The assumption that travel demand is influenced by land use has long been applied in spatial planning policy. The aim of this paper is to explore how far this policy has succeeded in bringing about a compact and mixed spatial structure between 1990 and 1996. It appears that whilst the urban areas are levelling out on the one hand they are undergoing a process of separation on the other hand. Though most of the building in the Dutch Randstad is taking place inside the designated urban regions it is not producing compact monocentric towns: the urban areas are converging increasingly, the metropolitan centres are losing their importance, and subcentres and concentrations of services are springing up on the edges of the urban regions. These phenomena confirm the emergence of complex, polycentric urban areas. Suburban sprawl is increasing rapidly in the intermediate zone outside the Randstad, where low-density residential areas, `mono-environments' and business estates are expanding. This region appears to have become the suburban search space for the Randstad. These trends will increase the distance between locations and make destinations less easily accessible by bicycle and public transport. Hence, neither the polycentric development inside the Randstad nor the suburban developments on the outside will contribute to the reduction of car use. (A)
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