Urban form, transportation and greenhouse gas emissions Experiences in the Nordic countries Urban form, transportation and greenhouse gas emissions Experiences in the Nordic countries Irmeli Harmaajärvi, Sirkka Heinonen & Pekka Lahti VTT Building and Transport TemaNord 2004:540 Urban form, transportation and greenhouse gas emissions Experiences in the Nordic countries TemaNord 2004:540 © Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen 2004 ISBN 92-893-1045-6 ISSN 0908-6692 Printed on paper approved by the Nordic Environmental Labelling. This publication may be purchased from any of the sales agents listed on the last page. Nordic Council of Ministers Nordic Council Store Strandstræde 18 Store Strandstræde 18 DK-1255 Copenhagen K DK-1255 Copenhagen K Phone (+45) 3396 0200 Phone (+45) 3396 0400 Fax (+45) 3396 0202 Fax (+45) 3311 1870 www.norden.org Nordic co-operation in the transport sector The overall, general objective of co-operation is to foster a Nordic transport sector characterised by efficiency, competitiveness, safety, sustainability, and equality. In order to attain these objectives with the resources available, co-operation will be focussed on four areas: Sustainable Mobility, The Baltic Sea, Intelligent Transport Systems and Transport Safety. The Nordic Council of Ministers was established in 1971. It submits proposals on co-operation between the governments of the five Nordic countries to the Nordic Council, implements the Council's recommendations and reports on results, while directing the work carried out in the targeted areas. The Prime Ministers of the five Nordic countries assume overall responsibility for the co-operation measures, which are co-ordinated by the ministers for co-operation and the Nordic Co-operation committee. The composition of the Council of Ministers varies, depending on the nature of the issue to be treated. The Nordic Council was formed in 1952 to promote co-operation between the parliaments and governments of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Finland joined in 1955. At the sessions held by the Council, representatives from the Faroe Islands and Greenland form part of the Danish delegation, while Åland is represented on the Finnish delegation. The Council consists of 87 elected members - all of whom are members of parliament. The Nordic Council takes initiatives, acts in a consultative capacity and monitors co-operation measures. The Council operates via its institutions: the Plenary Assembly, the Presidium and standing committees. Abstract The main objective of the project was to identify instruments to develop urban form and transportation systems in a sustainable way to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the Nordic countries. Instruments can be found on different levels: national, regional and local. The main sectors are land use and transportation planning, land use and transportation policies, tax policy, co-operation, information dissemination, interaction, monitoring and early warning systems. Instruments concern for example control of urban development, supporting residential activities in city centres, control of location of shopping malls, preventing long commuting trips, reduction of transportation need and car dependency, promotion of walking, cycling and public transport and eco- managed telework. Land Use, Planning and Building Acts, national objectives and other regulations guide and control planning. They have many objectives which are supposed to promote sustainable development. Planning systems include zoning and transportation system plans on different geographical levels: international, national, regional and local. Certain principles are in many countries regarded as good for sustainability, many of them based on research results. Integration or infill of the urban form is to be taken as the starting point on all land use planning levels. The possibilities for supplementary building in already built-up areas are examined. New areas are located in proximity to existing areas with good public transport facilities, especially rail services. Most important services are located within easy walking distance or accessible by public transport. Land use planning aims to keep distances between various activities as short as possible. Housing, work places and services, as well as local recreational areas, are situated close to one another. Large shopping units are located in city centres or areas with good public transport. More integrated land-use and transport planning is considered to be necessary. The general objective of land use and transport planning is to maximize the modal share achieved by walking, cycling and public transport together. Public transport is promoted by a good and comprehensive standard of service, a rapid network, ease and comfort in use, as well as inexpensive fares. Walking and cycling are promoted with developing network of tracks and by making the surroundings attractive. Providing pedestrian precincts in central areas creates favorable conditions for comfortable urban living. Car traffic can be reduced with help of economic instruments, e.g. pricing and fiscal instruments, by traffic pricing, parking policies, car sharing, company bicycles, transportation telematics, teleworking, telepresence, taxation politics, removing or restricting tax deductions for commuting and company cars, by applying polluter pays- principle to infrastructure, by real estate and fuel taxes and by applying determined land policy. Taxes can be an effective way to affect people’s choices of dwelling location and mode of travel. For example, removing or restricting tax deductions for commuting and company cars and, in the other hand, increasing tax deduction for public transport can lead to less transportation need and less use of private cars. Fuel taxes may promote less use of private cars. Municipalities can control land use and direct it to favorable areas also by real estate taxes. 5 Municipalities which are responsible for land use and transportation planning cannot always afford large public transport investments alone and additional state financing is often needed. Coordinated investment plans can help decisions. Road customs, congestion prices etc. can be used for financing in addition to their impact on use of private cars. Traffic pricing can be an effective instrument to promote public transport and walking and bicycling instead of use of private cars. Road customs, congestion prices and parking prices have proved to be effective. Parking policies may be an important tool to control urban form. Restricting amount of parking places and adjusting the cost of parking is a good instrument to reduce use of cars especially in city centres. Eco-managed telework can be one solution to reduce need for transport. A concept of the Eco-Managed Introduction of Telework from Finland is introduced. In the chosen Finnish case areas, possibilities were explored for linking residential areas with well developed ICT infrastructure to the eco-managed introduction of telework. Telework can also be integrated as part of a lifestyle based on sustainable development. The role of telework centres in reducing passenger car commuting was also analysed. Further, introduction of eco-managed telework can be included in environmental strategies of communities, corporations and institutions. Denmark was among the first European countries to start giving regulations on telework arrangements. One important factor to promote the development was the decision that a computer which employer gives to employee to use at home is not a taxable advantage. In Norway impacts of telework have been assessed in Oslo and Bergen. The analysis showed that telework has potential to reduce transport and emissions in both regions. The government has included several telework projects into its development programmes concerning labour markets and regional policy. In Sweden the government has proposed large state support to build a country wide broadband channel for households and rural areas. The cities of Stockholm and Linköping have carried out telework projects. In 2001 the government established an IT & Environmental Forum with the aim of promoting ict and sustainable development. One of its two working groups is concerned with virtual mobility. Research results show that urban form has remarkable and long-term impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and that there are significant possibilities to reduce emissions by control of urban form and transportation. Most of the measures have also other positive impacts, e.g. on other emissions, costs and the quality of the environment. Good ideas and knowledge of research results are however not enough to create sustainable urban form and transportation. There are many possible obstacles which would be necessary to address and try to solve. In land use planning the main obstacles or challenges may be lack of cooperation between municipalities which have an essential role in planning, lack of determined land policy of municipalities and lack of control of scattered development in rural areas. The possibility of the local authorities to regulate parking lots is limited by the fact that in many city centres the majority parking lots are private. The good governmental level targets and programmes that aim at better integration of environmental and other social aspects into land use planning and transport policy may not be internalised at the local level because some other aims and objectives may (such as commercial or other industrial employment etc.) exceed these aims of