The impacts of Modern Tramway on Urban Regeneration

With the rapid development of automobiles and the encouraging policy of the government, automobiles became a dominant means of transportation and gradually made ancient tramway system disappear in most French cities. With the oil crisis and the severe problems caused by excessive use of cars, the government began to improve public transit system in order to restrain the increase of cars and realize a more sustainable travel mode among citizens. On this occasion, tramway system came back with breakthroughs in techniques to provide a better service, and it’s called Modern Tramway. Until today, the whole world are still in the big upsurge of constructing or improving the tram system, and the most successful one is French model, which combine transport policy with urban development policy and make projects of tramway a tool to carry out urban policies, and improve the traffic condition at the same time help a city realize urbanization or urban renewal.

To find out the role of tramway in urban development in France, we conduct a research on the relationship between tramway and urban renewal or urban regeneration in four steps. In the first part, we conduct literature review about the term of urban regeneration in order to have a better understanding of urban regeneration and to know objectives of urban renewal projects. It forms the basis of evaluating tramway’s impacts under the context of urban regeneration. And in the second part, more information about modern tramway is presented. With the knowledge of tramway, there would be better understanding of why tramway could be a measure to practice urban development. And in the third part, we study on the positive impacts which tramway brings about in several French cities. And according to the study of urban regeneration, we divide the impacts into four groups: physical environment, economic development, social improvements and urban identity. And through researches and results on every aspect, we can build a link between tramway and urban renewal, with facts that the positive impacts of tramway are objectives of urban renewal projects in some degree. We can find out the leading effect of tramway projects on the process of urban renewal. The fourth part is a conclusion, with summary of the effect of tramway and there is a discussion about the negative impact and limits of tramway model. And it should be underlined that only by better combination and coordination with urban development projects and urban policies, tramway would play a better role in leading the process of urban regeneration. And through the study of French success in revival of tramway system, we hope can learn from its experiences and form a model to the construction of tramway in China.