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The Theory of Urban Fabrics:

Understanding the End of Automobile Dependence

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Book cover The End of Automobile Dependence

Abstract

Cities are shaped by many historical and geographical features, but at any stage in a city’s history the patterns of land use can be changed by altering its transportation priorities. An understanding of how cities work, based on walking, transit, and automobile fabrics, will therefore enable a more fundamental understanding of the rise and fall of automobile dependence. In this chapter we show how different urban fabrics have developed from different transport types and how they should be recognized, respected, and regenerated as the basis of town planning. In doing so we will find a way to understand automobile dependence and how it can be shaped into a more sustainable and regenerative approach to cities. In particular, the theory will help us to explain why it appears that walking and transit fabrics are now valued more highly—economically, socially, and environmentally—than automobile fabric, and how to manage each fabric more appropriately.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The actual figure is closer to 1.1 hours per day.

  2. 2.

    Trams were initially horse-drawn; then some systems operated on steam, either with small steam locomotives or with a steam engine at the end of the line pulling the tram along by cables. All tram systems ended up being powered by electricity, as did most of the train systems, apart from those that continued to operate on diesel power.

  3. 3.

    The Athens conference of CIAM in the 1930s, led by Le Corbusier, produced the concept of the Functional City, with land use (for living, working, and recreation) separated from transport as a different function. This set the scene for postwar automobile-based planning, with suburbs placed where only automobiles and secondary buses could service them.

  4. 4.

    See: Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2014, Canada Edition (Online), Urban Land Institute, 2014, pwc.com/en_CA/ca/real-estate/publications/pwc-emerging-trends -in-real-estate-2014-en.pdf (Accessed 28 Feb 2015); see also: Emily McWilliams, “Toronto skyline’s ‘absolute transformation’ captured by two photos taken 13 years apart,” National Post (Online), 17 Jan 2015, news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/17/toronto-skylines-absolute-transformation-captured-by-two-photos-taken-13-years -apart/ (Accessed 28 Feb 2015).

  5. 5.

    It would also have gone unnoticed were it not for the kind of comprehensive longitudinal urban data sets collected by us over the last 35 years and highlighted in chapter 2.

  6. 6.

    It should be noted that both car and transit speeds are based upon curb-to-curb or “in-vehicle” travel times, not door-to-door travel times. In this sense the relative speed between public transit and cars may be overstated for some trips and understated for others. Higher urban density can do much to shorten access distances and the time required before a transit vehicle can be boarded. In addition, waiting times can be very much reduced where public transit frequencies are very high, such as in Japanese subway systems where peak-period headways can be as short as 90 seconds, or even in, for example, the Skytrain in Vancouver, where peak frequencies along significant sections are two to four minutes. Likewise, cars are not without access times, depending on the nature of the origin and destination of the trip and where parking is to be found. As a rule, public transit is most competitive in speed for trips to centers or major events, which act as temporary centers. In these situations, parking is generally most limited and therefore is least convenient for car users, due to cost and also the walking distance from a car park to a final destination.

  7. 7.

    Note that the data in table 4.4 represent the same city pairs within each year group. From 1960 to 2005 the amount of data increased considerably, so there is a general increase across the table in the number of cities involved in each year.

  8. 8.

    The data also highlight the fact that it is bus systems (as well as tram and LRT systems that are not operating on dedicated rights-of-way) that are dragging down the speed performance of public transit. However, it must also be recognized that buses operate in nearly all cities under intolerable congestion levels that are permitted to continue by not controlling congestion through economic and physical means. It is not the case that buses cannot compete with cars in speed terms in all circumstances, but they will continue to struggle while congestion remains unchecked (Bradley & Kenworthy 2012).

  9. 9.

    Car ownership in Europe has continued to grow until recently, although much more slowly than in the past, and is now showing signs of a plateau in some countries as the streets have filled and other options have to be pursued, as explained in this book. Car ownership is actually declining in some places; for example, five major Canadian cities declined in average levels of car ownership between 1996 and 2006. In addition to the options discussed later, car ownership is also being increasingly affected by car sharing, especially in European cities (e.g., Bremen). Car companies such as Daimler Benz and BMW have also established their own “car-on-demand” systems in some cities (Car2Go and Drive Now, respectively).

  10. 10.

    In terms of parking, between 1995 and 2005 parking supply per 1,000 CBD jobs in a large sample of cities mostly declined. US cities fell from 555 to 487 parking spaces per 1,000 CBD jobs, Canadian 390 to 319, Australian 367 to 298, and Singapore and Hong Kong declined too, from 136 to 121 parking spaces per 1,000 CBD jobs. In European cities, CBD parking rose a fraction from 224 to 241, but this was largely because of an unavoidable expansion of the definition of the CBD in Berlin due to German reunification, which increased the apparent CBD parking supply in that city (Kenworthy 2012).

  11. 11.

    Copenhagen has even introduced a new bike-sharing scheme featuring bikes with built-in tablet computers.

  12. 12.

    The driverless car from Google, which has already gained legislative approval to operate in test mode in five US states, may change this; Google is lobbying heavily in every state to alter road-safety legislation.

  13. 13.

    See: City of Melbourne, “Melbourne in Numbers” (Online), melbourne.vic.gov.au/AboutMelbourne/Statistics/Pages/MelbourneSnapshot.aspx (Accessed 28 Feb 2015); see also: Craig Butt and Christina Zhou, “Melbourne apartment development hits historic high,” (Online), 7 Jul 2014, smh.com.au/business/property/melbourne-apartment-development-hits-historic-high-20140706-zsxyx.html (Accessed 28 Feb 2015).

  14. 14.

    Even our own city of Perth has been attracting residential development, with 2014 data showing around 27,000 people living in the city center (after only 700 were found when Jan Gehl began his studies in 1992), together with significant growth in jobs, numbers of people walking, and people attracted to activities (see: cityofperth.wa.gov.au). The city was once called “dullsville”—but no longer (Newman 2015).

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Authors
  1. Peter Newman
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  2. Jeffrey Kenworthy
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© 2015 Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy

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Newman, P., Kenworthy, J. (2015). The Theory of Urban Fabrics:. In: The End of Automobile Dependence. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-613-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-613-4_4

  • Publisher Name: Island Press, Washington, DC

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-59726-770-0

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