Important problems related to private car usage exist in most European cities. Solving, or at least managing, these problems is a challenge for both politicians and planners alike. Sound decisions require a good basis:- better insights into the relationships between mobility and land use are indispensable. This needs a detailed comparison between different cities based on reliable data but comparable data-sets for a sufficient analysis are not available. The aim of an EC project "SESAME" is therefore to facilitate political and planning decisions on mobility and land use and to provide a reliable basis for their evaluation. This paper highlights the results of a study of 40 cities across six different countries. Information was collected at different urban levels for a number of different types of indicator: land use, transport supply, travel demand, safety, environmental, political and cultural. The data, having been organised into a database, was analysed to provide greater understanding of the relationships between travel demand, urban form and transport supply in order to determine where there were similarities between cities of different types and cultures and to examine the reasons for any differences. In addition to the quantitative data, the impacts of having applied certain policies were investigated. The analysis of the SESAME database provided some valuable insights in the land use transportation relationship within European cities. The gained experiences also yielded some useful guidelines for formulating recommendations for data harmonisation to improve the possibilities of comparative policy analysis in the future.
Abstract