This study reports the results of an inventory of the current socio-economic and transport situation in the corridor with the Dutch urban areas of Rotterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem (the `RUA-corridor'). The distribution and service sector are overrepresented in the `RUA-corridor'. Half of the trips made in the corridor are local, within the three urban regions. The number of trips between the urban regions and out of the areas between the urban regions are limited. The corridor is mainly used for passenger transport. The share of freight transport on the highways in the corridor is in accordance with the national average (15%). Three urban concepts are tested in order to analyse future dynamics in the corridor: (1) urbanisation in the existing urban regions (compact); (2) urbanisation around middle-sized towns in between urban regions (new towns); and (3) urbanisation around infrastructure in between the urban regions (dispersion around infrastructure). It is concluded that the coherence within the corridor from a spatial as well as from a transport perspective is limited. There is hardly any corridor development yet. However, the corridor is a promising urbanisation area, when development scenarios are differentiated for each corridor type.
Samenvatting