Indicators of urban form and sustainable urban transport: Introducing simulation-based indicators for the LUISA modelling platform

Abstract

Sustainable urban transport is a key objective of European Commission policies and often an integral part of debates on good and bad urban form. Because of the expected relation between sustainable transport and urban form, indicators that communicate transport sustainability impacts have repeatedly been requested for the LUISA modelling platform. This report presents three novel indicators that may shed some light on potential transport sustainability impacts of modelled future urbanization patterns. These indicators are: 1) A measure that indicates for every inhabited 1 km grid cell in Europe the average Euclidean distance travelled for social visits, given a number of assumptions and methodological limitations; 2) A measure that indicates how many vehicle kilometres are travelled in any road-carrying grid cell in Europe; and 3) A measure that indicates to what degree the population distribution in a city is supportive for an effective public transport system. Because of methodological limitations and data availability all presented indicators are based on simulation exercises that take into account only fine resolution population distributions and transport supply. Thus these indicators can give insight into the degree in which management of urban growth may encourage sustainable transport. The report presents the indicators at hand and some first results in which the emphasis is put on differences between European cities. The report’s conclusions reflect on the usefulness of the indicators for policy evaluations, and on research that will have to be done in the future.