Urban density and energy consumption: a new look at old statistics Orit Mindali a,1 , Adi Raveh b,2 , Ilan Salomon a, * a Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel b The Jerusalem School of Business Administration, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel Received 27 March 2003; received in revised form 30 September 2003; accepted 30 October 2003 Abstract There is growing concern about the negative environmental and energy effects caused by transportation systems and related land-use patterns. Travel and land-use are a function of one another, therefore it is often hypothesized that changing urban structure can result in changes in energy consumption. A popular view suggests that there is a strong negative correlation between urban density and energy consumption. This implies that increasing density will result in a reduction in energy consumption [Cities and Automobile Dependence: An International Sourcebook, Avebury Technical, Great Britain, 1989]. Using Co-Plot, an innovative multivariate statistical technique, this research crystallizes some of the relationships between density and energy consumption in western cities. The method is applied on Newman and KenworthyÕs data, leading to the conclusion that there is no direct impact of total urban density. Instead several other relationships between energy consumption and density attributes can be identified. Ó 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction There is a growing concern about environmental impacts caused by transportation systems. Rises in energy consumption and the emissions from the automobile are being considered the * Corresponding author. Tel.: +972-2-5883345; fax: +972-2-5883347. E-mail addresses: mindali@pob.huji.ac.il (O. Mindali), msraveh@mscc.huji.ac.il (A. Raveh), msilans@mscc. huji.ac.il (I. Salomon). 1 Tel.: +972-2-5883348; fax: +972-2-5883347. 2 Tel.: +972-2-5883216; fax: +972-2-5881341. 0965-8564/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.tra.2003.10.004 Transportation Research Part A 38 (2004) 143–162 www.elsevier.com/locate/tra