Accessibility in cities: transport and urban form

This paper focusses on one central aspect of urban development: transport and urban form and how the two shape the provision of access to people, goods and services, and information in cities. The more efficient this access, the greater the economic benefits through economies of scale, agglomeration effects and networking advantages. This paper discusses how different urban accessibility pathways impact directly on other measures of human development and environmental sustainability. It also presents the enabling conditions for increasing accessibility and low-carbon mobility in cities. This paper is one of three papers by LSE Cities that form part of the cities research programme of the New Climate Economy (NCE) project for the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. The two other contributing papers cover ‘Cities and the New Climate Economy: the Transformative Role of Global Urban Growth’ (NCE Paper 01) and ‘Steering Urban Growth: Governance, Policy and Finance’ (NCE Paper 02).