Historically, movements within cities tended to be restricted to walking, which made
medium- and long-distance urban linkages rather inefficient and time consuming. Thus,
activity nodes tended to be agglomerated and urban form s compact. Many modern cities
have inherited an urban form created under such circumstances, even though they are
no longer prevailing. The dense urban cores of many European, Japanese and Chinese
cities, for example, enable residents to make between one-third and two-thirds of all
trips by walking or cycling. At the other end of the spectrum, the dispersed urban forms
of most Australian, Canadian and American cities which were built recently, encourage
automobile dependency.