The main reason people travel longer distances is improvements in the speed of transport, rather than higher incomes or changes in car preferences, a claim has been made. The argument is that the faster people can move, the farther they expand their range of activities.

CleanTechnica recently reported that Arie Bleijenberg (아리 블레이옌베르흐), chair of T&E, in a contributed article cited travel speed as a key variable behind rising transport demand.

The basis is the stability of daily travel time. Bleijenberg said the average daily travel time per person across cities and countries is relatively steady at about 1.1 hours. If time spent on travel does not change much, higher speeds mean longer travel distances.

France’s Paris-Lyon high-speed rail line, which opened in 1981, is a representative example. As travel times fell, daily commuting between the two cities became possible. After World War Two, as car ownership spread, distances to daily destinations such as workplaces, schools and shops also increased. The contributed article said daily travel distance per person in the Netherlands rose from about 10 km in 1960 to about 30 km later.

Bleijenberg said there are limits to increasing road capacity. When a new road opens, congestion eases temporarily, but improved travel conditions draw in additional vehicles and congestion worsens again within a few years.

If average car speeds stall because of congestion, growth in travel distances also slows. In the Netherlands, per capita car travel distance fell 3 percent in 2005 to 2019. Similar trends were observed in Britain and Spain, among others.

As an alternative, the article proposed a high-density urban structure in which housing, jobs, commercial facilities and parks are clustered close together. In large cities, car speeds are lower than the national average, but destinations are concentrated, reducing the need for long-distance travel. The claim is that it can reduce reliance on cars while improving daily convenience.

At the end of the piece, Bleijenberg said that without reflecting travel speed and urban structure, traffic forecasts could be overstated. He stressed the need to reconsider policies focused on road expansion.