Public transport and urban development: Improving public transport competitiveness versus the private car in small and medium-sized cities

The project has developed knowledge that helps smaller (than Oslo) cities to develop in ways that improve the competitiveness of sustainable transport modes versus the car. Car shares and commuting distances increase with the distance of homes and workplaces to the city center in smaller cities following the same pattern as in large cities. The average walking distance to public transport stops increases with increasing city size, from 328 meters in Hamar to 528 meters in Oslo. Several small and medium-sized cities have changed their public transport services in ways that have provided simpler, straighter and faster routes with higher frequencies, and reduced the offer on less used routes. In all but one city, this has resulted in increased patronage, in some cases significant increases. The plans in four cities we examined contained some measures that would strengthen the competitiveness of public transport and others that would weaken it.