Untitled - Ministerstwo Rozwoju Regionalnego

11.2. Transport situation in Polish cities following
EU accession
Dynamic development of private car ownership in Poland and its consequences
for the functioning of cities and metropolitan areas call for redefinition of the instruments
creating mutual relations between public transport and private car
use. The main premises for such action are the processes taking place in Polish
cities and their high dynamics, which makes the traditionally used tools of strategic
management (most importantly spatial planning) largely ineffective.
Two opposing processes are currently taking place in Polish cities. The first is
the continuing suburbanization resulting from extensive spatial development in
which the number of suburban dwellers increases at the cost of central city areas.
The process has become known as internal deconcentration and relies on
maintaining a number of essential contacts with the core city and its centre 1 .
Daily commutes to work and school are considered the most significant form of
these contacts as those locations can usually be found in city centres. Development
of public transport and private car use has made possible everyday trip
from the suburbs, in which development was less dense and more extensive.
Creation of new residential high-standard developments in city outskirts or in
neighbouring administrative areas is characteristic of this process. The traditionally
perceived process of residential suburbanization is accompanied by retail
suburbanization, meaning locating large-area retail facilities in city peripheries
or in neighbouring administrative districts of lower level of urban development.
Growing mobility of city “users” is the response to the process of “diluting” urban
settlement structure and to inefficient spatial planning solutions. Private car
use is the necessary factor which intensifies this process. As a result, urban
transport intensity increases not only due to the growing area and population,
but also to substantial changes in the spatial structure. One of the effects of this
process is the growing distance between traffic origins and destinations 2 .
The phase of suburbanization entered by cities of Western Europe after
World War II proved to be especially harmful to urban transport networks. As an
example one can cite the withdrawal of tramways and trolleybuses from the
streets of British cities - a direct effect of suburbanization 3 . Fixed costs were
spread over a potentially smaller number of users and a greater area. This led to
the overloading of existing transport infrastructure, deteriorating accessibility of
city centres and reducing the advantages of suburban living. Today, attempts to
1 B. Malisz, Zarys teorii kszta³towania uk³adów osadniczych. Wyd. Arkady, Warsaw 1966, p. 87.
2 C. Rozkwitalska, Uwarunkowania transportowe intensyfikacji zagospodarowania terenów zurbanizowanych.
“Transport Miejski” 2002, No.12, p. 2.
3 J. Hibbs, Transport Economics & Policy. A Practical Analysis of Performance, Efficiency and Marketing
Objectives. Kogan Page, London and Sterling 2003.
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