Transport, climate change and the city - Transport Climate Change and the City - page 36

100

Total
Waterways
Horse Power
Rail
Two Wheeler
Car and Bus
Aviation

10

1

0.1

0.01
1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

Figure 1.24 Distance travelled in France since 1800 (km/person/day)
Source : From Grübler, 1990, 2004.

agreed cross-sectoral CO2 reduction targets, and in understanding the wider sustainability
impacts of low carbon mobility strategies.
Car dependence (Goodwin, 1995) 17 is still likely to be the reality, both now and in the
short term future. Low carbon and sustainable travel, in the form of walking, cycling, public
transport and low emission vehicle use, is at present only a niche activity relative to the volume
of travel by car. Many people have built their daily life around the use of the car, including
the location of home, workplace and access to family, friends and activities. The early car
dependence analysis (using UK evidence) suggests there are 5-10 per cent of car owners
whose commitment to cars is marginal, perhaps a third would like to travel less by car if
circumstances allowed, and 50-80 per cent of car owners perceive themselves to be generally
dependent on car use for their lifestyles (Anable, 2005). A smaller proportion of specific car
trips, around 10-30 per cent, can be identified as 'strictly necessary and with no alternative'.
The concept of car dependence can be viewed as a temporal process, with potential for change
over time, as 'constraints intensify or relax' (Goodwin, 1995, pp. 151-152), but of course
there is much inertia in the system and in behaviours.

Framing the debate
Much has been made in this extensive introductory chapter of the great challenges that need
to be addressed if transport is to decarbonise, and many of solutions must be found in the
cities, and the links between cities, where more than half the population are now living.