Urban performance at different boundaries in England and Wales through the settlement scaling theory

The relationship between transport-led agglomeration and economic performance is evaluated in an English and Welsh context. We examine the effects of scale, i.e., inter- versus intra-city mobility infrastructure, on urban size–cost performance. An additional contribution of this paper lies in its use of power-law scaling models of urban systems, enabling an assessment of optimality in the trade-off between economic output and mobility costs accounting for ease of access within cities coupled with their built density. Findings suggest economic underperformance coincides with inadequate mobility at both inter- and intra-city scales, while overperformance is accompanied by overgrown urbanized area and escalating mobility costs

On the development logic of city-regions: inter- versus intra-city mobility in England and Wales

This paper combines an allometric urban model with a hierarchical clustering method in order to investigate the effects of distance and spatial scale on the geography of transport-led agglomerative strategies implemented to address comparative regional economic underperformance. The study is undertaken in the context of the urban system in England and Wales by constructing agglomerated city-regions using city units defined at different spatial scales. As is shown, a greater importance than is currently given lies in local and intra-city mobility as compared with longer distance transport schemes promoted using agglomeration theory principles. This signals a need for prioritization of mobility improvements at smaller intra-urban distances coupled with long-term densification efforts as integral to the performance of longer distance inter-city pairings