The degree to which U.S. cities, metro regions, and general urbanized areas have distinct centres of economic activity has been a matter of debate for many decades. In the jobs–housing literature, there is related debate about whether having many distinct mixed-use centres in cities leads to longer or shorter commutes. The excess commuting framework has been increasingly refined and applied to assess urban areas' jobs–housing balance. The framework has expanded over the years but an issue in the present research is whether its various theoretical measurements and efficiency calculations might be used to assess the degree of poly- or mono-centricity of a region, thereby contributing to debates about what kind of urban form facilitates shorter commutes. In this paper, a suite of excess commuting (EC) measures are calculated for fifty-three of the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the U.S. From there a hierarchical clustering approach is developed and applied to demonstrate which of these metrics are most useful in describing urban form. We examine how these metrics perform for particular built environments, which gives further insights into commuting and land use trends. Results of the research show how various urban forms have specific commuting outcomes: specifically, that polycentric urban forms have shorter average commute distances than sprawling ones. This should inform policy questions about the most effective land-use planning strategies to pursue in efforts to manage travel demand via built environment interventions.

Understanding the functional geography of the metropolitan region, and developing location criteria for smart growth, requires analysis of subcentres and their effects. Subcentres were identified in the Copenhagen area based on spatial analysis of micro-level employment and retail data. Subcentres' effects on transport in addition to regional centrality were studied with regression analysis of work and nonwork travel behaviour data. Distance to employment subcentres with a minimum of 10,000 jobs and distance to subcentres identi fied from retail data and having a minimum of 400 retail jobs affects residents' daily travel distance and/or transport modes. A short distance to a subcentre allows for shorter daily travel distances and, in the case of retail subcentres, for a higher probability of using public transport or walking/cycling. However, the effects of subcentres are well below the still strong and significant effect of regional centrality upon travel distances as well as mode choice.

A new era of African urban development is emerging at a time when global aid regimes are undergoing fundamental shifts, becoming increasingly competitive and centred on donor 'value for money'. For aid-dependent countries in Africa, these shifts are likely to have an infl uence on the priorities and interests associated with urban development. So far, however, their implications remain unexplored within this context. Taking this research agenda as a starting point, this article presents in-depth empirical research on a novel country-city modality established between the Netherlands and Beira City, Mozambique, known as the Beira Partnership. By means of a new masterplan and numerous follow-up projects this partnership represents an unprecedented eff ort at restructuring Beira City, while securing Dutch interests in the process. By unpacking the various interests and initiatives associated with this partnership, the article demonstrates how it represents an eff ort to institutionalize new claims to Beira's urban land which is fundamentally at odds with certain pre-existing land claims of the urban poor. With many similarities to exploitative developments observed elsewhere in Africa, the article demonstrates how the Beira Partnership cannot be explained as an encroachment of global capital but instead as a decidedly trans-local initiative aimed at securing Dutch infl uence abroad. The fi ndings point to a distinctly geopolitical agenda which has largely alluded contemporary debate which is likely to become more pronounced as urban development continues to gain momentum.