-ride (P&R) design in which the credit price is determined by the government. The C-logit model is used to analyze the linear monocentric city's route choice behavior. A bi-level programming model is proposed to study the P&R location problem. The upper level minimizes the social cost by optimizing the quantity and location of P&R stations and the price-based tradable credits scheme. The lower level is to determine the equilibrium assignments on the multi-mode network. Finally, a numerical example is used to investigate the effects of the price-based tradable credits scheme, bodily congestion in transit carriages and P&R facilities' investment on social cost, traveler behavior and P&R locations. It is found that besides the price-based tradable credits scheme, bodily congestion and P&R facilities investment also have an important influence on the P&R location design and the social cost.

Analysis of multimodal two-dimensional urban system equilibrium for cordon toll pricing and bus service design

This paper presents a multimodal urban system equilibrium model to address cordon toll pricing and bus service design issues in a two-dimensional monocentric city. Commuters are assumed to travel by auto or bus from their home locations to their workplace located in the city center through a ring-radial routing system. Auto users must pay tolls when passing through the cordons installed on the radial major roads. The multimodal two-dimensional urban system equilibrium is first formulated and its properties are analytically explored. A social welfare maximization model that simultaneously determines the optimal cordon toll location, toll level, bus service frequency and fare on each radial major road is then proposed. The effects of different tolling schemes (uniform and differential cordon-based, first-best, and no toll) on the multimodal urban system are also examined and compared.

Vickrey meets Alonso: Commute scheduling and congestion in a monocentric city

This paper studies the interaction between dynamic traffic congestion and urban spatial equilibrium, using a model that is a straight unification of the Vickrey (1969) bottleneck congestion model and the Alonso (1964) monocentric city model. In a monocentric city with a bottleneck at the entrance to the CBD, residents choose their commute departure time jointly with residential location and housing consumption. Commuters arrive at the bottleneck in sequence sorted by residential location, so that more distant residents arrive later. The socially optimal toll makes central residents commute earlier in the morning than they would without the toll, which in turn induces a city that is less dense in the center and more dense further out. This is the opposite effect of what is found in models with static congestion.

Income Segregation in Monocentric and Polycentric Cities: Does Urban Form Really Matter?

We estimate the effect of urban spatial structure on income segregation in Brazilian cities between 2000 and 2010. Our results show that, first, local density conditions increase income segregation: the effect is higher in monocentric cities and smaller in polycentric ones. Second, the degree of monocentricity-polycentricity also affects segregation: while a higher concentration of jobs in and around the CBD decreases segregation in monocentric cities, a higher employment concentration in and around subcenters located far from the CBD decreases segregation in polycentric cities. Third, results are heterogeneous according to city size: local density does not increase segregation in small (monocentric) cities, it increases segregation in medium size cities, and it decreases segregation in large (polycentric) cities. Finally, results also differ between income groups: while local density conditions increase the segregation of the poor, a more polycentric configuration reduces the segregation of the rich.

Quantitative analysis of urbanization gradients: a comparative case study of two European cities

One challenge of studying how urbanization impacts ecological patterns and processes is to characterize ‘urban’ and thus evaluate and determine measures to quantify urbanization gradients. A comprehensible quantification of urbanization gradients would provide a common context allowing comparability, better generalizations and informing our quest to achieve a more sustainable urban form. We aimed to determine a set of urbanization measures useful for quantifying the urbanization gradient of two European cities (Vienna and Amsterdam) and assessed their sensitivity to scale. We also evaluated whether a common subset of measures could be identified and whether the monocentric city structure was adequate. We calculated 17 urbanization measures identified from the literature and limited by availability and comparability and used cluster and factor analysis. Although, the urbanization gradient for Vienna and Amsterdam was characterized by four clusters, their spatial structure differed as indicated by their departure from the monocentric city model. Key urbanization measures did not coincide entirely for both cities and depended on the scale of analysis. Opting for a multivariate approach instead of using solely one measure for quantifying urbanization gradients and taking into consideration scale sensitivity would allow a better representation of the urban complexity, greatly improve the accuracy of characterized gradients and advance our understanding of the ecological impacts of urbanization and cities’ potential to achieve sustainability.

The problems of formation and conservation of the green frame (green carcass) of the satellite city (on the example of Zelenodolsk)

The article is devoted to the study of the problems of formation and conservation of the green frame (green carcass) of a satellite city of a monocentric city agglomeration. Nowadays the green spaces fulfill not only ecological, but also social and economic functions. This is especially important for mono-industrial and satellite cities. Zelenodolsk is satellite city of Kazan agglomeration. This city has significant natural, geographical, industrial aspects. The article shows the possibilities of forming the green frame of the city and its socio-economic use.

Vickrey Meets Alonso: Commute Scheduling and Congestion in a Monocentric City

This paper studies the interaction between dynamic traffic congestion and urban spatial equilibrium, using a model that is a straight unification of the Vickrey (1969) bottleneck congestion model and the Alonso (1964) monocentric city model. In a monocentric city with a bottleneck at the entrance to the CBD, residents choose their commute departure time jointly with residential location and housing consumption. Commuters arrive at the bottleneck in sequence sorted by residential location, so that more distant residents arrive later. The socially optimal toll makes central residents commute earlier in the morning than they would without the toll, which in turn induces a city that is less dense in the center and more dense further out. This is the opposite effect of what is found in models with static congestion.

Does FDI Promote the Suburbanization of Chinese Cities?Empirical Evidence from the DMSP/OLS Satellite Night Light Data

Suburbanization is an inevitable phenomenon during urbanization process at home and abroad. More and more attention is also paid to suburbanization issue in China as urbanization carries on. Unfortunately, the role of FDI as an important driving force of urban renewal and new district development in configuration shape of urban space has been neglected by current literature. Based on the theoretical hypothesis of mono-centric city, this paper incorporates FDI into the analytical framework of suburbanization, constructs the suburbanization and sprawl indexes at municipal area level through global night light data, Landscan population distribution datat secondly, the promotion role of FDI in suburbanization varies with regions due to the unbalanced regional distribution of FDI; the introduction of foreign investments significantly stimulates the suburbanization development of East China, but does not have obvious effects on the suburbanization of West China and Central China. So local governments should pay additional attention to possible urban low-density sprawl resulting from FDI, and also views their own city development strategies.

Spatial Pattern of Carbon Sequestration and Urban Sustainability: Analysis of Land-Use and Carbon Emission in Guang’an, China

The state of the urban carbon cycle is an important indicator for managing fossil energy consumption and land resources and it is also a basis for the planning of urban eco-services and urban sustainable development. This paper aims to analyze the spatial distribution of the carbon cycle of the mono-centric cities, based on the von Thünen concentric ring theory, using the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs) model and an atmospheric diffusion model to assess the carbon sequestration capacity of land cover/use, to estimate carbon emissions, discuss influencing factors that determine changing trends in carbon sequestration capacity and to predict the changing law of the carbon sequestration eco-service spatial pattern based on scenario simulations. The results of this study show: (1) In Guang’an, the spatial distribution of the carbon cycle follows a concentric ring pattern. From the concentric ring pattern center, the first annular zone represents the carbon emissions, which lie at the concentric ring center; the second annular zone represents the carbon sequestration service; and the third annular zone represents stable carbon stock; (2) The structure of the concentric ring has not changed, but the spatial distribution of carbon sequestration and carbon density has changed due to fossil energy consumption and land cover/use change. From 2014 to 2016, the carbon emission zone shrunk, while the carbon sequestration service zone expanded and the carbon density increased—the increase of forest land is the main factor in the increase of carbon density; (3) The current carbon sequestration eco-service in Guang’an is not the best development condition. The planning of urban eco-service spatial patterns and land cover/use should consider the protection of cultivated and ecological areas at the same time. The results of this study can help the government implement spatial planning and regional policy interventions for land cover/use and eco-service.

The political economy of cordon tolls

This paper studies the political economy of cordon tolls in a monocentric city consisting of three zones: center, mid-city and suburbs. The cordon toll may give rise to several interrelated conflicts: between residents within and outside the cordon, between car and public transport users, between the rich and the poor and, as the toll capitalizes into rents, between landowners and renters. These conflicts drive all our results. In the short-run, we assume the population is immobile and rents are fixed. With identical individuals, the toll then increases commuting costs only for those outside the cordon. Unless residents within the cordon are the majority, the equilibrium toll resulting from the political process is below the optimal level. Allowing for heterogeneous values of time, rich car commuters prefer a toll higher than socially optimal but, unless access costs to public transit are small, the poor majority prefers a toll below the optimum. When the toll capitalizes into land rents within the cordon, we show that only voters owning land in the center support it. In all scenarios, earmarking revenues for public transport mitigates the effect of the toll on commuting costs, raising voter support. Finally, we find that it is easier to get support for a cordon close to the center than for one further out in the suburbs. We illustrate our results using a calibrated model based on data for Milan.

Pareto-improving policies for an idealized two-zone city served by two congestible modes

We study urban structure and traffic congestion of a monocentric city by idealizing its suburb and its core as two zones and then exploring what would happen when they are connected by a congestible highway and a crowded railway system. We introduce dynamic congestion effect into commuters’ departure-time and mode choice behaviours, and analyse the endogenous interactions between their travel and residential relocation choices. Studies ignoring dynamic departure-time behaviour show an ambiguous effect of transit improvements to the city. However, we find that transit improvement has a definitive impact on city structure: it increases the residents’ equilibrium utility, at a cost of increased suburb land use. We show that it is possible to design Pareto-improving land-use and transit policies which benefit the residents without causing urban sprawl. We provide analytically the existence conditions of such policies and suggest that a high return of land use tax to subsidize transit improvement is required.

Land Use Policies for Biodiversity

Some wildlife creatures, such as carnivores, disease-carrying mosquitoes, and virus, encroach into a city and harm human lives, but they are important for biodiversity. This paper studies land use policies for biodiversity conservation as well as protection of human lives in a continuous monocentric city adjacent to natural habitats with three species forming a food chain. We analytically characterize the second-best optimal policies, where governments provide animal traps within the city, and control the city size and plant densities. The main findings are that (i) the second-best optimal city size can be larger or smaller than the laissez-faire equilibrium city size, unlike Eichner and Pethig (2006); (ii) a set of second-best policies can achieve more than 90% of the first-best welfare gain.

Uneven dispersion or adaptive polycentrism? Urban expansion, population dynamics and employment growth in an ‘ordinary’ city

Compact and mono-centric cities in southern Europe have recently experienced a chaotic expansion, in partial contrast with the spatially-balanced development typical of western European cities. Our study investigates long-term changes (1951–2011) in the spatial structure of Naples – a representative example of compact cities grown through sequential urbanization waves – discussing the weakness of its actual metropolitan organization, considered spatially-unbalanced and with a limited potential to growth. Changes over time in the spatial distribution of three variables at the municipal scale (resident population, total workers, employees in industry and services) were analyzed with the aim to identify deviations from a mono-centric growth model. Descriptive statistics and maps, non-parametric correlations and principal component analysis were used to assess spatio-temporal trends in Naples’ expansion over different economic cycles with the final objective to discriminate ‘residential suburbanization’ from a polycentric development based on the consolidation of ‘employment sub-centres’. The Naples’ metropolitan region was characterized by persistent divides between urban and suburban areas, with downtown Naples concentrating a relevant share of jobs in the metropolitan region. Resident population increased more than employment in the majority of fringe municipalities, reflecting population dispersion and residential suburbanization without employment growth. These evidences suggest that policies promoting a spatially-balanced regional development were substantially ineffective in Naples. Partial failure of a polycentric development strategy is common to other socioeconomic contexts experiencing similar urbanization processes. Reconnecting regional economic dynamics with local patterns of urban growth allows an in-depth understanding of present and future trends in Mediterranean urbanization.

Measuring Central Human Capabilities in Transport As a Complementary Method for Appraising Transport Projects in the Context of Santiago De Chile

Background Social impact assessment in transport has been usually based on the understanding of changes in physical accessibility, casualties and security. However, looking for more complex factors for measuring the quality of trips from the users’ perspective has been increasingly necessary to improve their quality life in the long term. In this regard, personal preferences of users regarding issues of comfort, personal safety, physical wellbeing and health have not been fully accomplished. This paper suggest that Capability Approach (CA) (Sen, 1985; 2009; Nussbaum, 2011; 2013) has the potential to offer a much wider perspective on the social dimensions of equity, based not only on the access to resources or people's possessions, but also in the opportunities and freedoms that people have. However, the use of a quantitative approach (e.g. surveys and questionnaires) as a valid method for measuring CA still remains as an open question. The aim of this paper is to suggest the use of a capability survey as a valid starting point for a more comprehensive social assessment of transport projects. Methods The strategy for collecting the surveys was defined considering both residence and destination areas in Santiago de Chile, comparing areas with a mixture of income levels and accessibility to transport modes. Collection strategies in residence areas were related to the main local activities: (a) neighbourhood community centres; (b) primary and high schools (educational equipment); and (c) sociocultural hubs in local areas. Santiago as a monocentric city allows defining the destination areas in a very constricted area of three communes. In these areas, the survey was implemented in sectors with greater provision of offices, services and high educational centres. Results The survey will reflect the applicability of some of the variables defined in the list of Central Human Capabilities (Nussbaum, 2011, 2013) specifically in relation to Physical and Mental Health Integrity, as well as concepts related to Senses and Emotions in transport. Conclusions It is suggested that those factors will impact user's propensity for taking certain transport modes in addition to the built environment and socio-cultural factors. The paper is focused on the development of an applicable approach, measuring factors from the CA to be included as a complementary method for appraising transport projects.

Bottleneck congestion and residential location of heterogeneous commuters

This study examines the effects of bottleneck congestion and an optimal time-varying congestion toll on the spatial structure of cities. We develop a model in which heterogeneous commuters choose departure times from home and residential locations in a monocentric city with a bottleneck located between a central downtown and an adjacent suburb. We then demonstrate that commuters sort themselves temporally and spatially on the basis of their value of travel time and their flexibility. Furthermore, we reveal that introducing an optimal congestion toll alters the urban spatial structure, which contrasts with the previous literature. We further demonstrate through an example that congestion tolling can cause the city to physically expand outward, which helps rich commuters but hurts poor commuters.

Does urban centrality influence residential prices? An analysis for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area

DOI: 10.7764/RDLC.16.1.57 The bid rent theory (BRT), originally conceived for a monocentric city suggests a trade-off between land value and transport costs. Thus, in most of the practical applications, the simply distance/time/cost to the CBD is used as a proxy of accessibility. Nonetheless, in contemporary metropolises, employment and services do not cluster in one CBD but in many centers, furthermore the centrality quality does not follow a smooth gradient as distance to centers increases. Consequently, taking the distance/time/cost to centers in the context or hedonic models is problematic for collinearity issues and too simplistic since it directly assumes a smoothed gradient function. In this paper we test in Barcelona Metropolitan Area, a very well recognized polycentric city, whether some continuous indicators of centrality are key determinants of housing prices. Using listing prices, a hedonic model is built, and the asking price is regressed over two continuous indicators of centrality, one of them calculated departing of the spatial-temporal behavior of people, which itself is a novelty in this kind of studies. The results suggest that continuous centrality indicators do exert a moderate influence on housing prices after controlling for other structural and locative attributes. Nevertheless, the main determinants of prices are related to the socioeconomic stratification not accessibility as suggested by BRT. Energy class appears also as a factor influencing dwellings’ price.

Amenities and the Social Structure of Cities

We develop a new model of a featureful city in which locations are differentiated by two attributes, that is, the distance to employment centers and the accessibility to given amenities, and we show how heterogeneous households in income are sorted out across the urban space. Under Stone-Geary preferences, the spatial income distribution is governed by a location-quality index which reflects the interaction between the amenity and commuting cost functions. The residential equilibrium typically involves the spatial separation of households sharing similar incomes. Using data on Dutch cities, we show that there is a causal relationship between the amenity level and consumer income, suggesting that richer households sort themselves into high amenity locations. We do not find strong evidence that employment accessibility leads to income segregation, suggesting that the standard monocentric city model without amenities is a poor predictor of the social structure of cities.