MODEL CITIES: Europe

Zurich, Copenhagen, Stockholm And Freiburg - European Transit Oriented Planning At Its Best

BY PETER NEWMAN
Professor of City Policy, and Director, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University

Introduction
Zurich
Copenhagen
Stockholm
Freiburg
References

Introduction

Zurich (population in 1990 of 1,166,039), Copenhagen (population in 1990 of 1,711,254), Stockholm (population in 1990 of 1,641,669 million) and Freiburg (population in 1990 of 178,343) are examples of European cities that have made concerted efforts to contain automobile dependence whilst improving the quality of life of their citizens. Many others such as Munich and Amsterdam could easily qualify for worthwhile case studies, but these four have been chosen as offering particularly striking lessons.

Zurich

The data presented in chapter 3 have already shown that Zurich has had a spectacular increase in its transit service and managed to contain its growth in car use. Figures 1 and 2 show this in comparison to Stuttgart - a European city without the same priorities as Zurich. The changes in Zurich have occurred despite substantial growth in per capita incomes.

Figure 1 Trends in motorised road traffic, Zurich and Stuttgart

Figure 2 Zurich city public transport (VZB) passenger trends

How has Zurich managed to channel its wealth into such positive city-building processes rather than the city-destroying processes of dispersal, pollution and community disturbance associated with automobile dependence? Zurich's overall strategy for overcoming automobile dependence is summarised in Table 1.

Table 1 Zurich's strategies for overcoming automobile dependence.

In the 70's Zurich had to make decisions about its trams. Why not build an expensive underground Metro and leave the streets for cars? Instead of bowing to the car lobby, the community demanded that they expand their old tram system and upgrade the services so that citizens rarely had to wait more than 6 minutes and that trams and buses be given absolute priority right-of-way at traffic signals.

"Suddenly trams became popular in Zurich. We found it impossible to attack the use of the tram... People simply won't accept it", says planning consultant Willi Husler. As trams became fashionable, public attention was directed to other amenities - pedestrian malls and outdoor cafes, which were allowed to take up road space and parking lots. The strategy, says Husler, was "to point out other better possibilities of use. That way we can fight a guerrilla war against the car and win". What appeared to happen was that people began to respond to the attractions of the public realm and made private sacrifices to be part of that.

Photo 1 Zurich "fought a guerrilla war against the car and won"

In the 1980s Zurich continued to dramatically improve its transit offering. An S-Bahn system was fully developed and coordinated with other transit modes. Many lines use new high quality double-decker train sets. Large shopping centres under transit authority control have been developed under and around major stations. Throughout the Zurich region there are also fine examples of the way the land use planning process and development industry have responded to the dramatic improvements and coordination of transit services. It is now possible to find many urban villages integrated tightly around the S-Bahn system (eg in Tiergarten, an urban village built in a disused quarry in Zurich's inner area on the Uetliberg line).

As well, the very effective transit services were brought to the attention of the population in dramatic and appealing ways through effective marketing and high quality information systems. An anecdotal policy in Zurich is that you should never be able to take a photo in the street in Zurich without capturing the distinctive signs which are the trade mark of the transit system. Special purpose transit system maps were introduced to show people how to get to restaurants, sport facilities, cultural attractions and so on using the transit system.

Photo 2 Zurich's public spaces and cycle facilities are of high quality

Environmental travel cards or Rainbow tickets were introduced and appealed to peoples' environmental consciousness, especially the peculiar Swiss problem of destructive avalanches caused by forests dying from automotive air pollution. Young people were particularly targeted in marketing campaigns. Now 80% of trips made on Zurich's transit system are from pre-sold tickets and 25% of the population are classed as "committed" transit users (people who possess a pass of 28 days or longer duration) (Laube, 1995).

So effective has the coordinated transit campaign been that the modal share of car trips in Zurich for the journey-to-work has fallen by 9 percentage points between 1980 and 1990. Zurich offers a key to resolving the problem of automobile dependence: a city should always strive to provide something more appealing to its citizens than what decisions based around the automobile can provide.

Copenhagen

Resistance to automobile dependence can be found in most European cities, but Copenhagen has shown that the dilemma of the automobile can be resolved using innovative social planning. Table 2 summarises Copenhagen's strategies for overcoming automobile dependence.

Table 2 Copenhagen's strategies for overcoming automobile dependence.

Copenhagen has a transit-oriented urban form ("finger plan" based on radial rail lines) which includes cases such as at Ballerup at the end of one "S-tog" line (Copenhagen's local electric train service) where a shopping centre, office complex, community facilities and apartments have been built over and around the station. The station environment includes pedestrianised boulevards, a large bus feeder station and extensive provision for bikes.

However, the transit-oriented urban form alone was not enough as the car was taking over and needed to be resisted. Professor Jan Gehl described the process by which Copenhagen began to win back its city over a 20 year period:

"By the 60's American values had begun to catch on - separate isolated homes and everyone driving. The city was suffering so how could we reverse these patterns? We decided to make the public realm so attractive it would drag people back into the streets, whilst making it simultaneously difficult to go there by car" (Gehl, 1992).

Photo 3 In the 60's Copenhagen's traffic was bad. What to do?

Each year Copenhagen reduced central area parking by 3%. Each year they pedestrianised more streets. Each year they built or refurbished city housing. Each year they introduced into the streets all kinds of attractive landscaping, sculptures, and seating (including 3000 seats along footpath cafes). And each year they introduced more buskers, markets and other street life and festivals that became more and more popular. As Jan Gehl said, "the city became like a good party".

Photo 4 Copenhagen's solution is to make the streets so welcoming for
pedestrians and cyclists that cars become the last option chosen

The result has been not only a reduction in the traffic, but growth in the vitality of the city area. Social and recreational activity has tripled in Copenhagen's major streets (Gehl and Gemsoe, 1996).

Danes are finding that the public realm of the city is so attractive that there is a declining market for single detached homes on the urban fringe - they are apparently "too far away" and "too private". Copenhagen is now building a light rail system in response to the increased demand for travel to the city and between its sub-centers and this is being paid for entirely out of the land development opportunities it is creating.

Photo 5 3% of all parking per year for 30 years was changed into public spaces like this

Copenhagen is also one of the world's best bicycle cities. One third of the city goes to work on a bike. Like many European cities, Copenhagen had a lot of bicycle use early this century, but unlike other cities it has not removed bicycling as it modernised and became wealthy. Car usage grew and threatened the more humble bike but in the 60's, at the same time as the processes above were beginning to happen, Copenhagen decided to stay with its bikes.

The decision was reflected most of all in its rejection of a massive freeway system that had been drawn up for implementation, as in most developed cities at that time. The public opposition was very strong and creative. Researcher Michael Varming, one of the original activists, tells of campaigns where they tied hot air balloons to major buildings threatened by the road program and large colourful buoys were placed in a lake showing how much would be reclaimed for a motorway. Mass rallies of bicyclists demanded that the plans be scrapped. And they were.

In their place, and at much reduced cost, the city began to invest in cycleways and traffic management. Although Copenhagen has only 300 kms of separated bikeways (much less than in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities), the city has created safety and priority for cyclists by much cheaper means - paint on the roads and a successful education program that generated a 'culture of respect for cyclists'. Thus at every intersection there are blue strips for cyclists to ride in, giving them priority over all turning vehicles.

Photo 6 Cycling was facilitated by lots of paint on roads

The result is a city where cyclists have safe and easy access comparable to other modes. The data on transportation deaths summarised in chapter 3 show Copenhagen to be among one of the lowest in the world (7.5 deaths per 100,000 people compared to an average of 14.6 in US cities and 8.8 overall in European cities). This low rate of transportation deaths probably has something to do with this 'culture of respect' generated for bikes, but which extends to all other road users, especially pedestrians. The bike is now used by people of all backgrounds, ages and incomes.

The latest innovation in Copenhagen is the City Bike program where colourful bikes are provided free (after a deposit is placed in the bike-holder like an airport baggage trolley). These bikes are paid for by commercial advertising and are maintained by the City of Copenhagen with assistance from the prison system which collects and repairs damaged bikes overnight. It is hard to find a free bike from among the present 2,500 bikes which are available, but as the originator of the scheme, city administrator Soren Jensen, says: 'When there are 10,000 bikes in a few years it will be a normal thing for anyone downtown to just jump on a city bike to move around the inner city'.

There is of course a close link between the policies to reurbanise and revitalise the inner city of Copenhagen and the policies to not build major infrastructure for vehicle access and to favour alternative modes. This link shows that sustainability can be a meaningful policy as the city has done very well economically as well as having no growth in car use in the inner city for 20 years (Gehl and Gemsoe, 1996). This policy has been consistent with community interests and political parties of all persuasions during the past 35 year period.

Copenhagen has of course been subject to all the pressures for suburbanisation and car use. It has developed some car dependent areas and some that tend that way (further discussion on these areas is made in chapter 5 on urban ecology). But overall, it has not allowed itself to be dominated by car-based thinking. For example, the city engineer who has overseen the infrastructure priorities for the past 15 years, Jens Rorbech, in response to motorists who suggest that unless they get more parking or road access in the inner city they will go to the suburbs, he just replies: 'Please go because the reduced traffic in the city will only make it a better environment and we will get even more investment and people coming to the city'.

Stockholm

Stockholm, which is also one of the richest cities in the world, was the only city in our global cities study in chapter 3 to show an absolute decline in car use in the 80's. It reduced by 229 kms per capita. This was associated with a growth in transit from 302 to 348 trips per person. Table 3 summarises Stockholm's strategies for overcoming automobile dependence.

Table 3 Stockholm's strategies for overcoming automobile dependence.

In examining how Stockholm managed to make such an impressive step towards sustainability it is hard to go beyond its strong commitment to land use planning based on transit-oriented development principles. The regulations which shape its planning were discussed in the case study on myths under 'Space' and was further elaborated in the discussion about its satellite centers in Urban Villages. But regulations do not always mean a city will have the kind of creativity which has been shown in Stockholm in recent years as they have demonstrated how to put in place both reurbanisation and transit-oriented development in new suburban locations

Our data on population between 1980 and 1990 show an increase in the density of Stockholm's central city, its inner city, its outer suburbs and the municipality as a whole. No other city in our sample has done that. Stockholm is therefore setting a standard to follow on land use sustainability.

This has been achieved chiefly by building urban villages around their rail system in the inner city (eg South Station) and in new outer suburbs (eg Skarpnack). These new developments are all dense, mixed use areas with a careful eye for the kind of design characteristics found in the old inner city of Stockholm. But most of all, they are built around a quality rail service that links up the whole city. They are popular as places to live and work and have some of the highest transit levels found in the world.

Photo 7 Inner city Stockholm was boosted when an old rail shunting area at South Station
was redeveloped. This is an inner city co-operative with shared driving facility.

Photo 8 Skarpnack is an award winning new outer suburb built around the train line
with no house more than a short walk to the station and town centre.

Cervero (1995) analysed the process that Stockholm has gone through in transforming itself from 'a pre-war monocentric city to a planned post-war multicentred metropolis' using a development model similar to the kind of 'Sustainable Future City' concept outlined. He found that local self-sufficiency was not particularly high in each of the sub-centers, but that the good rail system, excellent bus feeders to the rail stations and compact land use pattern, meant that people used the rail system for a large amount of their travel. Although many people did not live and work in the same centre and cross-commuting between centres was common by train, residents of the new sub-centers along the rail lines were not as automobile dependent as those in UK New Towns where there is a greater balance between housing and jobs. The UK New Towns like Milton Keynes have high car use because they are so low in density and dispersed in their land use. Promoting greater self-sufficiency is discussed in the case studies on Greening, but it is useful to see that Stockholm shows the importance of having a good rail-based transit system and land use planning around it to ensure that travel patterns are sustainable and not automobile dependent.

Stockholm has shown in the 80's that its good planning is enabling it to lead the world in sustainable urban development as it relates to reducing dependence on the automobile. Its next phase of development, called the Dennis Package, is designed to double the transit system with an orbital rail service and a downtown semi-rapid transit bus service. They are also building some further road infrastructure but it will all be heavily tolled and paid for from the money so raised.

Freiburg

Another city which has shown that it is indeed possible to virtually stop the growth of car use, even when car ownership is growing, is Freiburg, Germany. Table 4 summarises Freiburg's strategies for overcoming automobile dependence.

Table 4 Freiburg's strategies for overcoming automobile dependence.

Pucher and Clorer (1992) provide data which show how Freiburg's car ownership has risen from 113 per 1000 people in 1960 to 422 per 1000 in 1990, only a little under the average for the Zurich agglomeration, and only 12% less than the national average for West Germany (481 per 1000). Table 5 below shows how, despite this growth in availability of cars, virtually remained constant between 1976 and 1991. Transit passengers increased 53% and bicycle trips rose 96% over the same period.

Freiburg's growth in car trips in 15 years was only 1.3%, yet total trips increased 30%. Freiburg's growth in mobility was supplied principally by increased transit and bicycling. In fact, the share of trips by car reduced over the 15 years from 60% to 47%. Pucher and Clorer also show how the growth in car ownership has also begun to slow down (Freiburg had previously been higher in car ownership than West Germany as a whole, whereas now it is less).

Pucher and Clorer attribute Freiburg's success at 'taming the automobile' to a combination of transportation and physical planning strategies:

"First, it has sharply restricted auto use in the city. Second, it has provided affordable, convenient, and safe alternatives to auto use. Finally, it has strictly regulated development to ensure a compact land use pattern that is conducive to transit, bicycling and walking" (p 386).

Restricted auto use has been achieved through mechanisms such as pedestrianisation of the city centre, area-wide traffic calming schemes (citywide speed limit of 30 km/h in residential areas) and more difficult, expensive parking. Freiburg's improvements to transit have focussed on extending and upgrading its light rail system as opposed to buses. Buses are used as feeders to the light rail system. Land use regulations are similar to many other parts of Europe and have involved limiting the overall amount of land available to development and strictly zoning land for agriculture, forests, wildlife reserves or undeveloped open space.

Photo 9 Freiberg is a small European city which has built a successful
LRT and integrated land use around it

Pucher and Clorer stress the important automobile use savings of the more compact urban patterns that have resulted from these latter policies. It is also worth noting that after the Second World War it was decided to rebuild Freiburg, totally destroyed by the war, on the old model, not on an Auto City model. Pucher and Clorer note that even in the post 1960's period, as Freiburg expanded on flatter land to the west, the resulting development "...is at a much higher density than outlying portions of American metropolitan areas", as well as being within easy reach of transit and well-served by bikeways.

Photo 10 Freiberg's cycle facilities are excellent. Imagine if this were a carpark.

Overall, Freiburg shows how a coordinated, three-pronged approach to overcoming automobile dependence is effective - that is traffic calming, better transit systems and priorities to pedestrians and cyclists and compact, mixed land use patterns reinforce one another in providing a city with the conditions necessary to keep automobile dependence at bay and even to reverse it.

References

Cervero, R. (1995) Sustainable new towns: Stockholm's rail served satellites. Cities, 12(1), 41-51.

Gehl, J. (1992) The challenge of making a human quality in the city. In Perth Beyond 2000: A Challenge for a City, Proceedings of the City Challenge Conference, Perth, September.

Gehl, J. and Gemsoe, L. (1996) Public spaces, public life. City of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.

Laube, F. B. (1995) Fully integrated transport networks: An international perspective on applied solutions, Ticketing Technologies Conference, Park Royal, Darling Harbour, Sydney.

Pucher, J. and Clorer, S. (1992) Taming the automobile in Germany. Transportation Quarterly, 46(3), 383-395.