Constructing urban life : a study of automobile dependency in 148 mid-size U.S. cities.

Abstract

DEDICATIONThis research, the culmination of eight years of study, I dedicate to my wife, Olga.I would not have even started it, if it were not for you. I also dedicate this to our daughter, Paulina, who already prefers to walk to the coffee shop: Cars are indeed "yucky." Automobile-dependent sprawl remains the dominant urban development paradigm in the United States. One reason for this is that the automobile is assumed to be more beneficial to the local economy than it is detrimental to society. Both sides of this assumption are wrong. First, local economies do not benefit much from automobile dependency. On the contrary, multimodal cities have lower unemployment, higher wages for African-Americans, and more efficient property markets. In addition, while it is true that multimodality means slightly higher taxes, the total value of living in multimodal cities far surpasses automobile-dependent cities with a massively improved quality of life. Second, while automobile-dependent cities have been shown to foster obesity, the full range and intensity of automobile dependency's health impact has been grossly understated. This research provides compelling evidence that multimodal cities not only have lower rates of obesity, but also better overall health, and significantly lower rates of premature death. Urban research has much to blame for this misunderstanding: How we look at problems largely shapes the answers we generate. By distinguishing between the independent effects of sprawl and automobile dependency, and by using municipalities vi themselves instead of massive urbanized regions, this research more accurately assesses the full range and depth of the benefits of transportation multimodality.vii

Urban transport in world metropolises: A comparative analysis and key features of energy consumption

“…Automobile dependency is largely a consequence of public policy, namely, transport and spatial planning measures that have consistently favored car use and encouraged spatial expansion. At the same time, it has been completely neglected that traffic problems, such as congestion, cannot be solved solely by the construction of new urban roads, which again stimulates even more rapid growth of private mobility and intensification of dispersed spatial development (Frederick, 2016;Geels et al, 2012;Kakar and Prasad, 2020;Kasraian et al, 2016;Kenworthy, 2017;Litman, 2004: Litman, 2007OECD, 2018). , 1960, , 1970, , 1980, , 1990, , 1995 adapted according to Kenworthy and Laube, 2001;Kenworthy and Newman, 1989;Newman and Kenworthy, 2015) of public urban transport has significantly contributed to the development of European metropolises in a 'more sustainable' way...".…”