Track 18: Transport sustainability and cities: planning for alternatives to car travel
Chaired by: Ryan Falconer (r.falconer@murdoch.edu.au) PhD candidate, Insitute for
Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Western Australia and Jeffrey Kenworthy (j.kenworthy@murdoch.edu.au) Professor in Sustainable Settlements,
Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Western Australia.
Land use planning and transport are inextricably linked. Changes to the built environment cannot be considered in isolation from changes to transport systems and
vice versa. In this track we aim to explore the nature of relationships between the built environment and transport behaviour. The special focus of the track is on ways
in which new urban development and redevelopment can be used to better facilitate travel by alternative modes, thereby reducing dependence on the private vehicle.
Urban sprawl and car dependence are characteristic of many North American and Australasian cities. We now know, more than ever, that such urban arrangments are
not sustainable. This is especially true given the impacts of fossil fuel price rises and greater understanding that the fuel we rely on for much of our transport
is a finite resource. In rapidly developing contexts, such as China, there is also a great need to plan cities to better encourage sustainable transport, rather than in
anticipation of higher levels of car ownership and use.
We are interested in explorations into the range of reasons for more sustainable city planning. The pollution associated with a reliance on motor vehicle travel is,
for example, good reason to rethink how our cities are arranged and critique the transport opportunities presently available. Increasingly, too, researchers are
linking land use planning, transport and public health. Amongst other things, high levels of pollution from the transport sector have been linked with public health
issues. Furthermore, we are interested in evaluations of new planning paradigms: particularly those that have been formulated with a much greater emphasis on
sustainability than previous policy.
SUMMARY
The focus of the track is the relationship between the built environment and transport, particularly planning approaches that can better facilitate travel by
public transport, bicycling and walking. Papers that provide argument for more sustainable city planning as well as those that analyse new planning approaches and
strategies are welcome.
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