Reports:

Study of European best practice in the delivery of integrated transport: report on stage 1 - benchmarking

7. World Cities

KEY LOCAL DETRMINANTS

7.1 London is the second largest city in the sample and yet it covers a relatively small area and so the average metropolitan population density is high. However, the urban central area contains a high proportion of jobs, but few residents, and so the central area density is lower than Athens, Barcelona and Madrid, as shown in Table 7.1.

7.2 Madrid has achieved particularly high concentrations of jobs and residents, in the centre, however, there is considerable out-migration and peripheral growth under way and the extent of the urban sprawl is evident from the large surface area and low overall metropolitan density.

7.3 GDP per capita in London is surprisingly low, comparable with Berlin which is one of the poorest Germany cities, and this impacts on car ownership and the volume of motorised travel undertaken (see later).

Table 7.1 - Demographic and Socio-Economic Indicators

	Population (000s)	Surface Area (sq km)	Pop. Density (inhabitants per sq km)	Central Area Density (inhab/.sq km)	Employment in CBD (%)	Metrop. GDP per capita (US $)
Paris (Ile de France)	11,004	12,000	915	4,760	18	41,305
London	7,187	1,580	4,550	5,900	28	22,363
Madrid	5,182	8,000	645	8,585	39	17,568
Barcelona	4,228	3,240	1,300	8,520	20	18,124
Athens	3,682	1,450	2,500	6,950	17	11,506
Berlin	3,471	840	4,165	5,600	20	23,480
Rome	2,654	1,285	2,065	5,580	20	25,542

Source: Millennium Cities, Citizens Network, Transport for London, Facilitators.
Table ranked for Population.

Car Ownership

7.4 There is considerable variation in car ownership between world cities, reflecting the influence of area-specific characteristics. In particular, the density of population impacts on people's proximity to goods and services and hence their need to travel, as well as the provision of road space and parking opportunities.

7.5 Table 7.2 shows that relatively high densities and low incomes, coupled with high car purchase costs (para 2.8), are suppressing car ownership growth in London. In contrast, the recent increase in low density, suburban development and growth in GDP in Madrid, and relaxed planning controls that have led to urban sprawl in the Ile de France region, coupled with the promotion of sub-centres such as La Defense in Paris, have encouraged motorisation.

Table 7.2 - Car & PTW Ownership

	Cars per 1,000 pop		PTW per 1,000 pop
	Latest Year	Change over 10 Years (%)	Latest Year
Rome	655	21	42
Paris	450	25	17
Barcelona	410	12	65
London	365	5	9
Berlin	354	17	18
Athens	339	n/a	58
Madrid	322	40	27

Source: Millennium Cities, Citizens Network, EMTA, TERM, German websites, Facilitators.

7.6 Powered two-wheeler (PTW) ownership is surprisingly low in London, though the rate is increasing at about 5% per year, compared to 3% in Paris and 5% in Berlin^[14].

Supply of Roads and Parking

7.7 Low car ownership in London and Berlin corresponds with the relatively low supply of urban roads and motorways in these cities, as shown in Table 7.3. In contrast, Rome has very high car ownership, corresponding with much higher highway and parking provision.

7.8 Athens also has low car ownership but very high provision of roads, however, the roads are low capacity and in a poor state of repair.

Table 7.3 - Supply of Roads

	Length of Road (m per 1,000 pop)	Rank	Motorways (m per 1,000 pop)	Rank
Athens	4520	1	39	4
Rome	4135	2	147	1
Paris	1925	3	67	3
London	1895	4	9	7
Madrid	1720	5	91	2
Berlin	1500	6	18	6
Barcelona	1235	7	31	5

Source: Millennium Cities, Citizens Network, EMTA, TERM, German websites, Facilitators.

7.9 London has the lowest supply of parking spaces^[15] in the CBD (Figure 7.1), reflecting pressure for development space and the high land costs in the City along with the long-term use of parking as a demand restraint measure.

Figure 7.1 - Supply of Parking

Supply of Public Transport

7.10 London has a high supply of public transport (in terms of vehicle kms per capita), reflecting the increasing use of minibuses and midibuses, but a relatively poor network density, compared to other world cities, as shown in Table 7.4.

7.11 London's length of reserved routes - defined as segregated tracks and busways - compares poorly against Barcelona and to a lesser extent against Rome.

7.12 London has a much greater supply of buses than other world cities. Bus fleets are also increasing at a rate of 1% per year, in contrast to the decline seen in most other cities^[16].

Table 7.4 - Supply of Public Transport

	Supply of public transport (vkm per capita)	(Rank)	Density of public transport (route kms per sq km)	(Rank)	Reserved PT routes (route kms per ha)	Buses per 1,000 pop (Area)
London	141	(1)	2.4	(5)	10	2.7 (Gt London)
Berlin	115	(2)	3.4	(4)	4	0.6 (Berlin)
Rome	100	(3)	5.3	(1)	13	1.7 (Lazio)
Paris	71	(4)	1.5	(7)	7	0.7 (Ile de Fr.)
Madrid	65	(5)	4.0	(3)	7	1.6 (Madrid)
Barcelona	62	(6)	1.7	(6)	33	1.0 (Cataluna)
Athens	37	(7)	4.2	(2)	4	3.6 (Attiki)

Source: Millennium Cities, TERM 2000.

Investment

7.13 Table 7.5 compares annual levels of investment in public transport and road infrastructure and shows that:

• Barcelona invests the most in public transport out of the sample, some 20% more than London, which has the second highest investment per capita. Current schemes underway include a 16km tramway in Barcelona and the London Bus Initiative.
• Berlin invests the most in roads (reflecting the investment in the former East Berlin), followed by Athens, where investment is focused on improving the under-developed highway network and relieving traffic congestion brought about by the rapidly increasing car ownership.

Table 7.5 - Investment in Transport Infrastructure

	Investment in Public Transport1		Investment in Roads2
	Euros per capita	(Rank)	Euros per capita	(Rank)
Barcelona	326	(1)	119	(5)
London	275	(2)	132	(4)
Athens	221	(3)	283	(2)
Berlin	193	(4)	293	(1)
Paris	87	(5)	158	(3)
Madrid	82	(6)	47	(6)
Rome	48	(7)	34	(7)

Source: Based on Millennium Cities.
1: Total annual spending on public transport excluding direct operating expenses.
2: Total annual investment and maintenance spend by all levels of government and major private road operators on all types of roads.

Relative Costs of Transport

7.14 The cost of using public transport in London is higher than in any other world city in the sample. Fares are typically twice as high as Paris and Barcelona, and four times as high as Athens and Rome, as illustrated by the differing costs of monthly season tickets in Table 7.6 (though it is appreciated that these relate to different sizes of networks and qualities of service).

Table 7.6 - Public Transport Fares

Public Transport Fare (monthly pass, Euro, PPP adj)
London	97
Barcelona	41
Paris (Ile de France)	40
Rome	26
Athens	23

Source: Citizens Network, EMTA web site.

7.15 Figure 7.2 shows that car travel is relatively cheap in London, compared to the other world cities in the sample. Furthermore, the differential in the cost of travel by car and public transport per unit distance is considerably lower in London, and this is likely to influence modal choice.

Figure 7.2 - Comparison of Public and Private Transport Costs

Source: Millennium Cities.
Note: Car costs include fixed costs, depreciation, insurance and running costs. Costs do not include user time. PPP adjusted.

MOBILITY & MODAL CHOICE

Distance Travelled

7.16 Table 7.7 shows the overall distance travelled by motorised modes and demonstrates that there is no apparent link between travel and population density. However, comparison with other categories of cities in later chapters demonstrates that people who live in larger (though not necessarily denser) cities tend to travel less than those in smaller cities and towns.

Table 7.7 - Motorised Travel

	Pkm Per Person		Pkm Per Person, PPP adjusted
	Car	Public Transport	Car	Public Transport	Total Rank	Car/ Car + PT (%)
Rome	5202	3805	5202	3805	9007 (1)	58
Athens	3565	1454	4753	1795	6853 (2)	79
Madrid	3850	1454	4753	1795	6548 (3)	73
London	4114	2047	4073	2027	6100 (4)	67
Paris	3936	1763	3897	1745	5642 (5)	69
Barcelona	2165	1764	2673	2177	4850 (6)	55
Berlin	3071	1736	2844	1607	4451 (7)	64

Source: Millennium Cities.

7.17 London has a relatively high level of car travel, similar to Paris, though it has considerably lower car ownership (365 in London, compared to 450 per 1,000 population in Paris).

7.18 Barcelona has a particularly low level of car travel, despite high car ownership (410 per 1,000 pop), and high public transport use contributing to a low ratio of car to total motorised travel (excluding powered wheelers).

7.19 Whilst travel intensity is a useful indicator of the demand for travel, it is biased towards longer distance movements. The following sections aim to overcome this by considering trip rates and journey lengths separately.

Trip Rates & Journey Lengths

7.20 London has a relatively high trip rate, and nearly three times as many trips are made by car than public transport. London performs well on walking, though this may be a reflection of the good standard of reporting of walk trips in the National Travel Survey, and there is some cycling, but this is low compared to Berlin.

7.21 In contrast Barcelona has the lowest levels of overall trip making in the sample, as illustrated in Figure 7.3, with a significant proportion of trips being made by public transport, but very little cycling, in common with other Spanish cities. It has a relatively low average trip length - about 10 km, compared to 12km in London - and Figure 7.4 shows that there is little difference between the typical length of car and public transport trips.

Figure 7.3 - Trip Rates by Mode

Source: Millennium Cities.

7.22 Madrid has a low car/PTW trip rate, though the average length of car journeys is surprisingly long (see Figure 7.4), which may be a survey error or a product of the city's large geographical area and growing number of peri-urban^[17] developments.

Figure 7.4 - Average Trip Length

Source: Millennium Cities.

Modal Split

7.23 London has the third highest share of private transport trips (Figure 7.8), despite its low car ownership. It has the lowest share of public transport trips, but a relatively high share of walking and cycling.

7.24 Madrid, notably, has the lowest share of private transport trips and the highest share of public transport trips in the sample, largely because of its low car ownership and high cost differential between private and public transport.

Figure 7.5 - Modal Share for World Cities

Source: Millennium Cities Citizen's Network. Chart ranked for private transport.

7.25 Data concerning changes in modal share over the last ten years or so is scarce and varies significantly between sources, perhaps because of political reasons, and also the definition of the city boundary. As with other statistics in the report, we have attempted to overcome this by presenting, in Table 7.9, 'consensus' figures that have been averaged using several sources.

7.26 These show that the proportion of trips made by car is growing in all cities where data is available, however the rate of increase varies with car ownership growth; ranging from 7% in Athens (car ownership is growing rapidly from its low base in Greece, as shown in Figure 2.1) to about 0.5% in the already highly motorised cities of Paris and Barcelona.

7.27 Car modal share has increased only slightly in London, while public transport has grown by 6%. However, considering the relative growth in motorised modes shows that this has been at the expense of walking and cycling journeys.

Table 7.8 - Changes in Modal Shares over 10 Years (%)

	Share of All Modes		Share of Motorised Modes
	Private Transport	Public Transport	Public Transport
Athens	+7	-7	-20
London	+1	+6	-1
Barcelona	+0.5	0	-5
Paris	+0.5	n/a	+4
Madrid	-4% in centre	n/a	+29

Source: Citizen's Network, EMTA, TSB
Note: No data available for Berlin and Rome.

ROAD SAFETY

7.28 In common with national casualty records, Table 7.10 shows that London performs well on fatality risk with about 3 deaths per 100,000 population, second only to Berlin. The rate of decline over the past ten years in London has also been high, though not as high as Berlin.

7.29 Part of the differences in these rates is caused by the variations in the road user types and traffic speeds. Mediterranean countries have much higher PTW use which has a higher risk of fatality than other motorised modes. Speed limits are typically higher in urban roads in London, and average traffic speeds vary from about 35kph in Paris and Madrid which have mid-range fatality risks, to about 30kph in London and Berlin which have the lowest fatality risks (see Congestion section).

Table 7.9 - Casualty Risks

	Fatalities per 100,000 pop		Injuries per 100,000 pop
	1998 (Rank)	1990-98 (%)	1998	1990-98 (%)
Berlin	2.5 (1)	-62	606	-3
London	3.2 (2)	-47	635	20
Paris	6.7 (3)	-28	420	24
Madrid	7.4 (4)	n/a	n/a	n/a
Barcelona	8.5 (5)	+12	n/a	n/a
Athens	8.8 (6)	-2	256	2
Rome	12.5 (7)	n/a	n/a	n/a

Source: Based on StatBase, INRETS, http://www.destatis.de.

7.30 The risk of injury accident is significant in London at 635 per 100,000 population, compared to 420 in Paris where there are similar volumes of traffic per unit length of road and typical speeds are much higher. The very low injury accident rate in Athens is likely to be related to low car ownership and very low traffic speeds.

CONGESTION & ENVIRONMENTAL OUTCOMES

Congestion

7.31 As already mentioned, there is some variation in typical road network speeds between cities which is a function of both the speed limit and the flow of vehicles. Comparison of average speed against traffic density in Figure 7.5 shows that Athens has the worst congestion in the sample with lower than expected speeds for given levels of road utilisation. London, meanwhile, has the worst levels of congestion for the cities with similar levels of road utilisation (Paris, Madrid and Berlin), and much more congestion than Barcelona which has a network of high capacity roads.

Figure 7.6 - Congestion Levels

Source: Based on Millennium Cities.

7.32 Traffic congestion can have a detrimental effect on the attractiveness of road-based public transport. London has mid-value average all-day speeds, as shown in Table 7.11, well below Rome but above Barcelona, where bus priority measures have so far only been implemented in the city centre.

Table 7.11 - Peak Hour Bus Speeds

	Average Bus Speed (kph)
Rome	20
Berlin	19
Madrid	19
Athens	18
London	17
Paris	17
Barcelona	14

Source: Millennium Cities, Facilitators.

Emissions

7.33 This section considers four pollutants; nitrogen dioxide (NO_x), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), volatile hydrocarbons (VHC) and carbon monoxide (CO). Road transport contributes to about a half of NO_x and SO₂ emissions and is strongly associated with CO and VHC in the urban environment.

Table 7.12 - Emissions (kg per capita)

	NOx (Rank)	SO2 (Rank)	CO (Rank)	VHC (Rank)
London	15.4 (1)	0.8 (5)	73.0 (4)	13.8 (4)
Madrid	12.7 (2)	1.2 (3)	55.4 (5)	9.2 (6)
Paris	11.3 (3)	1.8 (2)	100.8 (2)	18.6 (2)
Athens	10.1 (4)	0.5 (6)	194.1 (1)	29.2 (1)
Rome	9.8 (5)	5.3 (1)	96.6 (3)	16.5 (3)
Barcelona	6.7 (6)	0.9 (4)	37.8 (7)	7.3 (7)
Berlin	6.0 (7)	0.4 (7)	45.6 (6)	10.7 (5)

Source: Millennium Cities.

7.34 London produces the highest volume of NO_x per capita and mid-level quantities of other pollutants.

7.35 Paris and Athens perform poorly on all pollutants. Paris has the second highest emissions of SO₂, CO and VHC and third highest VHC. Athens has the highest emissions of both CO and VHC as well as mid high levels of NO_x and SO₂ .

7.36 In contrast, Berlin and Barcelona perform relatively well across most pollutant categories. These two cities produce the least SO₂ and CO per capita; Barcelona has the lowest VHC emissions while Berlin has the lowest level of SO₂.

7.37 There is only limited availability of trend data that can be used for comparative purposes. Table 7.13 suggests that while air quality in London has improved, Paris has generally deteriorated through the 1990s.

Table 7.13 - Changes in Emissions (over 10 years)

	NOx	SO2	CO	VHC
London	-6%	-11%	-25%	-19%
Paris	+7%>	+12%	46%	-7%

Source: Latest Year - Millennium Cities; 1990 Kenworthy JR and Laube FB,
An International Sourebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities 1960-1990, 1999.

ACCESSIBILITY & SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Distance to Work

Table 7.14 - Accessibility to Employment

	Average Distance to Work (km)FONT>	Rank
London	7.2	1
Barcelona	7.4	2
Athens	8.4	3
Paris	9.1	4
Berlin	9.8	5
Madrid	10.8	6
Rome	13.2	7

Source: Millennium Cities.

Support for Public Transport

7.39 Different ownership and regulatory arrangements in the sample of cities are reflected in the balance of revenue sources. In London, buses are in private ownership and there is greater emphasis on cost-effectiveness with ticket sales covering 85% of operating costs. In contrast, in Berlin, public sector ownership and differing attitudes towards the function of public transport^[18] have led to much higher levels of subsidy.

Table 7.15 - Revenue Source for Public Transport (% of operating cost)

		Commercial Revenue	Subsidy
Bus only:	London	75	25
	Madrid	84	16
	Athens	45	55
	Barcelona	65	35
Public transport system:	Athens	78	22
	Berlin	43	57
	Paris	35	65
	Rome	25	75

Source: JUTS 2000 except Paris; based on Compte National du Transport de Voyageurs (1998), CERTU 2001.
Commercial revenue includes farebox, other commercial revenue and reimbursement for concessionary fares.
Subsidy includes Fuel Duty Rebate (=10% of operating cost) in London.

Concessionary Fares

7.40 The variation in public support for operations does not appear to impact on the concessions and discounts available to children, older people and disabled users on public transport. The summary presented in Table 7.16 suggests that London has the most generous schemes, but then it also has the most expensive fares.

Table 7.16 - Concessionary Fares Summary

Athens	50% reduction for youths and students and those who have more than 4 children.
Barcelona	Pensioners can purchase tickets and travelcards at around 1/2 price. Family tickets are available.
Berlin	1/2 price school age tickets, around 1/3rd off for senior citizens and students.
London	Child fares less than 1/2 price, student and "new deal" pass cards available offering 30% reduction, free off peak travel for elderly, disabled and mobility impaired.
Madrid	75% discount on passes for elderly and around 33% discount on passes for young people. 95% reduction for disabled travellers.
Paris	Students under 26: 1/3 to 1/2 off of normal fares with bigger reductions on annual passes.
Rome	Special fares (40% reduction) for under 21s, students under 26, and over 65s.

Source: Transit Authority Websites.

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14: TERM, 2000.
15: Includes on and off-street parking.
16: TERM, 2000.
17: term encompasses suburban development, urban sprawl and new towns.
18: German cities see public transport as crucial to urban living and so responsibility for the provision of high quality services has been retained by single co-ordinating public sector bodies.

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