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DESIGNING
CITIES FOR PEOPLE - EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE (MaximsNews.com, U.N.) |
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com @ U.N.
/
- 06 May 2007 –
"The
world's cities are in trouble. In Mexico City, Tehran, Bangkok, Shanghai, and
hundreds of other cities, the quality of daily life is deteriorating. Breathing
the air in some cities is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes per day.
In the United States, the number of
hours commuters spend sitting in traffic going nowhere climbs higher each
year," said Lester Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute, in his book Plan
B 2.0.
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In response to
these conditions, we are seeing the emergence of a new urbanism. One of the most
remarkable modern urban transformations has occurred in Bogotá, Colombia, where
Enrique Peñalosa served as Mayor for three years.
When he took
office in 1998, he did not ask how life could be improved for the 30 percent who
owned cars; he wanted to know what could be done for the 70 percent - the
majority - who did not own cars.
In just a few years, Peñalosa transformed the quality of urban life with his
vision of a city designed for people.
Under his
leadership, the city banned the parking of cars on sidewalks, created or
renovated 1,200 parks, introduced a highly successful bus-based rapid transit
system, reduced rush hour traffic by 40 percent, planted 100,000 trees, and
involved local citizens directly in the improvement of their
neighborhoods.
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In doing
this, he created a sense of civic pride among the city's 8 million
residents, making the streets of Bogotá in strife-torn Colombia safer
than those in Washington, D.C.
Now government planners everywhere are experimenting, seeking ways to
design cities for people not cars. Cars promise mobility, and they provide
it in a largely rural setting.
But in an
urbanizing world there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and
the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide
not mobility but immobility.
And urban
air pollution, often from automobiles, claims millions of lives.
Throughout the modern era, budget allocations for transportation in most
countries - and in the United States, in particular - have been heavily
biased toward the construction and maintenance of highways and
streets.
Creating
more livable cities and the mobility that people desire depends on
reallocating budgets to emphasize the development of rail- or bus-based
public transport and bicycle support facilities.
The exciting news is that there are signs of change, daily indications of
an interest in redesigning cities for people, not for cars. One
encouraging trend comes from the United States.
Public
transit ridership nationwide rising by 2.1 percent a year since 1996
indicates that people are gradually abandoning their cars for buses,
subways, and light rail.
In Amsterdam, only 40 percent of workers commute by car; 35 percent bike
or walk, while 25 percent use public transit. Copenhagen's commuting
patterns are almost identical to Amsterdam's.
In Paris,
just under half of commuters rely on cars. Even though these European
cities are older, with narrow streets, they have far less congestion than
Atlanta.
Not surprisingly, car-dependent cities have more congestion and less
mobility than those that offer a wider range of commuting options.
The very
vehicle whose great promise was personal mobility is in fact virtually
immobilizing entire urban populations, making it difficult for rich and
poor alike to move about.
More of this excerpt is available online from the Earth
Policy Institute
Adapted from Chapter 11, "Designing Sustainable Cities," in
Lester R. Brown, Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a
Civilization in Trouble (2006), available online at www.earthpolicy.org.
~~~~~
MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the
U.N., provides commentary and analysis from
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Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen.
Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Amb. Jayantha
Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori
(Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Dr. Susan Roosevelt
Weld, Rory Kennedy, Mehri
Madarshahi, J. Michael Adams, Gloria Feldt,
Jeffrey Laurenti, Dr. Rodney D. Smith, Ashley
Bommer, Rory
O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Dr. Max Stamper and
others.
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