Public transport and urban development: Improving public transport competitiveness versus the private car

Society has clear goals to reduce the growth in car traffic, the so-called zero growth objective. Many Norwegian cities seek to develop land use and transport systems in ways that contribute to this. They experience that most of the research in the field has been carried out in cities the size of Oslo or larger, and they need knowledge that is based on studies carried out in small and medium-sized cities. The project has contributed such knowledge. Relations between urban structure factors and travel behavior were investigated in 20 Norwegian cities areas, varying in size from Oslo (980 0000 inhabitants) to Elverum (15 000 inhabitants), through analyses of data from the national travel survey. The results showed lower car shares and higher public transport and walking shares with increasing density at city level. The proportion of journeys made by sustainable modes was higher to and from homes and workplaces located in the city centres and inner cities compared to the outer parts of the cities. The commuting distances were clearly shorter among those who live centrally compared to those who live in the outer parts of the cities. There was also a tendency for shorter commuting distances to centrally located workplaces. Travel to and from denser mixed-use zones outside the inner cities was longer and more car-based than to the inner city and city center, and in some cases they were also longer and more car-based than to the outer parts of the cities. The main finding is that travel behavior in smaller cities varies with land use characteristics to the same patterns as in large cities and that the tendencies are weaker in the smaller cities. We also conducted surveys among employees in companies and among public transport passengers at stops in Oslo, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Hamar to find walking distances to and from public transport stops used on commutes. The average walking distances to local public transport stops increased with city size, from 328 meters in Hamar to 520 meters in Oslo. In discussions about what is acceptable walking distance, the 75th percentile, which shows how long 75% of passengers walk shorter than, may be more interesting. Here, the figures varied from 400?560 meters. In the surveys in Hamar and Kristiansand, it emerged that those who knew the public transport route they used or would use on their commute thought that the walking distances were short enough, and that higher frequency and fewer transfers were what was needed if they were to use public transport more frequently on commutes instead of car. This is in line with what we found when we examined the effects of changes in public transport systems in a number of Norwegian cities, where they had reorganized and simplified the systems in ways that provided higher frequency and more direct routes, but also longer walking distance to stops. The changes resulted in a significant increase in passenger numbers in all but one of the cities. See pilot database for effects of changes in local public transport services here: https://www.tiltak.no/ We studied documents and interviewed planners in Trondheim, Stavanger, Hamar and Haugesund to find out how other plans affect the possibilities of achieving the goal of improving the competitiveness of public transport versus the car. We took as our starting point existing knowledge of what characteristics of land use structure and transport systems contribute to improving public transport's competitiveness versus the car and evaluated existing plans in the four cities against this. The main finding was that the plans in all cities contained some measures that would strengthen the competitiveness of public transport and others that would weaken it. See description of the qualitative method here: https://www.toi.no/getfile.php/1371705-1637593043/mmarkiv/Hannes%20mappe%202020/2021/Kvalitativ%20plananlyse.IPTF.pdf We also found that the planners in the four cities had good state-of-the-art knowledge regarding how public transport systems and route structure should be developed to increase patronage, and that they proposed interventions in line with this. This led us to the questions about why plans are being adopted for land use and transport system development, which will reduce the chances for achieving defined goals. We found that this was not due to a lack of knowledge on the part of the planners, or that they did not cooperate across sectors. The main explanation is that it is due to political goal conflicts. In a study of how politicians in Trondheim reflected on the fact that they adopted measures that they knew would reduce the chances of achieving the goals they had set, we also found that political goal conflicts were an important part of the answer. They focused mostly on local and short-term problems and hoped that they could reduce the traffic growth that would come due to increased road capacity through mitigating measures.

The project has contributed novel knowledge that will help small and medium-sized cities in Norway and elsewhere to plan and develop their land use and transport systems in ways contributing to reduced car-dependency, traffic volumes, and greenhouse gas emissions. Smaller cities aiming to achieve sustainable mobility goals have faced a lack of knowledge because limited attention has been paid to smaller cities in previous research. The knowledge produced will significantly strengthening their knowledge base with respect to how interrelations between built environment and travel behaviour, and to how and why processes result in unfavourable plans and decisions with respect to sustainable mobility goals. The project has strengthened the networks between the collaborating researchers from Norway and Portugal, and with the international expert group. The project has also resulted in a PhD in urban planning and public transport, and this is a sought-after expertise.

Stopping traffic growth and reducing GHG emissions from transport are long-standing objectives which have proven hard to achieve. Our hypothesis is that this partly can be explained by knowledge gaps concerning how urban structure and public transport quality affect public transport (and walking and bicycling) competitiveness versus the private car, and, that current public planning and policy-making processes tend to result in developments which do not improve public transport competitiveness. Shortcomings of existing planning support tools with respect to assessing effects on public transport competitiveness may also be part of the explanation. IPTC will contribute to the green shift by addressing these issues, and by that enhance society?s abilities to steer land use and transport systems developments in directions contributing to reduce traffic volumes and GHG emissions from road transport. The first part of the project empirically investigates how urban structure and qualities of public transport systems affect public transport (and bicycling and walking) competitiveness in cities of different sizes, and hence how land use and public transport ought to be developed to improve public transport competitiveness. The second part investigates current planning and policy-making processes, to identify critical factors affecting whether plans produced have high or low goal achievement potentials with respect to improving public transport competitiveness, and analyses which changes are needed if processes are to develop plans with higher goal achievement potentials. This also includes to investigate needs for new and improved tools, and to develop such tools. The research is organised as case-studies in nine Norwegian and one Portuguese city. We collaborate with University of Oporto in parts of the project. We will work closely with a practice-based reference group, and with an international scientific advisory group. The project will produce a PhD in public transport.