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Purpose – This chapter outlines the need for policy packages in urban areas, demonstrates how effective policy packages can be designed by combining appropriate policy instruments and discusses the implications for Chinese cities.

Methodology – The results in the chapter are derived from a predictive model of two UK cities (Edinburgh and Leeds), an objective function to reflect a city's objectives and constraints, and an optimising routine which identifies the most effective level of intervention for each policy instrument.

Findings – Where available, fuel taxes, fare levels, road pricing charges, low-cost capacity improvements and public transport frequencies are the most effective policy instruments. Optimal combinations designed to cost no more than current strategies offer substantial benefits to society. Infrastructure projects typically offer much lower value for money. Strategies designed to meet challenging climate change targets can be designed, but may well substantially reduce other benefits.

Research limitations/implications – Other policy instruments such as awareness campaigns and walking and cycling measures could be tested in a similar way. Similar analyses could be conducted in high growth contexts typical of Chinese cities.

Practical and social implications – Policy packages will be important for Chinese cities. They are likely to differ from European specifications, and include greater use of infrastructure. The methodology presented here could be applied to their design.

Originality – The chapter brings together research reported elsewhere, presents some new results on synergy and discusses the implications for China.

By 2050 there will be 6.9 billion people living in urban areas, accounting for 70% of the global population. The most developed nations will have urbanisation rates as high as 90%. Not only will more people be living in cities, but the largest cities will be getting larger. In their analysis in Chapter 2, Kii and Doi estimate that there may be as many as 17 megacities, with more than 10 million inhabitants, in China by 2050. Even so, the bulk of urban population growth is likely to be in smaller cities.

This book brings together a number of the papers presented at a workshop hosted by Tongji University, Shanghai, on the implications of green urban transport in China under the auspices of the World Conference on Transport Research Society in September 2010. It is in five sections. Section 1 includes this introductory chapter, which summarises the content of the rest of the book, Chapter 2 is on trends in city size, and Chapter 3 provides an overview of Chinese transport policy. Section 2 considers approaches to policy formulation, drawing on experience in Europe and Asia. Section 3 focuses on passenger transport and traffic, while Section 4 covers freight and logistics. Section 5 draws together the principal conclusions of the 15 papers.