Policies designed to halt activity dispersal, reduce car dependence, and meet sustainability targets

Simon Edwards and Mike Bell, Transport Operations Research Group, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne

Abstract

For much of the 20th Century UK planners and policy-makers have rejected the compact city and have sought to provide space for living and other activities by means of decentralisation. This paper outlines that philosophy and investigates the ever growing opinion that it is flawed for environmental reasons (the UK transport white paper (DETR 1998a) for example states that: the “overall approach to planning is aimed at containing the dispersal of development, so reducing the need to travel and improving access to jobs, leisure and services”). It then looks at policy methods by which:

the need to travel (particularly by private car) may be reduced; and,
activity location may be influenced.

A system dynamics model of an urban area is constructed to investigate the long term effects of implementing policies aimed at restricting travel (such as a cordon toll) on allocation of population and employment, the aim being to see whether decentralisation trends may be influenced in line with current thinking regarding regeneration and revitalisation of central urban areas, and protection of the green belt. The premise is that management of private travel demand and control over activity location using such policies has positive implications for indicators of sustainability such as urban vitality, land-take, energy usage and pollutant emissions.