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Journal article
Cars in Latin America: An exploration of the urban landscape and street network correlates of motorization in 300 cities
Travel, behaviour & society, Vol.30, pp.192-201
Jan 2023
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
• Automobile use creates significant externalities for urban residents worldwide.
• We examined the association between car rates in 300 Latin American cities with urban landscape and street network metrics.
• Car rates in 2015 were consistently associated with urban form complexity and street network circuity, and partially associated with urban fragmentation.
• The increase in car rates between 2010 and 2015 showed a negative association with population density.
• Regional policies could promote compact development to reduce motorization, while paying special attention to low density urban areas.
Car use creates significant externalities for urban residents worldwide. City characteristics such as the configuration of the urban landscape and street network likely influence the use and attractiveness of automobiles, especially in rapidly urbanizing areas such as Latin America. The understanding of factors associated with motorization can inform planning measures to reduce car usage, and to promote healthier, safer, and more sustainable urban lifestyles. We harmonized official passenger vehicle data from 300 cities with >100,000 inhabitants in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, and we calculated urban landscape metrics from satellite imagery and street network metrics from OpenStreetMaps. Analyzed cities had an average of 273.3 cars per 1,000 residents in 2015 and showed an average car rate increase of 30 % between 2010 and 2015. We used negative binomial regression to examine the association between car rates and urban landscape and street network characteristics, and linear regression to examine the association between the same characteristics and car rate increases. Car rates in the 300 cities analyzed showed a partial positive association with development fragmentation, and a consistent positive association with urban form complexity and circuity of the street network. In addition, the increase in car rates between 2010 and 2015 showed a negative association with population density. Implementing regional policies to reduce development fragmentation, to promote compact urban forms and less circuitous street networks may help reducing motorization in Latin American cities. Special attention needs to be paid to low density areas, where the increase in vehicle rates has been more pronounced.
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Details
- Title
- Cars in Latin America: An exploration of the urban landscape and street network correlates of motorization in 300 cities
- Creators
- Xavier Delclòs-Alió - Universidad Rovira i VirgiliClaudio Kanai - Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São PauloLucas Soriano - Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São PauloD. Alex Quistberg - Drexel UniversityYang Ju - Nanjing UniversityIryna Dronova - University of California, BerkeleyNelson Gouveia - Hospital Universitário da Universidade de São PauloDaniel A. Rodríguez - University of California, Berkeley
- Publication Details
- Travel, behaviour & society, Vol.30, pp.192-201
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Number of pages
- 10
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Urban Health Collaborative; Environmental and Occupational Health
- Identifiers
- 991021861199604721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Transportation