Suburbs reconsidered: form, mobility and sustainability

Abstract

Without a clearer understanding of the range of suburban typologies which presently exists and of the relationship between typology and travel behaviour it will be difficult to progress towards the development of appropriate strategies to reduce unnecessary travel by car. With this in mind it is valuable to develop a framework for a better representation of different suburban typologies and to examine the way in which personal mobility varies across these typologies. Five cities in the United Kingdom Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leicester, Oxford and Sheffield are examined in order to identify and characterize suburban typologies, and data from different surveys are used to analyse differences in travel to work journeys.