Abstract
Analysis of cities across the globe illustrates a strong relationship between vehicle kilometres of travel (VKT) and urbanised land area. As VKT can be used as a surrogate for vehicular emissions, this provides a method of estimating urban vehicular pollution. These emission rates are incorporated with simple meteorological forcing into a box model to provide a generalised urban air pollution model for transportation within any city and validated against published data. The results suggest direct air pollution benefits from minimising the outward growth of cities, and add weight to urban policies that emphasise compact city planning principles. (Author/publisher).