Effects of urban transport networks on land-take, the productive use of land and on land prices

Abstract

A relationship exists between transport infrastructures and the economic productivity of urban centres. Empirical studies have identified partial effects on the take of land for development, on land exploitation (i.e. the productive use of land) and on land prices — the key indicators of the economic and ecological role played by municipal land — as being attributable to the transport infrastructure and have rendered them quantifiable in terms of selected relationships. Within the framework of anaytical studies on cause and effect, computational models have been developed for the western and eastern parts of Germany, and for Germany as a whole. The key measures of transport infrastructure of direct relevance to planning practice are identified as the density and coverage of the road and rail networks.