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4.2.2. Principle 2: Multi-modal sustainable transport
4.2.1.3. Land-use mix and Intensification
Land use mix must be complemented with inward growth and buildings density. Since not all uses can be mixed, it is suggested to co-locate complementing activities. Importantly, this mixing should be promoted at various scales, from regional, city, district, to the local scale of neighbourhoods. In other words, mixing activities in urban centres to mixing building stock and local services/ shops of neighbourhoods. (Bibri et al., 2020; R. Rogers, 2008; R. G. Rogers, 2013) These features are being enforced by respective cities in their individual contexts. Portland has enacted inclusionary zoning to add diversity of buildings in the neighbourhoods, similarly, Melbourne, through its ‘hallmarks of 20-minute neighbourhoods’ suggests ‘multiple options of living’ which means creating diversity of building stocks. At the city scale, all the cities are enhancing retail sectors around urban centres, principal roads and transit nodes.
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4.2.1.4. Quality of Urban Design
The primary objective of the model is to make cities as accessible to people through soft mobility. Thus, the compact city’s layout and features should support pedestrian traffic. Structural design elements like small land layouts and porous street network provides fine grained morphology which promotes slow modes of transport. (Bertolini et al., 2005; Bramley & Power, 2009) While Paris has a tradition of good urban design of streetscapes, Portland and Melbourne have started focussing on it. Melbourne, for example, is identifying streets which deter people from undertaking walk and using tactical urbanism methods to regenerate those areas. Portland has induced incentives for local retail shops and private developers to undertake façade upliftment.
The compact city is based on the principle of sustainable means of access and discouraging car-oriented mobility. It is a major strategy for all the three cities to achieving sustainable urban form and proximity for people. By relying on sustainable transportation, the characteristics of ‘density’, ‘diversity’ and ‘mixed-use’ render compact cities to be socially beneficial, environmentally sound, and economically viable (Bibri et al., 2020, p. 8) Jordan and Horan (1997, as cited in Bibri et al., 2020, p. 12) define ‘sustainable transportation services’ that reflect the overall social and environmental costs of their provisions, considering; carrying capacity, need for mobility, need for access, safety, environmental quality and neighbourhood liveability. Sustainable transport system involves provision of physical infrastructure as well as quality and level of services availed to citizens with an aim to increase accessibility and reduce commute (The International Transport forum, 2019). This signifies that cities not only have to invest in structural changes
to the city, but also use soft measures like incentives and public actions to increase sustainable access.
The Strategic framework of this principle can be divided into, 1. Quality provision & variety of public transport modes 2. Promoting soft mobility & reducing car Commute 3. Mobility as a service (MaaS)
4.2.2.1. Quality provision & variety of public transport modes
The OECD International Transport forum (2019) states that public transit is an important investment for inclusive and equitable access. The provision of public transit access is based on the ‘Transit oriented developed (TOD) principles of New Urbanism. It takes the form of hierarchical order of provision from regional scale to neighbourhood scale to provide variety of options to residents to reach from point A to point B encompassing various mods of public transport like, regional and local trains, metro lines, trams, bus services and radio taxies.
The official documents of Portland and Melbourne state that the cities are investing heavily on public transit and provision of infrastructure for slow modes of transport. Portland is increasing its light rails line (trams) in the eastern neighbourhoods, while Melbourne due to very poor density intends to temporarily resolve the issue by providing bus services until permanent infrastructure is provided in outer neighbourhoods. The Grand Paris strategy, too, primarily relies on upgrading the existing public transit to increase its efficiency and extend the provision of public transit to ‘Grand Paris’ region. The Paris En Commun strategy envisages increasing the frequency of flexible modes of public transport services (like trams and buses) within the inner city. The provision of these flexible services shall be extended into night-time too.
4.2.2.2. Promoting soft mobility & reducing car commute
In order to reduce (long) car commute and reduce pollution due to congestion in cities, its important to complement the provision of infrastructure and services for slow mobility options. The current literature on multi-modal transport suggests that often cities focus only on public transit, however, connecting soft mobility options bike paths and pedestrian paths are lacking in many cities, especially in the sub-urban area. This issue of service delivery leads to citizens adopting car-transport despite of provision of public transit options. (Cheng et al., 2007; Gil Solá et al., 2018; Jabareen, 2016; Motieyan & Mesgari, 2017)
Promoting soft mobility requires installing hardscape elements like pathways, sidewalks and as well as softscape elements like green spaces. All three cities as per their varying capacities and local context have introduced these elements. A Few common features can be identified among the three cases,
