- Planning for environment-efficient growth: Urban land development and transport for car usage at the metropolitan fringe of Beijing    1114 kb by    Zhao, Pengjun | z.pengjun@rug.nl    Short Outline This paper examines the impact of urban land development on the individual worker’s choice of transport mode and vehicle hours travelled (VHT) at the city fringe in Beijing by using a household survey data. Abstract Sustainable transport has become a key issue with respect to carbon emission reduction in China’s growing megacities. The planning of urban form on the city fringe in order to encourage a sustainable transport system is increasingly attracting attention. Using household survey data, this paper finds that aspects of urban form have significant effects on workers’ car use and the duration of travel by car in relation to journeys to work, while controlling for socioeconomic factors and households’ preferences related to residential location. Furthermore, compact form on the urban fringe which is characterised by higher density, a jobs-housing balance and high levels of public transport accessibility would play a positive role in reducing individual car use and commuting times by car and hence be efficient in energy consumption and emissions reduction. In terms of the empirical findings, the compact land development scenario on the whole urban fringe indicates savings of 17.4 percent in relation to energy consumption and 10.8 percent in relation to life-cycle emissions of CO2 on current levels. The findings in this paper strengthen arguments for the positive role of spatial planning in obtaining low-carbon city objectives. Keywords Land use planning, transportation, environment effects, Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2009: Low Carbon Cities   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper