Transportation energy in Swedish towns and regions

An investigation of 97 towns and 15 commuting regions in Sweden shows that the developmental pattern has a significant influence on the energy consumption for transportation. The main source for the energy data is the officiai Swedish statistics on fuel sales quantities in the municipalities in 1989, adjusted for fuel consumption in the agricultural sector. For the individual town, a dense pattern of development clearly gives the lowest per capita energy consumption for transportation. At the regional level, however, a decentralized pattern of residence seems to be favourable with respect to energy conservation, provided that each individual town and village has sufficiently high population density.