The connection between city form and transport emissions: an empirical analysis

Abstract

During recent years, approaches ranging from preventive medicine to carbon emission cut have shed critical light on our car-dependant societies and pointed out a need for focusing on non-motorised transportation. This work is based on a research project related to future development of the Brøset-area in the city of Trondheim, Norway, and presents methods of analyses as well as results concerning urban form correlates of daily travel, particularly focusing on walking and biking. Further on, by using combined space syntax methods and GIS within the frame of the Place Syntax software, it illustrates how complex aspects of urban form such as peoples accessibility to daily destination can be analysed and made operational to real planning and design. This analysis is carrying out with a statistical modelling looking for correlations between daily travels to work of 1000 peoples in Trondheim and a set of urban form variables that according to recent research should be decisive to daily travel behaviour. Thanks to extensive surveys provided by the local authorities of Trondheim, socio-economic and others confounding factors are also taken into account. According to our statistical analysis, some of them such as employment and population around home and maximal spatial integration at work location are very significant to explain daily travel to work habits. Furthermore, the statistical analysis indicate that axial steps are the parameter that best correlates short distances (to the closest daily destination) to daily travel to work habits; far better than metric distance or distance computed as metric distance multiplied by axial steps distance. Axial steps are also revealed as essential component for origin and destination areas description. Finally, our statistical analysis shows that the space syntax and Place Syntax analyses not only correlate to choice of travel routes but also explain choice of travel modes, which is a step further toward sustainable planning.