The Complexity of the Urban Transport System

Figure 3: The complexity of the urban transport system: The two sectors of the transport system; public/private and goods transport are dependent on each other and interact most intensely at the point of trade and consumption

As we can see from the two previous passages, the transport system is complex and both sides need to use the current infrastructure. The picture gets even more complex when we consider that the two sides actually are closely interlinked with each other. Work travel on both the public and private side is connected to the production sites, as the workers need to be in place for a company to produce, sell and deliver goods. Shopping travel, to the point of consumption, is conducted in order to purchase the goods that are being produced and some of the products might be used during our leisure travels. Yet, somehow, we seem to not consider both sides in our research or planning endeavours;

there is a barrier between the two disciplines and it is a barrier that needs to be viewed as more of an interface.

2.1 Trade as Interface

Based on the complexity of the urban transport system described and depicted above, trade, or rather the point of consumption, can be seen as the interface between goods transports and public and private transports. This is where the interaction between industry and everyday life occurs and is where we find the greatest conflicts of interest between shoppers and delivery vehicles.

Today, a small shop in a city centre can receive numerous deliveries per day from different suppliers. However, the quantity of goods received in every delivery may not be very large for each delivery. It is for instance not that uncommon for a small shop to have upwards of ten smaller deliveries per day. The reason is of course that different suppliers use different delivery companies in order to deliver to their customers. However, at the same time that same little shop might not have that many customers per day, implying that there might be an excess of delivery transport to the shop in comparison to the shopping travel undertaken by consumers. This is a good example of the ‘excess transport supply’ area in the previously presented Bertolini-model analogy.

120

From an attractiveness perspective, the situation where numerous delivery vehicles deliver to the same shop over the course of a day might lead to that shop feeling crowded and simply being rendered unattractive. Consider the following; what is more appealing, a shop that has delivery vehicles parked outside during a large portion of the day or a shop where you can actually see what is on display in the window? A majority of us would probably prefer the latter situation, where we can see what is being sold. The conundrum is of course that in order for a shop to sell goods, deliveries are crucial but at the same time, the shop needs to attract customers.

Another dimension to the interface is that consumers need to reach the shopping areas. In Sweden and Denmark, we find two different approaches to how this is done. For instance in the central parts of Copenhagen there are a lot of smaller shops but also large gallerias and not many external shopping malls in the greater Copenhagen area. Most of the city is accessible by public transport. In Sweden, to some extent, the situation is different. Of course, there are shops in the central parts of Swedish cities as well, but establishing external shopping malls on the outskirts of cities is something that dates back to 1980’s and has become the norm in Sweden (Vägverket, 2003). This leads to smaller, centrally located city shops struggling to compete with the larger malls on the periphery. In fact, many of the same shops that are found in the core of Swedish cities can also be found at the external shopping malls. The shopping malls, to a high degree, cater almost exclusively to those who have access to personal motorised transport, whereas city centres are connected to the public transport system.

Regardless of what shop system is established people need to get to the shops, which means that we have conflicting interests between delivery vehicles, public transport, and private transport. In this situation, all vehicles are trying to utilise the same spatial resources. One way of reducing the conflict, which has been tried and shown to work, is to reduce the amount of private vehicles that enters city centres through different toll systems. Another way is to make it more difficult for private vehicles once they have reached the city centres by blocking streets or making them one way only. In addition to the previous examples, goods delivery vehicles in many cities can only enter the central parts during certain hours to deliver their goods. In order to reduce negative external effects like pollution and congestion of goods distribution and transport in cities, the most commonly used tools have historically been different legislative measures dealing with traffic like delivery-time windows or prohibited entry in central areas for certain types of vehicles as mentioned previously. More recently, however, the use of societal marginal cost pricing of the negative external effects have come in practice. This involves using the price mechanism to achieve reductions in e.g. emissions, by raising prices on fuel, on distance driven, or on entering the city via congestion charges and road tolls. Usually a combination of the two policies, legislation and societal marginal cost pricing, are used when addressing the issue.

These interventions usually do have the desired effects, at least in the short run. However, the long run effects on economic growth are not always measurable. Interventions such as these are sometimes inflexible and fail to effectively allow for differing needs in different areas of the city both spatially and temporally. This inflexibility can sometimes counteract the original intention of the regulation. Another way of approaching the issue may offer a solution. If we can adapt the number of goods transport vehicles (mobility) in the urban environment to the needs (resources) by means of new approaches to urban

121

transport planning, the transport intensity could be optimised thereby resulting in increased attractiveness of the city in accordance with the Bertolini-analogy.