A novel global urban typology framework for sustainable mobility futures

Bibliographic Data

ID15547360
AuthorsJimi Oke (0000-0001-6610-445X, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, corresponding author), Youssef M Aboutaleb (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Arun Prakash Akkinepally (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Carlos Lima Azevedo (0000-0003-3902-6569, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Yafei Han (0000-0003-1552-3800, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), P Christopher Zegras (0000-0002-5675-0615, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Joseph Ferreira (0000-0003-0600-3803, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Moshe Ben‐Akiva (0000-0002-9635-9987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Year2019
Volume14
Issue9
Pages095006-095006
Publication date2019-05-20
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
PublisherIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/ab22c7
OpenAlexW2945272284
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited3

Urban mobility significantly contributes to global carbon dioxide emissions. Given the rapid expansion and growth in urban areas, cities thus require innovative policies to ensure efficient and sustainable mobility. Urban typologies can serve as a vehicle for understanding dynamics of cities, which exhibit high variability in form, economic output, mobility behavior, among others. Yet, typologies relevant for sustainable urban mobility analyses are few, outdated and not large enough in scope. In this paper, we present a new typologization spanning 331 cities in 124 countries. Our sample represents 40% of the global urban population and contains the most recent data from 2008 to date. Using a factor analytic and agglomerative clustering approach, we identify 9 urban factors and 12 typologies. We discuss the implications of this new framework for researchers and planners and investigate the relationships between mobility and environmental sustainability indicators. Notably, we show an immediate application of the urban typologies to better understanding travel behavior and also describe their usage for detailed large-scale simulation in representative prototype cities for insights into sustainable future mobility policy pathways. Our data and results are publicly available for further exploration and will serve as a foundation for future analyses toward desirable urban and environmental outcomes

Economics · Financial economics · Futures contract · Geography · Typology · Transportation Planning and Optimization · Urban Design and Spatial Analysis · Urban Transport and Accessibility

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