Productivity, infrastructure, and urban density – an allometric comparison of three European city-regions across scales

Agglomeration-based arguments citing Dutch and German city-regions have been a primary driver in advocating intercity transport strategies in the north of England. In this paper, we adopt an allometric urban model investigating the applicability and transferability of these transport-led agglomerative strategies promoted to address England’s regional economic under-performance. This is undertaken through a comparative study of the size-cost performance balance of three city-regions and the overall urban networks in the Netherlands, Germany, and England and Wales using city units defined at different spatial scales. While our results support a case for better mobility and transport comparing the three urban networks regardless of the spatial scales, comparisons of specific city-regions indicate a more nuanced interplay of productivity, mobility infrastructure, and urban density.