Chapter 7: A Land-Use – Transport Vision

This chapter sets out to portray an overall vision of a future city in the European Union (EU) to the year 2030. It is just one vision, and inevitably, developments will vary between city types, and some readers may disagree completely with the vision presented here. However, the intention is to be thought provoking and to encourage readers to think creatively about where cities are going, what they might be like in 25 years time and beyond, and what can be done now to shape a sustainable future. This vision is based on current and potential future trends and policy measures regarding urban passenger and freight transport, as well as the state-of-the-art in land-use and transport planning as identified by the European Commission's Framework Five Land Use and Transport Research cluster of projects. The chapter presents an idealistic, but not uncritical, vision and is structured around the key land-use and transport planning issues in an archetypical city (Futuresville), and begins by setting out the current and future trends by way of a benchmark for considering future developments. The vision is conveyed by a citizen of Futuresville who uniquely has the ability to travel backwards and forwards through time. Our time-travelling citizen looks forward from 2005, imagining what Futuresville will be like in 2030, and looks back from 2030 at changes that have taken place. Future innovations are considered to allow an assessment of what land-use and policy instruments may be in place in Futuresville by 2030.