Resources
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Chapter 1: The dilemma of mobility
Nicholas Low and Kevin O’Connor
Transforming Transport confronts head on the dilemma faced by a world wedded to mobility: the danger of continuing along the fossil-fuelled transport path and the real difficulty of replacing private vehicle solutions in time to avoid dangerous climate change. There are major barriers to change, and it takes time and strategy to overcome them. But there are also solutions and ways forward, some of which we explore in the chapters to follow. It is the purpose of this chapter to sketch out the argument of the book.
We see the same cities cited again and again as evidence of change, and as models of good practice – for example, Portland, Vancouver, Curitiba, Zürich, Freiburg, Copenhagen, and sometimes Seoul and Singapore – yet none of the transport systems even of these cities can measure up to a rigorous analysis as ‘sustainable’. And the vast bulk of cities and new urban development worldwide remains determined by the paradigm of automobility. Even the impoverished nation of Pakistan is building roads and flyovers to accommodate the tiny minority of aspiring motorists. The dilemma is so profound and the roots of unsustainable transport run so deep that both urgency and a degree of pessimism are warranted if we are to view the problem of change in its true light.
Chapter 2: The mobility of goods and people
Kevin O’Connor
One of the predominant features of our current economy and society is the level of mobility of its people, goods and information. Economic, social and cultural patterns are intimately linked to this mobility, which can be seen in the location and type of transport infrastructure, and in patterns of economic activity, housing and associated social and community facilities in cities. This chapter explores this perspective via an emphasis on the way the economic dimensions of transport are expressed in city development. It illustrates that mobility, facilitated by a diverse transport system, is an essential part of our economic context. In turn, that means that plans to transform transport by changing mobility by mode, by distance travelled and/or frequency of movement, need to recognize this economic context and the infrastructure and transport services it entails.
Chapter 3: The global environmental crisis of transport
Patrick Moriarty
Vehicular road travel is now in its second century. From almost zero vehicles on the world’s roads in 1910, total vehicle numbers – those with four or more wheels – had grown to 1,003 million in 2007, of which 823 million – including sports utility vehicles in the US – were passenger vehicles. By 2030, OPEC expects total vehicles to number over 1,700 million, including 1,370 million cars. US transport researchers Daniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon also foresee similar vehicle numbers in 2030.
There is little doubt that such figures reflect the intentions of both the governments and citizens of the world, as discussed in Chapter 1. Populous countries like China and India, which presently have very low car ownership, wish to move to high-mobility societies, based on high ownership levels of locally manufactured vehicles. Given that most of the world’s population still live in countries with fewer than 25 cars per thousand population, compared with more than 400 per thousand in OECD countries, there appears to be plenty of room for growth.
Chapter 4: From automobility to sustainable transport
Nicholas Low
The problem for future urban transport emerges very clearly. It is a global dilemma, and unless the global perspective is maintained the dilemma will not be resolved. The problem is global not only in the trivial sense that it occurs all over the world, but because the economic and ecological systems that ultimately make mobility possible are globally interlocking. For instance, it is no use imagining that electric cars will be a sustainable transport solution if –once taken up by the world economy, and especially by the emerging superpowers of China and India – it is found that there are not enough mineral resources available to build batteries for the world fleet. Nor is an electric – or hydrogen – solution sustainable if the power to generate the electricity or hydrogen is made by fossil fuels. So the first step in re-visioning urban transport must be to understand the fundamental problem as we have described it in the foregoing chapters of this book. The next step is to create an embracing vision of sustainable transport for the future that offers the hope of addressing the problem and resolving the dilemma. Before considering the dimensions of such a vision, however, we will review the vision we must leave behind, the vision which is still driving urban transport today along what we can now see is a road to perdition: automobility.
The chapter moves from the vision of automobility to that of sustainable transport. The idea of ‘sustainability’ is discussed, rigorous principles are set out as a guide to the necessary action, and the practices that work towards those principles are described.
4.1 Public transport: Document 4.1.1
4.1 Public Transport: Image gallery
4.2 Walking: Image gallery
4.3 Cycling: Image Gallery
Chapter 5: Capitalist regulation and the provision of public transportation in Japan
Fujio Mizuoka
In the preceding chapter a vision of sustainable transport was outlined. One major obstacle to its adoption worldwide was said to be the global regime of neo-liberal capitalism itself. In this chapter we explore changes in capitalism in the context of Japan, the barriers this context creates for public transportation, and how these barriers have been overcome at times by concerted public action. A form of Marxist analysis is employed which went out of favour for a time, with the apparent success of neo-liberal deregulation in the 1990s and its triumph at the collapse of Soviet communism, but which is appropriate in the context of the ongoing economic crisis.
The classes and groups constituting society commonly share the same built environment, thus generating a common interest and physical ground for a class alliance. An efficient, user-friendly and socially accepted system of public transportation is thus in the joint interest of business owners and commuting labour, both of which groups need a trouble-free and efficient physical infrastructure to support labour markets, while maintaining the domination by business owners over labour. To achieve such an outcome requires sophisticated politico-economic arbitration and struggle.
In analysing transportation within this socio-economic perspective, therefore, we introduce a conceptual frame of reference that integrates economic and political processes and resultant social structures. It is the theory of capitalist regulation. In order to substantiate the author’s argument, the empirical focus of this chapter is given to public transportation in Japan – a necessity for urban mobility in that country’s densely populated urban world.
Chapter 6: Institutional barriers and opportunities
Sophie Sturup, Nicholas Low, Julie Rudner, Courtney Babb, Crystal Legacy and Carey Curtis
If conceptions of how capitalism as a global system is regulated constrain change at a macro level, more local structures, cultures and competing ides about the ordering of society also influence the development of policy, creating diversity in national and even city regulatory regimes within the broadly neo-liberal framework of ideas. How this diversity in local regimes is generated and maintained in the face of the universalizing processes of neo-liberalism can be explained in a number of ways: local path dependencies, professional cultures, definitions of problems, opportunities and risks.
The continuity of public policy from one political administration to the next is something most people take for granted. Root and branch change of policy with each change of government would be chaotic, if it were not also impossible. So continuity need not be seen as necessarily a policy failure. Rather this continuity turns into policy failure when the path of policy development becomes inconsistent with the long-term public interest, or when that which is holding matters stable becomes a barrier to publicly desired change. The task of change suggested in Chapter 4 therefore involves a path transition, which not only generates new policies, but challenges those structures which prevent adaptation to new external circumstances – for example, climate change. This task requires an understanding of what holds us to our current path, recognizing opportunities and turning points when they present themselves, and redirecting us to new destinations.
This chapter commences with an analysis of the evidence for path dependence in transport policy using case studies from Australian cities (Low and Astle, 2009; Curtis and Low, 2012). The second section is concerned with forms of action and thought that are constrained by the ‘art of government’ in play in particular situations. The limitations imposed by specific arts of government are considered through an investigation of mega urban transport projects (Dean, 1999). The third section concerns limitations on the governmental and community capacity to select new pathways imposed by conceptions of risk. Finally we consider governmental capacity to implement policy in terms of negotiations with the public and between agencies and levels.
Chapter 7: Governing dispersed and concentrated cities
Leigh Glover, Sun Sheng Han, Haixiao Pan and John Stone
The cities of the Asia-Pacific region demonstrate extremes of social geography, with the very high-density, high-rise cities of, for instance, Singapore and Shanghai, and the low-density, low-rise cities of Australia and New Zealand. Governance systems also vary widely, offering different barriers to and opportunities for sustainable transport. Australian and New Zealand urbanism is most often discussed in relation either to European or North American models. But increasingly delegations from China and other Asian countries are visiting Australia and asking what they can learn from the experience of Australian transport planning. And conversely, high population growth in Australia’s major cities has seen its urban planners question the efficacy of car-based suburban growth and look towards Asia for alternative models of development and planning in transport and land use. With an urban population expected to grow rapidly over the next 20 years. Australians are also asking what can be learned from the experience of high-density Asian cities.
In this chapter we compare experiences from Singapore and Shanghai on the one hand, and Melbourne and Perth on the other. In keeping with the integrative philosophy of the book, we find that comparing unlike examples leads to new insights, as the Woodcock study has found in comparing London and Delhi (Woodcock et al., 2009). With a common aim – that of reducing carbon emissions from transport – policies have to be designed that are fitted to widely varying local social and governmental circumstances. Global solutions, such as increasing density to reduce fossil fuel consumption as initially derived from the work of Newman and Kenworthy (1989) have been seriously challenged (Troy, 1996; Mees, 2010). Yet it is clear that the relationship between land use patterns and transport systems has a significant role to play in moving towards sustainable transport, requiring the integrated management of these two policy domains in ‘transit oriented development’ (Curtis, Renne and Bertolini, 2009). Here we turn our attention to a range of sustainable transport problems and issues and examine a variety of public policy responses.
Chapter 8: Action strategies for paradigm change
John Stone and Crystal Legacy
In this chapter, we explore the means by which some urban regions have been able to make a break from the typical trajectory of auto-dependence. The difficulties inherent in making such a move are clear: in only a handful of locations can one find good evidence of conscious change in urban transport policy that has achieved firm progress towards sustainable transport. However, such success stories do exist and case studies of both ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in urban transport planning can be used to identify some ‘action strategies’ for paradigm change. And, to allow generalizations from these case studies, modern theoretical insights into the role of local politics and the institutional context of public policy help to build a bridge between the understandings of the systemic forces for and against change that were described in Chapter 5 and the experiences of local actors.
Image gallery
Chapter 9: New analysis for a new synthesis
Matt Burke, Carey Curtis and John Stone
As we argued in Chapter 1, dealing with transport problems leads us to traverse the multiple dimensions of theory, policy, process and applications, including the area of technical assessment. The problems of assessment are significant, with many of the practice technologies in use contributing to the stubborn inertia of automobility. We discussed in Chapter 4 some of the issues surrounding technical analysis, focussing on how the problem of ‘congestion’ has come to be construed, and the technological obsession with measurement and valuation of time allegedly saved by construction of road infrastructure. As we argued in that chapter, however, there is a strong institutional interest in broadening the scope of transport assessment towards questions of equity, access, oil vulnerability, climate change and other emergent concerns.
This chapter explains a new set of practice technologies designed to assist planners and decision makers when confronted with complex transport problems flowing from the dilemma of mobility. The first of these (SNAMUTS) introduces concepts of ‘place’ and ‘node’ using a GIS (geographic information systems) technique to model the incidence of both places and nodes. The model demonstrates both network accessibility and opportunities for place-based development, and thus models the potential of different urban structures to deliver transport accessibility. The second models transport patterns via census data – i.e. the jobs-housing balance – assessing public transport and walking accessibility, and quantifying carbon and oil vulnerability impacts (MULUTT). The third applies concepts of public transport network analysis to show how an effective public transport system can be delivered to low-density suburban environments.
Chapter 10: Harnessing the energy of free range children
Carolyn Whitzman
Children are the transport users and decision makers of the future. The decline in children’s autonomous exploration of public space has had disastrous consequences, for their health and also for community wellbeing. Conversely, taking a child’s-eye view in making our communities safe, accessible, and welcoming may well improve outcomes for all. This chapter outlines a ‘children’s right to the city’ approach to urban planning policies and practices that can encourage children’s autonomous walking, cycling and public transport use in their neighbourhoods and cities.
This chapter takes a slightly different approach from that of the other chapters in this book. It focuses on one particular stream of the GAMUT research – ‘institutional barriers and enablers to children’s independent mobility’ – and on one particular population group: children, particularly those aged 6 to 12, in primary school.
Chapter 11: Disseminating learning
Marcus Wigan and Crystal Legacy
Central to achieving sustainable transport are the processes of dissemination of learning and engagement with the public necessary to generate the motive force to transform transport. Dissemination has usually been considered to be a task undertaken at the end of a project, and to be one where materials, usually printed, are made available some time after the completion of the projects involved. This model of dissemination was deemed to be insufficient for the GAMUT initiative, which included both the classical dissemination methods and a more active and engaging process contemporaneous with research, with fewer barriers to access the broader knowledge gained. This chapter addresses the theoretical and practical aspects of dissemination processes as an intrinsic part of the development and execution of the GAMUT project.
Chapter 12: Conclusion: dimensions of change
Nicholas Low
In this book we have tried to present future urban transport as a global, long-term, multi-dimensional problem. From wherever we stand on this planet it is today necessary to maintain this global, long-term perspective.
The GAMUT research project on which the book is based adopted this perspective, and the result is a patchwork effort at best, with many pieces of the patchwork missing. The purpose of this chapter is to step back and look at some patterns in the patchwork. First the chapter shows how the different conceptual and theoretical approaches are woven together and related in order to reflect on the dilemma of mobility. Second, the chapter reviews the different levels and domains in which the mobility dilemma and transport problem has been understood and investigated in this book: at global and city levels, and within technical, institutional and cultural domains. Third, different experiences are revealed of governance and management of transport in the East Asia-Pacific region and areas of potential common learning. Finally, the chapter brings together the solutions proposed to the dilemma of mobility, suggesting lessons for future governance of transport in different contexts, and reflecting on future research questions.
Resources
Image Gallery
Chapter 4
(NB All photographs are taken by Nicholas Low. For reasons of confidentiality, without their express permission it is not possible to publish images of persons who can be identified. This condition leads to the somewhat depopulated look of some images)