Dense urbanity promotes eco-friendly travel habits
The travel habits of hundreds of thousands of Stockholmers who live in high density housing areas exert little environmental impact. These habits should be supported and expanded. However in areas where residences are more spread out, new travel habits and vehicles are necessary. These are the conclusions drawn by travel habit and congestion charge researcher Greger Henriksson of Lund University and KTH. He defended his doctoral thesis entitled “Stockholmers’ travel habits – between congestion charges and the climate debate” on 24 October.
In Stockholm it is relatively easy to create the preconditions for the majority of the population to travel in an environmentally-friendly fashion. Almost a half a million Stockholmers do not own a car and already travel in a manner that has relatively little impact on the environment. Their travel habits are formed by the density of their residential areas plus well-developed public transport systems. For many of them travelling by car is actually fairly problematical. This is one of Greger Henriksson’s conclusions. He is a member of the Department of Ethnology at Lund University and of the Division of Environmental Strategies at KTH.
In the less densely populated areas of the region, preconditions are different, Greger Henriksson states. Here new travel habits are necessary in order to decrease the use of heavy, fuel guzzling vehicles. For shorter trips to work, child care, stores and leisure time activities more low energy consumption vehicles are essential such as small cars, bicycles, electric mopeds and electric cars. People need to get used to using different vehicles for different purposes.
Greger Henriksson states that in the long run the proportion of the population not owning cars may grow. He feels that it is perfectly feasible to facilitate for future generations of big city residents to manage without a car. It is also possible to expand the geographical areas in which transport and low levels of car use prevail, primarily through urban planning. More people need to live in the inner cities or in suburban centres such as Sollentuna, Älvsjö or Vällingby.
According to Greger Henriksson it is not sufficient to observe that the travel habits of Stockholmers were affected by the introduction of the congestion charges. It is also necessary to know what a travel habit is, otherwise it is impossible to understand the interconnection between these habits, urban planning and environmental impact. Compiling thousands of individuals’ movements during the course of one day and calling that the travel habits of the population leads thoughts onto the wrong path. If, on the other hand, people are asked about their reasons for travelling and the activities they then carry out (using in-depth interviews) it is possible to discover the nature of travel habits, especially when attention is directed towards daily travelling, as it was during the introduction of the congestion charges in the Stockholm Pilot Scheme in 2006. This is the perspective on travel habits applied by Greger Henriksson in his doctoral thesis entitled “Stockholmers’ travel habits – between congestion charges and the climate debate”.
He also observes that travel habits are formed by how the city is planned and how travel opportunities are organised. It is not possible for individuals to influence everything by personal choice; they are dependent on the preconditions in place. Car pools and rentals are one way to go in order to create more diversity in the vehicle fleet and in vehicle use and Greger Henriksson points out that government agencies and companies can promote light vehicles by, for example, allowing them to park by commuter train stations, malls and leisure centres.
Greger Henriksson held the public defence of his thesis “Stockholmers’ travel habits – between congestion charges and the climate debate” on 24 October at Lund University.
For more information, contact Greger Henriksson: greger.henriksson@etn.lu.se, +46-733-014702
Håkan Soold