The impacts of job and household decentralization on commuting distances and travel modes Experiences from the Copenhagen region and other Nordic urban areas

The main topic of this article is the influence of urban sprawl on commuting distances and modes of travel. This is an issue much debated in the urban planning literature. In particular, this discussion has been vivid as objectives of environmentally sustainable mobility appeared on planners’ agenda in the wake of the report from the World Commission on Environment and Development . More recently, the Kyoto protocol implies an obligation for the European Union to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8 % within 2010, compared to the 1990 level. The internally agreed distribution of emissions between EU countries implies that some countries, such as Denmark and Germany, are obliged to reduce their emissions by more than 20 per cent. Obtaining these objectives may prove difficult unless current trends within the transportation sector are changed dramatically. For example, based on current transport policies, the emissions from the transportation sector will make up 32 % of the internationally agreed limit for the total, national CO 2 emissions in Denmark in 2010, compared to 21 % in 1997.