Does metropolitan form affect transportation sustainability? Evidence from US metropolitan areas

In this paper, the authors examine transportation sustainability in American metropolitan areas using transportation-related CO₂ emissions, public transit accessibility, and commuting times as indicators. Though variations in these indicators may stem from historic contexts, policies, institutional arrangements, social and cultural origins, the spatial structure of metropolitan areas—in particular their formal characteristics—may also be a contributing factor. To test this relationship, the authors identify metropolitan form metrics from prior literature that are expected to impact transportation outcomes, and choose five metrics to which the authors introduce significant improvements. The authors apply the metrics to all 166 Combined Statistical Areas in the US, using an open-source geographic information system (GIS) toolbox released along with the paper. The authors' findings demonstrate that form-based metrics provide a better explanation to CO₂ emissions, public transit accessibility, and commuting times in US metro areas than the simpler population size or density metrics typically used in practice. The authors also show that counter to prior literature on urban scaling laws and economies of scale, which have argued that larger cities and metro areas are more sustainable per capita, transport-related CO₂ emissions and transit accessibility are actually less favorable in larger CSAs when controlling for formal characteristics of metropolitan areas. Instead of scale, compactness has the highest elasticity with respect to transportation sustainability of metro areas.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808320971310
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/23998083
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © Andres Sevtuk and Reza Amindarbari 2020.
• Authors:
  • Sevtuk, Andres
  • 0000-0001-5098-9636
  • Amindarbari, Reza
• Publication Date: 2021-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 2385-2401
• Serial:
  • Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
  • Volume: 48
  • Issue Number: 8
  • Publisher: Sage Publications Limited
  • ISSN: 2399-8083
  • EISSN: 2399-8091
  • Serial URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/epb

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Built environment; Carbon dioxide; Commuting; Metropolitan areas; Pollutants; Public transit; Sustainable transportation
• Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01840016
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 24 2022 5:26PM