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During the 20th century, our transport system came to be dependent on the car and the benefits to travel and transport it brought with it. With the speed that the car offered, travel distances increased, and cities began to sprawl. The apparent challenges we’re facing connected to climate change all over the world and the emerging importance of sustainability, stresses the need for a change in how we approach transport systems. The concept of sustainable mobility has emerged to combat the negative consequences of the car dependent transport system. The primary concern of sustainable mobility is creating a shift in the mode of transport from cars to sustainable alternatives. With the transport system operating within a built environment adapted to the car and longer distances, this shift is proven difficult to achieve. The built environment is inert in nature and therefore takes time to change. Research on sustainable mobility and how to implement it in city centres and other dense urban regions are plentiful, however an area where car dependency is high still lacks research. This is the single-family housing area. These areas typically have an urban structure which makes the more car dependent than other areas, suggesting they need a shift toward sustainable modes of transport the most. However, their urban structure also makes a shift difficult, as they often have low density and low connectivity, which is not suited for the sustainable mobility approach.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of the urban structure found in single-family housing areas on sustainable mobility and density and connectivity measurements. By doing so this study further aims to fill a gap in the research surrounding sustainable mobility, more specifically the relationship between sustainable modes of transport and the urban structure of the single-family housing area. At the same time the study compares single-family housing areas and their urban structure to gain knowledge about potential patterns and variations between them.

The literature review was used as a pre-study to gain knowledge and an understanding of sustainable mobility and the aspects of density and connectivity in more detail. It further helped focus the analysis. The study was conducted with a spatial analysis method and the analytic tools of QGIS and Place Syntax Tool. The studied areas were analysed by visualising base data for Falun’s street network and population. Through the creation of maps for all of Falun and for each individual area, influential aspects and variations between the areas could be found. Lastly, comparisons between the studied areas were made to further examine aspects and variations.

The results demonstrated the limitations of the urban structure of the single-family housing areas. The design of the street network proved to be the most influential and recurring factor in improving the basis for the implementation of sustainable modes of transport. The results were displayed in the form of maps for the different measurements and in descriptive and analytic text.The results were discussed through two of David Banister necessary sources of action for the success of the implementation of sustainable mobility, modal shift and distance reduction. The aspects found during the analyse of the results were discussed on how they encourage or discourage these two sources of action. Further, the implication of the study has was discussed and what the findings could mean for the planning sector moving forward.