The role of indicators in the assessment of integrated land‐use and transport policies in European cities

Abstract

This paper reviews the integration of land‐use and transport indicators in current European planning practice. Integrated land‐use and transport planning is considered to be one of the instruments to reduce car dependency in European cities and regions and to promote economic, social and environmental improvement. Within the framework of the TRANSPLUS project more than 20 cities were analysed in depth about their integrated transport and land‐use monitoring activities. The cities were selected taking into account geographical spread, size, innovative character of policies and the availability of information. It is found that most cities acknowledge the interrelation between land‐use planning and mobility planning, but in most cases an integrated monitoring system has not yet been set up. The general tendency in the cities investigated is a dominance of transport‐oriented monitoring. In a number of cities, ad hoc projects have been set up, involving both the transport and the land‐use department. In other cities, efforts in relation to integrated land‐use and transport monitoring are stimulated by higher policy levels. Whereas a number of cities try to combine land‐use and transport data, only a few of them monitor the institutional integration of the land‐use and transport departments. Integrated land‐use and transport models are hardly used, and efforts are directed mainly at developing integrated indicators. A number of good practices have been identified and two are discussed in this paper. The Cologne case illustrates the use of land‐use and transport data, combined with indicators, to monitor the planning and implementation of a car‐free neighbourhood project and the potential for the reduction of parking places. In Orléans the development of a mobility observatory acts as an instrument to monitor the implementation of the PDU (Plan de développement urbain) in an integrated way.