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Biennale: Mobility Urban Footprints

Planning

The movement of people in and out of cities is critical to their performance as social and economic systems. Many of the world’s expanding cities experience increasingly long commuting times (up to 4-5 hours a day in Sao Paulo, for example) with negative impacts on the social life of their residents, energy consumption and environmental quality. Others are fine-tuning their transport patterns to increase efficiency and reduce congestion (such as London’s Congestion Charge that has cut car traffic by 20% in the city centre).

This section explores how 12 world cities function in different ways at different times of day according to the mode of transport and type of activity. These time accessibility maps for different types of city users reveal radically diverse ‘potential catchment areas’ according to whether people use cars or public transport, whether they travel at peak times or on weekends, or whether they use the city for work, study or play.

By identifying how much of the surface area of each city is accessible in 45 minutes (the ‘ideal’ maximum limit which optimises city travel use patterns, shown in green, or 90 minutes, the absolute maximum acceptable limit, shown in yellow) at different times of day, the time maps give an instant view of how these cities accommodate the complex travel requirements of their residents.

The conclusions are clear: cities can be far more effective if public transport services are extended to the periphery and travel patterns are distributed throughout the day rather than concentrated at peak hours, recognising the many ‘lives’ of the urban condition – as experienced by those who go to work, study, or visit a sports or cultural event. They suggest that cities can be programmed to be more effective and liveable, exploiting the benefits of an extensive and integrated system with different modes of transport.

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