Transportation and Urban Sustainability in China: Issues and Prospects

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Transportation and Urban Sustainability in China
Issues and Prospects

• Jean-Paul Rodrigue
• Dept. of Economics Geography
• Hofstra University
• Hempstead, New York, 11549 USA
• ecojpr_at_hofstra.edu

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Introduction

• Transport and the urban sustainability
• Transportation accounts for 25 of global carbon
  dioxide emissions.
• The issue of sustainability has received a lot of
  attention.
• Several different interpretations.
• What is to be sustained?
• What is the role of transportation in the
  process?
• Need to appraise and measure the situation
• The exploratory issue of the 1990s.
• Next stage should be more pro-active.

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Environmental Impacts of Transportation
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Major Contributors to CO2 Emissions (in millions
of metric tons), 1996
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Transportation Energy Use per Capita, 1990 (in MJ)
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Transportation and Urban Sustainability, the
American Way
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The Issue of Urban Sustainability

• Urban sustainability
• A city which offers a good quality of life to its
  residents.
• A process, not a state.
• Not compromising the welfare of its surrounding
  areas and of future generations.
• Little environmental damage, a good conservation
  of resources such as water, land and energy.
• Capability of handling change.
• Automobile dependence is the key to an
  unsustainable urban environment.

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The Issue of Urban Sustainability

• Procedural measures
• Reduce the amount of Vehicle-Kilometer-Traveled.
• Increase transit and decrease car use.
• Reduce the average commute distance.
• Increase average speed of transit, especially
  relative to cars.
• Decrease parking space per capita.
• Increase kilometers of separated cycleways.

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Ecological Deficit, 1993 (in ha per capita)
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Chinese Urban Transport Problems

• The Chinese urban challenge
• Intense spatial restructuration.
• Strong growth.
• Demographic increased mobility demands.
• Economic increased mobility levels.
• Increased participation to the global economy.
• Motorized transportation as a growing source of
  environmental degradation.
• The process of Chinese demographic growth is
  unsustainable.
• Is the resulting urbanization more sustainable?
• Better integration between transportation and
  land use to improve sustainability.

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Chinese Urban Transport Problems

• Fast growth of the fleet
• Motorized vehicles (buses, trucks and cars).
• Cycles and motorcycles.
• Infrastructure provision
• Not keeping up with the demand.
• Focused on roads.
• Public transit declining
• Drop of speed of surface public transportation.
• Shift to cycling.
• Traffic management
• Congestion.
• Rules.
• Safety.

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Chinese Urban Transport Problems

• Declining vehicle speeds
• Congestion.
• Modal interference (cars, buses, trucks and
  bicycles).

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Pre 1980s Chinese City
Transportation
Land Use
Center of power
Main arterial
Commercial / Institutional
Rail
Compact Transit-oriented
Labor intensive industrial
High density agricultural
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Pre 1980s Chinese City

• Spatial structure
• Work unit as basic organizational structure.
• Compact and limited mobility needs.
• Walking and cycling are dominant.
• Several nucleus.
• Locally oriented development.
• Limited centrality.

Resource and commercial hinterland
Agricultural hinterland
National Economy
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Shanghai, 1992
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Post 1980s Chinese City
Transportation
Land Use
Center of power
Main arterial
Commercial / Institutional
Rail
Compact Transit-oriented
Labor intensive industrial
High density agricultural
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Post 1980s Chinese City

• Spatial structure
• Mixture of local and international actors.
• Creation of a motorized space.
• Spatial stamping.
• Morphological creative destruction.
• Emerging centrality / polynuclearism.

Resource and commercial hinterland
Agricultural hinterland
Migration
National Economy
Global Economy
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The Bund, Shanghai
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Pudong Development Zone, Shanghai
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Commercial Development, Nanjing Lu, Shanghai