The Compact City and Transport Energy Consumption

This paper challenges an emerging conventional wisdom: that transport energy consumption, and hence pollution, can be substantially reduced by promoting more compact cities. Such reasoning has quickly found its way from academic studies to official policy in many countries. Do the likely savings from such containment warrant the required draconian policies? An empirical assessment of transport energy consumption arising from decentralization is used to address this question. Two contextual reviews of the compact city case and the strength of decentralization precede the assessment. The conclusion is that energy savings will be minimal and that other policies might be more fruitful.