"No one is better informed than Lester Brown of the multi-faceted crisis facing our planet. And no one has spelt out so clearly how our civilisation could be saved from falling 'over the edge' while there is—hopefully—still just time." —John Rowley, founder/editor www.peopleandplanet.net on World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse
Chapter 6. Designing Cities for People: Introduction
As I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help but note the overwhelming presence of cars and parking lots. It was obvious that Tel Aviv, expanding from a small settlement a half-century ago to a city of some 3 million today, had evolved during the automobile era. It occurred to me that the ratio of parks to parking lots may be the best single indicator of the livability of a city—an indication of whether the city is designed for people or for cars. 1
Tel Aviv is not the world’s only fast-growing city. Urbanization is the second dominant demographic trend of our time, after population growth itself. In 1900, some 150 million people lived in cities. By 2000, it was 2.8 billion people, a 19-fold increase. As of 2008, more than half of us live in cities—making humans, for the first time, an urban species. 2
In 1900 only a handful of cities had a million people. Today 431 cities have at least that many inhabitants. And there are 19 megacities with 10 million or more residents. Greater Tokyo, with 36 million residents, has more people than all of Canada. The New York metropolitan area’s population of 19 million is nearly equal to that of Australia. Mexico City, Mumbai (formerly Bombay), São Paulo, Delhi, Shanghai, Kolkata (Calcutta), and Dhaka follow close behind. 3
The world’s cities are facing unprecedented challenges. In Mexico City, Tehran, Kolkata, Bangkok, Beijing, and hundreds of other cities, the air is no longer safe to breathe. In some cities the air is so polluted that breathing is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Respiratory illnesses are rampant. In many places, the number of hours commuters spend sitting in traffic-congested streets and highways climbs higher each year, raising frustration levels. 4
In response to these conditions, we are seeing the emergence of a new urbanism, a planning philosophy that environmentalist Francesca Lyman says “seeks to revive the traditional city planning of an era when cities were designed around human beings instead of automobiles.” 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. 5
Peñalosa realized that a city with a pleasant environment for children and the elderly would work for everyone. In just a few years, he 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 (BRT) system, built hundreds of kilometers of bicycle paths and pedestrian streets, reduced rush hour traffic by 40 percent, planted 100,000 trees, and involved local citizens directly in the improvement of their neighborhoods. In doing this, he created a sense of civic pride among the city’s 8 million residents, making the streets of Bogotá in this strife-torn country safer than those in Washington, D.C. 6
Peñalosa observes that “high quality public pedestrian space in general and parks in particular are evidence of a true democracy at work.” He further observes: “Parks and public space are also important to a democratic society because they are the only places where people meet as equals....In a city, parks are as essential to the physical and emotional health of a city as the water supply.” He notes this is not obvious from most city budgets, where parks are deemed a luxury. By contrast, “roads, the public space for cars, receive infinitely more resources and less budget cuts than parks, the public space for children. Why,” he asks, “are the public spaces for cars deemed more important than the public spaces for children?” 7
In espousing this new urban philosophy, Peñalosa is not alone. Some cities in industrial and developing countries alike are dramatically increasing urban mobility by moving away from the car. Jaime Lerner, when he was mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, pioneered the design and adoption of an alternative transportation system that is inexpensive and commuter-friendly. Since 1974 Curitiba’s transportation system has been totally restructured. Although 60 percent of the people own cars, busing, biking, and walking totally dominate, accounting for 80 percent of all trips in the city. 8
Now planners everywhere are experimenting, seeking ways to design cities for people, not cars. Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. 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. 9
ENDNOTES:
1. U.N. Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision Population Database, electronic database, at esa.un.org/unup, updated 2008.
2. Urban population in 1900 from Mario Poläse, “Urbanization and Development,” Development Express, no. 4, 1997; U.N. Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision (New York: February 2008).
3. Molly O’Meara, Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet, Worldwatch Paper 147 (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, June 1999), pp. 14–15; U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 2, pp. 8–10; U.N. Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database, electronic database, at esa.un.org/unpp, updated 11 March 2009.
4. hristopher Flavin, “Hearing on Asia’s Environmental Challenges: Testimony of Christopher Flavin,” Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, 22 September 2004; Subir Bhaumik, “Air Pollution Suffocates Calcutta,” BBC News, 3 May 2007; David Schrank and Tim Lomax, 2007 Urban Mobility Report (College Station, TX: Texas Transportation Institute, September 2007), p. 1.
5. Francesca Lyman, “Twelve Gates to the City: A Dozen Ways to Build Strong, Livable, and Sustainable Cities,” Words and Pictures Magazine, Issue 5, 2007; Lisa Jones, “A Tale of Two Mayors: The Improbable Story of How Bogota, Colombia, Became Somewhere You Might Actually Want To Live,” Grist Magazine, 4 April 2002.
6. Claudia Nanninga, “Energy Efficient Transport—A Solution for China,” Voices of Grassroots, November 2004; Enrique Peñalosa, “Parks for Livable Cities: Lessons from a Radical Mayor,” keynote address at the Urban Parks Institute’s Great Parks/Great Cities Conference, Chicago, 30 July 2001; Susan Ives, “The Politics of Happiness,” Trust for Public Land, 9 August 2002; Jones, op. cit. note 5.
7. Peñalosa, op. cit. note 6.
8. Lara de Lacerda Santos Rodrigues, Curitiba City Government, e-mail to J. Matthew Roney, Earth Policy Institute, 24 July 2009.
9. O’Meara, op. cit. note 3.
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