Measuring up - Comparing public transport in the UK and Europe's biggest cities

Terminology For this report, transport connectivity is compared and classified using the following terminology: • Transport accessibility: The share of people, relative to the total number of residents, who can reach the city centre under a specific set of criteria (time threshold and mode of transport). [...] The size of a network, especially for public transport modes, will be seen as a proxy for both the quality and the supply of public transport infrastructure. [...] 12 Centre for Cities • Measuring up • November 2021 But serving a city centre by private transport alone is impractical – there isn’t enough road space, which limits the number of jobs that can be created there.6 Given the preference for high-skilled service businesses to be located in city centres, the performance of the public transport network is crucial to the economic performance of the city.. [...] Figure 11: The gap between Leeds and Marseille will not be fully closed just by increasing the size of the public transport network Source: TravelTime; ONS; Eurostat; Centre for Cities’ calculations 19 Centre for Cities • Measuring up • November 2021 If Leeds had a similar-sized public transport network to Marseille’s, it would almost double the area within reach of the city centre in 30 minutes,. [...] Both the housing crisis and the lack of mid-rise homes in the UK emerge from the same systemic problem – the discretionary and case-by-case decision-making that forms part of the current planning process.28 Previous research from Centre for Cities has shown that the system does not promote redevelopment of existing urban land; large parts of suburban England and Wales are providing almost no new h.