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Purpose – The chapter reviews the relationship between cities, urban form and cycling and identifies generally accepted understandings, issues about which more remains to be known and some prescriptions for future action.

Approach – The discussion is based on evidence drawn from the cycling literature and from primary data collected by the authors.

Findings – Land use patterns and densities have an impact on the level of cycling and, despite some remaining methodological difficulties, it appears that cities which invest in infrastructure for cycling display greater levels of cycle use. Issues which remain in contention and require further analysis include the balance between provision for cycle traffic which is separated from motor traffic and the nature of that provision, the extent to which cycle traffic may directly substitute for trips by motor vehicle and the complexity of estimating the benefits of cycling.

Implications – Planning for cycle traffic needs to be undertaken on an area wide basis and synergistically with traffic management for motor traffic, and such planning should have due regard to the distances for which cycling is most competitive. There remains untapped potential for chaining cycle trips with public transport trips.

The importance of community-based organizations to support relief works in the aftermath of disasters is widely recognized as indispensable in providing quickly the needed help for affected populations (Bajek, Matsuda, & Okada, 2008; Nagasaka, 2008; Norris, Stevens, Pfefferbaum, Wyche, & Pfefferbaum, 2008; Shaw & Goda, 2004; Suzuki, 2006). Although communities’ involvement in rescue operations is essential, their role in rehabilitation and future disaster preparedness activities is equally important in the process of forming a disaster-resilient society (Nagasaka, 2008). Furthermore, the level of interaction between local authorities and communities within different phases (preparedness, relief, and rehabilitation) of the disaster management cycle requires attention to effectively implement community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR).

This chapter defines and describes the different types of carfree and low-car development found in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, analysing the benefits and problems they bring and their implications for parking policy.

The chapter draws on the literature on UK and European carfree developments, including primary research conducted by the author into the potential for carfree development in the United Kingdom. It is also informed by a series of observational visits to some of the principal carfree developments around Europe.

The UK concepts of car-free and low-car housing are limited in scope, defined by the absence or reduced level of parking. The European concept of carfree development is broader, bringing greater benefits to the immediate residents. All have led to lower traffic generation. European carfree developments bring other benefits to their residents such as more socialisation between neighbours and earlier independence for children. The potential demand for car-free and low-car housing is greatest in the inner areas of larger cities. These are also the places which offer the most suitable development locations. The most common problems encountered relate to parking and/or management of vehicular access. To avoid overspill problems, parking needs to be controlled on the streets surrounding carfree or low-car developments.

The benefits of carfree development are greatest in urban areas where road capacity and/or parking are under the greatest pressure. Thus carfree development is a useful tool for cities undergoing urban intensification.

The chapter is the first to analyse carfree and low-car development from a parking perspective and to demonstrate their implications for parking policy.

“Unplanned city” (and its relation “unchecked growth”) is the way many people describe cities of which they disapprove. They usually mean too little top-down planning, assuming that this is the only planning possible. But Stephen Davies, describing urbanization in England, shows that this was not always so. He notes that,[t]he years between 1740 and 1850 therefore saw an unprecedented amount of urban growth. Cities and towns of all kinds and sizes grew more rapidly and on a greater scale than ever before in history. The rapidly increasing population was drawn into the towns in ever larger numbers with the rise of industry, creating an enormous demand for housing and the urban fabric in general. This was the kind of situation that, when its like happens today, is regularly described in terms of “crisis” or even “catastrophe”. And yet the challenge was largely met. Housing and other facilities were built and provided. The towns of Britain grew to meet the new demands of a growing population and a transformed economy. There were no great shantytowns around growing cities such as Manchester and Birmingham. Instead a tidal wave of brick and stone swept over fields, turning them into new urban areas. Moreover, the period also saw the creation of great architectural achievements of lasting value in both the great cities and the new towns …. The elegance of Bath and Cheltenham, the West End of London and Bloomsbury, the New Town in Edinburgh, and the centers of Glasgow and Newcastle-upon-Tyne – all were built in this period. As this was the first instance of such wide-spread urbanization our understanding of its nature is crucial for our thinking about the process of urbanization in general, whether historically or today. In particular this instance raises the question of how urbanization can happen in the absence of an apparatus of planning and controls, by voluntary means, and what the results of this may be. (Davies, 2002, p. 19)

An interdisciplinary model network consisting of the regional agricultural economic model RAUMIS and the hydro(geo)logical models GROWA/WEKU is used to analyze the effect of different scenarios of maximum agricultural nitrogen balance surplus on water quality. The study area is the federal state of Lower Saxony, Germany, which features heterogeneous natural site conditions as well as agricultural production structures. A focus of the study is the modeling of supra-regional manure transports that, according to the model's results, considerably increase due to a lowering of maximum nitrogen balance surpluses. The assessment of the examined nitrogen reduction measures reveals that adequate indicators have to be applied. In this regard, the model results show that even though the analyzed measure leads to a substantial overall reduction of agricultural nitrogen surpluses, nitrogen discharges into surface and groundwater can regionally increase.