Urban entrepreneurialism and car-use reduction

Abstract

Local decision-makers face a wide range of pressures over questions of urban development. Among these is to pursue urban economic growth, while simultaneously responding to environmental demands to reduce car usage. There is, however, a lack of empirical studies analysing urban entrepreneurialism in conjunction with car-use reduction. This paper focuses on city-centre development and regulation of retail trade in two Norwegian cities. The underlying logic is that while compact city development and concentration of commerce in the urban core are ways to reduce car usage, there are also pressures drawing shopping to the city outskirts. The paper highlights the conflicting spatial interests involved in policies for car-use reduction, as evident in discussions as to how to regulate parking throughout the urban area. The paper also shows how municipal policy for car-use reduction is affected by private actors and neighbouring municipalities. Ultimately, the cases illustrate how local decision-making is influenced by the balance of pressures for and against environmental policy. In this way, analysis of inter-municipal competition over retail trade, inhabitants and investments, provides important insights into urban policy and practice.

Keywords::

• entrepreneurialism
• car-use reduction
• retail trade
• urban governance
• urban planning

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Per Gunnar Røe, Torill Nyseth, Vibeke Nenseth and Marika Kolbenstvedt for their comments on an earlier version of the paper. I also appreciate the valuable suggestions of the editors and three anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Notes

^1. The others are maintenance regimes, middle-class progressive regimes and regimes devoted to lower-class opportunity expansion.

^2. At this point, one municipality (Bamle) chose not to participate.

^3. City-centre landlords, city-centre business actors together own 67.1%, the municipality 32.9%.

^4. Among the more spectacular events is the cross-country world cup taking place in the city centre.

^10. The urban centre share is within the shaded area of the column. The size of this area indicates the degree of uncertainty.

^5. In comparison, Trondheim, a city with a more dominant position within its region, has a share of 67%.

^6. Author's use of unpublished 2012 numbers, purchased from Statistics Norway.

^7. In 2011, after decades of political pressure, national authorities granted financing to improve this connection.

^8. If looking solely at changes in number of city-centre dwellers recent years, Porsgrunn performs well compared to other large Norwegian cities (Statistics Norway, 2013d).

^9. Unpublished 2012 numbers, purchased from Statistics Norway.

Additional information

Funding

The project described in this paper was funded by the Research Council of Norway [grant number 195191] for a project entitled Transport and Environment – Measures and Policies (TEMPO).

Notes on contributors

Anders Tønnesen

Anders Tønnesen is a human geographer and researcher at the Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo. His research focuses on environmental policy-making and climate-friendly urban development, themes on which he has published articles in international scientific journals. In recent years he has paid particular attention to urban planning in relation to land-use and transport-system development.