Environmental Costs Account: A Base for Measuring Sustainability in Transport Plans - Highway and Urban Environment - page 23

Madrid Metropolitan Area Case Study: Structure
and Mobility Patterns

Madrid is the capital city of Spain. It is a city of 3.1 million inhabitants, surrounded by
its Metropolitan Ring with a population of 2.3 million. Demographic density and job
distribution varies considerably (see Table 2 and Fig. 1 ), where the core part (CBD)
plays a big role. These differences have substantial effects on mobility patterns.
For the purpose of this study we have considered two different types of trips:

• Urban trips : origin and destination in Madrid City (either CBD or periphery)
• Metropolitan trips : origin and/or destination in the Metropolitan Ring

The use of different transport modes is rather different between Madrid City and its
Metropolitan Ring (Table 3 ). Public transport (PT) is the most important transport
mode in the denser central city districts whereas the car is dominant in the suburbs.
The number of walking trips is on the rise in the city centre and is falling in favor
of car use in the Metropolitan Ring. Very few trips are made by bicycle, just 0.1%
in the urban area. Madrid City has a good mobility performance rating but car trips
are increasing at a faster rate than trips by public transport or on foot. Car trips
predominate in the Metropolitan Ring and are growing very rapidly, which is a
clear threat for the future [24] . According to the 2004 mobility survey [23] PT

Table 2 Social Indicators. Madrid Metropolitan Area, 2004

Surface
area (km 2 )

Density
(inh/ha)

Jobs/1,000
inh Inhabitants Jobs

Madrid
municipality

CBD 1,018,732 42 243 959,877 942

Periphery 2,116,513 564 38 815,648 385

Metropolitan Ring 2,328,494 2,086 11 893,982 384

Total 5,463,739 2,692 20 2669,507 489

Fig. 1 Madrid Metropolitan Area zones