- Sustainable Transport in Germany and the US: A comparison of the Washington, DC and Stuttgart Regions   196 kb by    Jung, Wolfgang & Buehler, Ralph | wolfgang.jung@kit.edu    Short Outline The Washington, DC and Stuttgart regions serve as examples for differences and similarities of the German and US systems of land-use and transport planning. We highlight best practice examples for sustainable planning in both countries using case studies of Scharnhauser Park and Arlington County. Abstract Federal, state, and local governments in the United States and Germany aim to reduce energy use and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport, which accounts for an increasing share of energy consumption and GHG emissions. In 2010, in both countries the vast majority (~95 percent) of energy for transport came from petroleum and carbon dioxide (CO2) accounted for about 95 percent of GHG emissions from transport. Tackling emissions from ground passenger transport has proven difficult, because improvements in technological efficiency of cars and fuels can be off-set by heavier vehicles, more powerful engines, and longer travel distances (the so-called “rebound effect”). Besides technology, passenger transport emissions and energy use depend on individual decisions about residential location, vehicle ownership, transport mode choice, number of trips, and travel distance. Land-use and transport planning can help influence individual travel choices and reduce GHG emissions from transport. This paper compares transport and land-use policies in Germany and the U.S. in order to identify best practices in decreasing CO2 emissions from passenger transport through changes in travel demand. The Washington, DC and Stuttgart regions serve as examples for similarities and differences between Germany and the United States in land-use planning, transport systems, coordination of transportation and land-use planning, and sustainable transport. For our comparison we use large datasets from national and regional household travel surveys to compare trends in travel behaviour. Moreover, we use a case study approach to analyse differences in transport and land-use planning in one best practice sustainable community from each region. The paper concludes with policy lessons for both countries. The Washington, DC metro and Stuttgart regions mirror national differences in travel behaviour—with more car use in the DC area. Moreover, dissimilarities in travel behaviour are greater within the DC metro than in the Stuttgart region: the cities of Washington, DC and Stuttgart have almost comparable mode shares of car use. However, outlying suburbs in the DC metro region are much more car dependent than outlying suburbs in the Stuttgart region. This is also a result of different land-use and settlement patterns, influenced either by individual choices and policies of spatial development. In both countries, federal, state, and local governments implement policies that influence spatial development and land use. However, in Germany different levels of government coordinate their spatial plans in an interactive process. In the United States, spatial planning remains fragmented across jurisdictional boundaries, uncoordinated between levels of government, and typically not integrated with planning for transportation. Land-use planning in Germany and the United States traditionally separate types of land-uses in the tradition of the Charta Athens. This practice is more problematic in the United States, where the separation of land uses is stricter and zones cover larger land areas than in Germany. Although there are big differences in land-use and transportation planning systems between the two countries and the two regions, successful cases of coordination of transport and land-use planning share many similarities. Case studies of Arlington County, Virginia, and Scharnhauser Park near Stuttgart show best practice examples for coordinating land-use and transport planning. The two case studies highlight the need for coordinating planning for transportation, land use, economic development, and housing – and also show how to achieve more sustainable transport. Note: This paper is an updated version of a published case study by Buehler and Jung: Transport and Land-Use Planning in Germany and the US: Lessons from the Stuttgart and Washington, DC Regions, AICGS Policy Report 53. Keywords Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2013: Frontiers of Planning - Evolving and declining models of city planning practice   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper