**4. Conclusions**

Beijing and Shanghai are the two most representative cities in China in terms of their political, economic and cultural influences so it is very significant that both are now indicating a peak in car use has happened. This coincides with major investments in public transport that have provided an option surpassing many car use patterns. This has happened despite increasing economic growth and car ownership growth. To explain this needs an understanding of the fabrics that define the city and which are expressions of the cultural and political history of China. Both cities feature Chinese traditional urban fabrics of walking centres with transit linear corridors all with dense, mixed land use patterns that favour public transport and walking and cycling. They can both be termed "emerging transit metropolises" as opposed to the mature transit metropolises such as London and Paris [27]. These areas are also where the major job growth and urban activity are focused and thus private vehicle use has decoupled from wealth and has now peaked in terms of modal split. This paper suggests that this is strongly affected by their walking and transit urban fabrics, which are not built for much car use. More than likely the response will be to continue the peak car use trend and enable Chinese cities to become more and more a model for any other emerging cities that are trying to face up to a future with less automobile dominance in their cities.

### **Acknowledgements**

This document was produced with the financial support of the Department of Education of Henan Province (Project No. 20B630021) and Zhengzhou University (Project No. 32220525).
