The authors of this BSI Position Paper argue that social justice should be an integral part of the car-restrictive policy agenda through specific and explicit claims. In this context, they propose that the distribution of the benefits and burdens related to car-restrictive policies should not reproduce – let alone exacerbate – socio-economic inequalities. First, these policies should not simply make driving or parking a car more expensive without being adapted to the financial capacities of those who pay. Second, there should be measures to ensure a fairer distribution of the spatial benefits of car-restrictive policies. Third, the capacity to shape the car-restrictive agenda should not be dependent on socio-economic status. And finally, an efficient public transport network that is accessible and affordable should be the centrepiece to provide mobility for all. ... Read more

To some degree, metropolitan regions owe their existence to the ability to valorize agglomeration economies. The general perception is that agglomeration economies increase with city size, which is why economists tend to propagate urbanization, in this case in the form of metropolization. Contrarily, spatial planners traditionally emphasize the negative consequences of urban growth in terms of liveability, environmental quality, and congestion. Polycentric development models have been proposed as a specific form of metropolization that allow for both agglomeration economies and higher levels of liveability and sustainability. This paper addresses the challenge of how such polycentric development can be achieved in planning practice. We introduce 'agglomeration potential maps' that visualize potential locations in a polycentric metropolitan area where positive agglomeration externalities can be optimized. These maps are utilized in the process of developing a new spatial vision for Flanders' polycentric 'metropolitan core area', commonly known as the Flemish Diamond. The spatial vision aspires to determine where predicted future population growth in the metropolitan core area could best be located, while both optimizing positive agglomeration externalities and maintaining its small-scale morphological character. Based on a literature review of optimum urban-size thresholds and our agglomeration potential maps, we document how such maps contributed to developing this spatial vision for the Flemish metropolitan core area. ... Read more

In this paper, we propose a method to analyze ribbon development outside settlements and urban areas in Flanders (Belgium). Based on available statistics, three research hypotheses are tested, which are aimed at giving more insight in the presence and growth rate of ribbon density. From a historical perspective, we can say that an important part of the present ribbons is rooted in previously existing patterns, and that especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the phenomenon mainly developed in those areas where ribbon development was already considerably present. From an agglomeration effects perspective, however, we note that ribbon development is most prevalent in the most urbanized areas, with the fastest growth rates also observed in these areas. Therefore, today ribbon development is still one of the important morphologies in which urbanization processes materialize. Finally, from a policy perspective, we find that the introduction of spatial policies by means of the regional zoning plans has strongly determined the locations where ribbons could further develop, as well as the growth rate of these ribbons. Since in the most recent period we find significant differences in growth rate between the various zoning districts, the political decision-making processes that underlay the plans prove to have been of great importance for the most recent and future development of ribbons. ... Read more