TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION
OECD International Conference, Vancouver Canada

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Session 1d - Looking Down the Road

Abstract of address by Peter Newman

Reducing Automobile Dependance

Visions for sustainable transportation usually incorporate elements of technological change, economic change or social change. It is obvious that all three elements must play a part, but our contribution has always been to emphasise the social for the following reasons:

1. Technological solutions invariably forget the Jevons principle. This principal was first enunciated by the economist Jevons in 1865 who predicted that making coal burning more efficient would lead to more coal use as the efficiencies would lead to more economic uses of coal. In transportation, it is not sustainable if new super efficient motor vehicles are merely used to travel more. In the U.S., 40 years of population growth has been outstripped three times by the number of vehicles and the distance they are driven. Despite doubling vehicle fuel efficiency between 1973 and 1988, transportation oil consumption increased nearly 20%. The problem is automobile dependence.
2. Economic solutions invariably are politically unacceptable. Increasing the price of travel so that it at least covers its full costs is hard to dispute. However the process of implementation is fraught with political difficulty. First the inelasticity of demand for automobile usage is created by the physical layout of our cities. Thus to reduce demand is to cause considerable pain as alternatives are just not there. Second, those who suffer most are those who can least afford it. Social justice is not enhanced by user pays. Politicians cannot afford such negativity in automobile dependent cities.
3. Social solutions can penetrate to the ultimate problem of automobile dependence. Building cities with an assumption of automobile usage and growth is no longer sustainable. To change this requires a) changed priority in physical planning to ensure that non-auto infrastructure is more of a priority than auto infrastructure, b) changed land use patterns to minimize the need for travel, and c) changed lifestyle values so that greater emphasis is on the community rather than private/isolated values and on the urban rather than suburban and exurban. "The New Urbanism" encapsulates all of these principles. With cities moving towards a series of nodal/information subcentres it is possible to restructure towards sustainable transportation far quicker than if engineering and economic solutions alone are envisaged.

Data will be presented from 50 cities around the world on trends in automobile dependence to highlight the signs of hope as well as the extent of the problem. Some of the best examples of rebuilding cities with a more sustainable vision will be outlined, particularly in Canada and Australia.

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