IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i1p77-d1316194.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Density Foster Shorter Public Transport Networks? A Network Expansion Simulation Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Chris Jacobs-Crisioni

    (Bureau Jacobs-Crisioni, 1069 CD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
    Territorial Development Unit, Directorate for a Fair and Sustainable Economy, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, 21027 Ispra, Italy)

  • Lewis Dijkstra

    (Territorial Development Unit, Directorate for a Fair and Sustainable Economy, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, 21027 Ispra, Italy)

  • Andrius Kučas

    (Territorial Development Unit, Directorate for a Fair and Sustainable Economy, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, 21027 Ispra, Italy)

Abstract

One argument for containing urban densities is that cities need a critical population density to sustain sufficiently available public transportation. However, the question of whether denser cities foster shorter public transport networks empirically is problematic because real-world transport nets are a product of many additional factors presumably not related to urban form. This paper adopts a network expansion simulation approach to generate and analyze counterfactual data on network lengths for 36 world cities, in which all networks are generated with similar expansion restrictions and objectives. Denser cities are found to have shorter simulated public transport networks, regardless of the tested model parameters. This provides additional proof that densities are needed to facilitate the provision of proximate public transport infrastructure, with potentially self-reinforcing effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Jacobs-Crisioni & Lewis Dijkstra & Andrius Kučas, 2024. "Does Density Foster Shorter Public Transport Networks? A Network Expansion Simulation Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:1:p:77-:d:1316194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/1/77/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/1/77/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eda Ustaoglu & Chris Jacobs-Crisioni, 2022. "What Drives Residential Land Expansion and Densification? An Analysis of Growing and Shrinking Regions," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, September.
    2. Xie, Feng & Levinson, David, 2008. "The weakest link: The decline of the surface transportation network," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 100-113, January.
    3. David M. Levtnson & Ajay Kumar, 1997. "Density and the Journey to Work," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 147-172, March.
    4. Antonio M. Bento & Maureen L. Cropper & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Katja Vinha, 2005. "The Effects of Urban Spatial Structure on Travel Demand in the United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 466-478, August.
    5. C. Jacobs-Crisioni & C. C. Koopmans, 2016. "Transport link scanner: simulating geographic transport network expansion through individual investments," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 265-301, July.
    6. Zhao, Pengjun, 2013. "The implications of and institutional barriers to compact land development for transportation: Evidence from Bejing," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 6(3), pages 29-42.
    7. Monica Brezzi & Paolo Veneri, 2015. "Assessing Polycentric Urban Systems in the OECD: Country, Regional and Metropolitan Perspectives," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 1128-1145, June.
    8. Luís M A Bettencourt & José Lobo & Deborah Strumsky & Geoffrey B West, 2010. "Urban Scaling and Its Deviations: Revealing the Structure of Wealth, Innovation and Crime across Cities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(11), pages 1-9, November.
    9. Stępniak, Marcin & Jacobs-Crisioni, Chris, 2017. "Reducing the uncertainty induced by spatial aggregation in accessibility and spatial interaction applications," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 17-29.
    10. Patrick Arthur Driscoll, 2014. "Breaking Carbon Lock-In: Path Dependencies in Large-Scale Transportation Infrastructure Projects," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 317-330, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lara Engelfriet & Eric Koomen, 2018. "The impact of urban form on commuting in large Chinese cities," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 1269-1295, September.
    2. Yu Sang Chang & Sung Jun Jo & Yoo-Taek Lee & Yoonji Lee, 2021. "Population Density or Populations Size. Which Factor Determines Urban Traffic Congestion?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Safirova, Elena A. & Houde, Sébastien & Harrington, Winston, 2007. "Spatial Development and Energy Consumption," RFF Working Paper Series dp-07-51, Resources for the Future.
    4. Tae-Hyoung Gim, 2012. "A meta-analysis of the relationship between density and travel behavior," Transportation, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 491-519, May.
    5. Paolo Veneri, 2010. "Urban Polycentricity and the Costs of Commuting: Evidence from Italian Metropolitan Areas," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 403-429, September.
    6. Chang, Yu Sang & Lee, Yong Joo & Choi, Sung Sup Brian, 2017. "Is there more traffic congestion in larger cities? -Scaling analysis of the 101 largest U.S. urban centers-," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 54-63.
    7. Marcińczak, Szymon & Bartosiewicz, Bartosz, 2018. "Commuting patterns and urban form: Evidence from Poland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 31-39.
    8. Fabio Borghetti & Cristian Giovanni Colombo & Michela Longo & Renato Mazzoncini & Leonardo Cesarini & Luigi Contestabile & Claudio Somaschini, 2021. "15-Min Station: A Case Study in North Italy City to Evaluate the Livability of an Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    9. Chatman, Daniel G., 2008. "Deconstructing development density: Quality, quantity and price effects on household non-work travel," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(7), pages 1008-1030, August.
    10. Guerra, Erick & Caudillo, Camilo & Monkkonen, Paavo & Montejano, Jorge, 2018. "Urban form, transit supply, and travel behavior in Latin America: Evidence from Mexico's 100 largest urban areas," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 98-105.
    11. Kim, Jinwon, 2012. "Endogenous vehicle-type choices in a monocentric city," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 749-760.
    12. Jacobs-Crisioni, Chris & Koomen, Eric, 2017. "Population growth, accessibility spillovers and persistent borders: Historical growth in West-European municipalities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 80-91.
    13. Xu Yang & Xuan Zou & Xueqi Liu & Qixuan Li & Siqian Zou & Ming Li, 2023. "The Spatiotemporal Pattern and Driving Mechanism of Urban Sprawl in China’s Counties," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, March.
    14. Fullerton, Thomas M. & Jiménez, Alan A. & Walke, Adam G., 2015. "An econometric analysis of retail gasoline prices in a border metropolitan economy," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 450-461.
    15. Proost, Stef & Van Dender, Kurt, 2012. "Energy and environment challenges in the transport sector," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 77-87.
    16. Ding, Chuan & Wang, Donggen & Liu, Chao & Zhang, Yi & Yang, Jiawen, 2017. "Exploring the influence of built environment on travel mode choice considering the mediating effects of car ownership and travel distance," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 65-80.
    17. Alves, L.G.A. & Ribeiro, H.V. & Lenzi, E.K. & Mendes, R.S., 2014. "Empirical analysis on the connection between power-law distributions and allometries for urban indicators," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 409(C), pages 175-182.
    18. Anthony Goerzen & Christian Geisler Asmussen & Bo Bernhard Nielsen, 2024. "Global cities, the liability of foreignness, and theory on place and space in international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(1), pages 10-27, February.
    19. Salon, Deborah, 2015. "The Effect of Land Use Policies and Infrastructure Investments on How Much We Drive: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Literature," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt54d4567m, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    20. Huang, Siyu & Shi, Yi & Chen, Qinghua & Li, Xiaomeng, 2022. "The growth path of high-tech industries: Statistical laws and evolution demands," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 603(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:1:p:77-:d:1316194. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.