Two model analyses of the urban structure of minimal transportation energyconsumption

The transportation sector needs to reduce fuel consumption to deal with glo bal warming because it depends on fossil fuels strongly and it seems to be difficult to substitute other fuels. This study aims at investigating an op timal land use in urban areas from the viewpoint of reducing energy consump tion for transportation. For this purpose, the authors developed two kinds of models. One minimizes the total trip length under the condition of const ant congestion. The other minimizes the fuel consumption directly where con gestion is taken into account endogenously. The optimal structures calculat ed numerically illustrate that business areas are located around the center of a city while residential areas are on the suburbs, which is similar to the actual land use observed generally. These results are compared with the land use of the central business district (CBD) in Tokyo. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.