ABSTRACT
Current wisdom suggests that the way to reduce the environmental impact of travel is to construct higher-density settlements so people walk rather than drive to the shops, school and work. This is based on evidence that cities with higher densities use less energy for transportation (Newman and Kenworthy, 1999: 69–72). However, even the higher density Asian cities achieve only relatively modest public transportation as a percentage of total transportation (for example, Bangkok 17 per cent, Seoul 18 per cent and Manila 23 per cent). In fact, Newman and Kenworthy (1999: 71) give the average for Asian cities of 11 per cent of the total of all transport energy being public transportation. This is only just a bit more than double the average for all European cities, of 5 per cent. This suggests that higher-density living does not have a huge impact on travelling, despite all the words in its favour (for example Jenks et al., 1996; Ewing, 1997; de Roo and Miller, 2000).
