Infrastructure in Urban Areas

Cases discussed

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is a major part of cities as it contributes to mobility, quality of life and overall health of inhabitants. As a result, better and more efficient infrastructure (in this case roads and traffic systems) play a major role in the overall attractiveness of a city.

In recent years populations in urban areas and individual demand for mobility has steadily increased. By 2050, seventy percent of all global population is predicted to live in urban areas [1]. This increase in size and population density poses a great challenge for mobility, as many cities approach their maximum capacity for roads and vehicles.

In this regard, pollution has become a big issue for the public. It is estimated that air pollution kills seven million people each year [2]. 4.2 million of these deaths are caused by ambient air pollution, of which motorized vehicles are a major contributor [3]. As a result, some large cities like Beijing are already forced to temporarily ban certain car travel altogether, in order to avoid hazardous pollution levels [4] [5]. Other urban areas like Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Bogota have had similar problems for decades [6] [7] [8]. In the United States, traffic-related healthcare costs were estimated around 13 billion dollars in 2020 [9]. In Germany, some larger cities like Stuttgart are also struggling with traffic-induced pollution [10].

Apart from health risks, high traffic can affect people in other ways. For instance, in Germany excessive traffic is a major cause for congestion, accounting for almost two thirds of congestion in some studies [11]. For most commuters, this means that they spend hours in traffic jams each week. For example, the average car trip in Munich, Berlin or Hamburg takes 30% longer than necessary, increasing to over 60% during rush hour [12]. In other words, a 30 Minute commute in Hamburg can take up to 34 minutes longer than necessary every day, amounting to 131 hours per person lost in rush hour traffic every year [13]. Some experts put the resulting economic damages of traffic congestion in Germany (e.g. by losses in productivity) at up to 100 billion Euros [14].

Moreover, spending hours in traffic regularly can also have adverse effects on mental health. Long commutes have been shown to increase stress levels and in turn make people more irritable and less happy [15][22]. The noise caused by high traffic can also lead to sleep loss and annoyance, which has adverse effects on quality of life as well [16].

In order to combat these problems and make life in urban areas more enjoyable, urban planners have come up with guidelines on how to build cities.Peter Calthorpe calls for seven principles: {1} Preserve nature, {2} Mix residence and business, {3} Ensure walkability, {4} Give room for biking, {5} Increase density, {6} Transit and {7} Match density and transit capacity [17]. Overall, this means that greenspace, walking, biking and public transport would be prioritized over cars and traffic. As a result, commutes could be shortened, traffic jams and noise could be reduced, air quality could be improved and more space could be allocated to alternative modes of transportation as well as greenspace.

Some European cities have already taken inspiration. For instance, Paris is seeking to ban through-traffic of non-inhabitants in its city center by 2022 [18] and is already closing some of the city center for cars entirely every month [19]. By mixing resident and business, the goal of Paris is to offer everyone everything they need within a fifteen minute radius [20] [21]. Other cities are moving in a similar direction: Oslo has drastically reduced parking spaces in order to keep commuters from driving into the city by car. Barcelona is testing a similar concept, in which most of the roads in so-called “super blocks” are only open for residents and delivery traffic at walking speed.

Studies around the Barcelona Superblocks concept have shown that these measures can help improve city life. Following the implementation of Superblocks, the share of car trips was projected to fall by 19%, which meant over 200,000 fewer car trips. This would reduce toxic pollution, noise levels and temperatures [23]. Overall these changes were projected to prevent 667 premature deaths, caused by pollution, heat, road accidents and other factors. The implementation was also projected to have an annual economic benefit of 1.7 billion Euros [23].

Following these results, other cities are following suit. Hamburg, for instance, is planning on banning individual car traffic from its city center as well [24].

Overall, in planning there is a general trend away from cars, towards other modes of mobility, to improve traffic, commutes and quality of life. However, it is important to acknowledge that simply forbidding cars may not solve long-term issues in mobility.

For instance, results from Oslo show that changing policies around cars and roads had a rather small effect on car traffic. In fact, the share of people who commuted to work using their car increased following the ban. This effect could be attributed to employers creating private parking in response to the reduction of public parking, offsetting the effect of this measure [25]. Since the overall share of car commuters was low to begin with (4% to 7%) and usage of public transport was very high (66% to 73%) [25], the increase in car commutes was not substantial. Furthermore the researchers conclude that the reduction in traffic and parking spaces may have improved overall city attractiveness for visitors [25]. Nevertheless, this case serves as a good example for how public regulation can be bypassed by private entities, effectively undermining their intent.

A similar effect was found in Mexico City, where traffic regulation seems to not have the intended effect of improving air quality. Despite ongoing regulation since 1989, pollution levels keep exceeding healthy limits by more than five times [8] [26]. Like in Oslo, this might be attributed to people “cheating” the systems. In the case of Mexico city, people would buy additional cars or take taxis instead of driving themselves [8]. Moreover, in contrast to Oslo, public transport may not be a viable alternative in Mexico City in the first place. Only roughly 41% of the city area is covered by public transport [27].

To sum up, as shown in the example of Barcelona, urban initiatives which deprioritize cars can have a positive effect on traffic and air quality. As shown in Oslo, they may further improve the attractiveness of a city, for example by reducing traffic noise and increasing the amount of green space. Other initiatives, like the fifteen minute city in Paris aim at reducing traffic by reducing trip length down to a 15 minute walk or bike ride.

However, as shown in the example of Mexico City, these initiatives do not always work. A city's infrastructure must be able to absorb the change in traffic flows, away from cars towards public transport, biking or walking. Conversely, if walking is not safe, busses get stuck in the same traffic and metros are unreliable, cars remain the most attractive mode of mobility, regardless of regulation. Traffic bans may be suitable for short-term relief (e.g. to handle spikes in air pollution), but they can only solve long-term issues in conjunction with the rest of a city’s infrastructure.

Sources

[1] UN Habitat. (2019). The Strategic Plan 2020-2023. V. United Nations. https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/documents/2019-09/strategic_plan_2020-2023.pdf

[2] Hogenboom, M., & Lafont, E. (2019, April 16). How air pollution is doing more than killing us. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190415-how-air-pollution-is-doing-more-than-killing-us

[3] World Health Organization. (2021). Air pollution - Overview. https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution

[4] The Economist. (2021, March 15). Why is Beijing’s air quality so bad again?https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/03/15/why-is-beijings-air-quality-so-bad-again

[5] BBC News. (2013, October 17). Beijing to restrict private car use to tackle pollution. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-24566288

[6] Associated Press. (2016, May 5). Mexico City declares 3rd day of traffic cuts over high smog. https://apnews.com/article/04997e5cba384f698992e5cadd178e14

[7] Riding, A. (1983, May 15). Problems of Mexico City: Warning to third world. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/15/world/problems-of-mexico-city-warning-to-third-world.html/

[8] Davis, L. W. (2017). Saturday driving restrictions fail to improve air quality in Mexico City. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep41652

[9] Levy, J.I., Buonocore, J.J. & von Stackelberg, K. Evaluation of the public health impacts of traffic congestion: a health risk assessment. Environ Health 9, 65 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-9-65

[10] Stuttgart. (2021). Luftqualität. https://www.stuttgart.de/leben/umwelt/luft/luftqualitaet.php

[11] Geistefeldt, J., & Lohoff, J. (2011). 14. Stausituation auf den Autobahnen in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Ruhr Universität Bochum. https://www.vm.nrw.de/presse/_container_presse/StausituationNRW_Schlussbericht_Endfassung-Presse.pdf

[12] TomTom Traffic Index. (2020). Traffic congestion ranking. https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/traffic-index/ranking/?country=DE&population=LARGE

[13] TomTom Traffic Index - Hamburg. (2019). Traffic congestion ranking. https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/traffic-index/hamburg-traffic/

[14] Schreckenberg, M., & Brink, N. (2018, August 23). Straßenverkehr - "Wir müssen uns auf erheblich mehr Stillstand einstellen". Deutschlandfunk. https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/strassenverkehr-wir-muessen-uns-auf-erheblich-mehr-100.html

[15] Stutzer, A., & Frey, B. S. (2008). Stress that doesn't pay off: The commuting paradox. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 110(2), 339-366. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2008.00542.x

[16] World Health Organization. (2011). XV-XVII. Burden of disease from environmental noise: Quantification of healthy life years lost in Europe. https://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/e94888.pdf

[17] Calthorpe, P. (2017, August 31). Seven principles for building better cities [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFjD3NMv6Kw

[18] O'Sullivan, F. (2021, May 13). Paris Will Ban Through Traffic in City Center. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-13/new-paris-car-ban-will-target-through-traffic

[19] Coffey, H. (2018, October 3). Paris to ban cars in city centre one Sunday a month. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/paris-car-free-sundays-city-centre-france-pedestrian-a8566991.html

[20] City of Paris. (2021). Paris ville du quart d'heure, ou le pari de la proximité. https://www.paris.fr/dossiers/paris-ville-du-quart-d-heure-ou-le-pari-de-la-proximite-37

[21] Willsher, K. (2020, February 7). Paris mayor unveils '15-minute city' plan in re-election campaign. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/paris-mayor-unveils-15-minute-city-plan-in-re-election-campaign

[22] Routman, B. (2020, January 21). Swerving into the carpool lane. PeopleScience. https://peoplescience.maritz.com/Articles/2020/Swerving-Into-The-Carpool-Lane

[23] Mueller, N., Rojas-Rueda, D., Khreis, H., Cirach, M., Andrés, D., Ballester, J., Bartoll, X., Daher, C., Deluca, A., Echave, C., Milà, C., Márquez, S., Palou, J., Pérez, K., Tonne, C., Stevenson, M., Rueda, S., & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. (2020). Changing the urban design of cities for health: The superblock model. Environment International, 134, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105132

[24] Behörde für Stadtentwicklung und Wohnen. (2020). Die Innenstadt wird neu erlebbar: Erste Schritte zum weitgehend autofreien Jungfernstieg. Stadt Hamburg. https://www.hamburg.de/pressearchiv-fhh/14369764/2020-09-30-bsw-jungfernstieg-weitgehend-autofrei/

[25] Hagen, O. H., & Tennøy, A. (2021). Street-space reallocation in the Oslo city center: Adaptations, effects, and consequences. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 97, 7-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2021.102944

[26] Associated Press. (2021, March 29). Mexico City air pollution spikes to 6 times acceptable limit. https://apnews.com/article/mexico-latin-america-air-pollution-mexico-city-pollution-f9c2e6eeeb6c09594d30c010be775f1a

[27] Urban Mobility Index. (2018). Mexico City urban mobility index. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://urbanmobilityindex.here.com/city/mexico_city/