[sustran] forwarded question on land devoted to transport

Paul Barter tkpb at barter.pc.my
Sat Sep 13 17:56:40 JST 1997


This question appeared on another list, so if you reply to this list please
cc to the original author (Stephen Marshall) as I am doing, so that he gets
the benefit of your wisdom.

>Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 11:31:35 +0100
>    To: urban-regional-planning at mailbase.ac.uk
>    From: stephen marshall <ucftsma at ucl.ac.uk>
>    Subject: Proportion of land used by transport - request
>    Reply-To: stephen marshall <ucftsma at ucl.ac.uk>
>
>
>    Proportion of land used by transport
>    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>    "Cumulative figures show that, worldwide, at least one third of all
>    developed urban land is devoted to roads, parking lots, and other motor
>    vehicle infrastructure.  In the urban United States, the automobile
>consumes
>    close to half the land area of cities; in Los Angeles the figure approaches
>    two thirds" - Southworth & Ben-Joseph (1997): Streets and the Shaping of
>    Towns and Cities
>
>    I am interested if anyone knows of any other similar statistics, or sources
>    of statistics, on this theme, including the following variants:
>    - land devoted to all 'transport' infrastructure (including rail lines,
>    yards etc)
>    - land devoted to all space for movement including dedicated 'pedestrian'
>    space and other public space
>    - figures for other countries
>    - figures for other cities
>
>    I will compile and send out a summary of findings if the responses are
>    sufficient.
>
>    Thank you.
>    Stephen Marshall
>
>    Bartlett School of Planning
>    Wates House
>    22 Gordon Street
>    London WC1H 0QB
>    UNITED KINGDOM
>    Tel:  +44 (0)171 387 7050 Ext 4885
>    Fax: +44 (0)171 380 7502

My comment:   Information on the area taken by transport is very powerful
as it focuses attention on an important but neglected impact of the private
car - namely its voracious appetite for urban space.  It is especially good
if the data includes parking and all transport related land-use as the item
above asks for.   BUT great care is needed in calculating these figures.

One common problem is that some people divide by the total area in the
relevant jurisdiction.  This is invalid because it may include a large
amount of agricultural and other non-urban land.   One must divide by the
urbanised area only.  The Bangkok example below is for the more restricted
concept of road area as a percentage of urban area (ie. not including
parking space, etc.) but the same caution would apply to the more
comprehensive measures.

This is one reason that we hear very widely varying figures for Bangkok for
example. I have seen figures ranging from about 6% to 11% of Bangkok's area
is devoted to roads.   The lower end figures come from using total area and
often seriously underestimate the true figure.  Such figures are often used
to justify claims that only a huge road building programme will solve
Bangkok's problems....  The higher end figures come from using only the
urbanised area (which would in turn probably be a slight overestimate since
some of the road area in the calculation would be roads that pass through
non-urban parts of the jurisdiction).   The higher end figures reveal that
Bangkok is not much less endowed with roads that cities such as Paris
(11%), Hong Kong (12%), Munich (13%), Tokyo (13%). (see Kenworthy, et al.
1995.  "Is Increasing Automobile dependence Inevitable in Booming
Economies?"  IATSS Research, Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 63).


A. Rahman Paul Barter
<tkpb at barter.pc.my>

The Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific (SUSTRAN)
is dedicated to promoting transport policies and investments which foster
accessibility for all; social equity; ecological sustainability; health and
safety; public participation; and high quality of life.



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