Advocacy & Safety - CNN: Americans rebuild for the 'new urban century'

Full article located at (http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/01/infrastructure.rebuild/index.html?hpt=C1).

Quote: "There's a new urbanism that's not about cul-de-sacs or expressways. It's sidewalks, bike paths and parks."

Now for the fun part... Will this trend toward moving toward the cities last, and if so, what percentage of trips taken in the US will be by bike in year X?

I remember seeing signs for bike shops more than ten years ago, with an image of the price signs at gas stations, and another of a smiling person in good shape on a bike. Gas prices have been going up slowly, but this upsets people a great deal. The way a lot of the country is set up, it's not practical to commute 80 miles round trip by bike, but I do think pressures like the price of fuel, tightening environmental standards, and such, will force cities ( urban cores and neighborhoods stretching several miles in any direction ) to be more bike friendly. The price of gas never has anything to do with my running errands by bike or car, but the ease of parking encourages me to do most things by bike.

"The Urban Century" is an ironic title, though, since there are also some pretty good reasons to expect most big cities to lag behind.

If this is a trend that truly exists, it may take longer than we would like.

Definitely a step in the right direction. Denver's seeing some good "New Urbanist" development coming around to it.

Fixed:

"There's a new urbanism that's not about cul-de-sacs or expressways. It's about sidewalks, bike paths and parks that will be as separated as possible from the norm so everything will look as if nothing has changed, and in truth, nothing will."

-Kurt

I remember seeing signs for bike shops more than ten years ago, with an image of the price signs at gas stations, and another of a smiling person in good shape on a bike. Gas prices have been going up slowly, but this upsets people a great deal. The way a lot of the country is set up, it's not practical to commute 80 miles round trip by bike, but I do think pressures like the price of fuel, tightening environmental standards, and such, will force cities ( urban cores and neighborhoods stretching several miles in any direction ) to be more bike friendly. The price of gas never has anything to do with my running errands by bike or car, but the ease of parking encourages me to do most things by bike.

"The Urban Century" is an ironic title, though, since there are also some pretty good reasons to expect most big cities to lag behind.

It's not really practical to commute 80 miles round trip by car either... The gas, wear and tear on the car and nerves will get to you if you do it daily... and at rush hour that could be a huge chunk of time.

Yeah yeah, it's all about distances in America... but the reality is that most people DON'T commute such distances, and the distances they do go can be, for many, accomplished by bike. Far too often someone chooses to drive piddling distances, such as a 1/2 mile for a 6 pack, or 2 miles for an ice cream...

We've built an infrastructure that teaches us that the car is the easy way to do anything... even drive through funeral homes... thus we reap what we've sown.

Perhaps this rebuild effort can become the seeds for new beginning.

I agree that it's not practical to commute 80 miles by car, either, or probably even by Cessna. I lived in San Francisco for about five years ... a 49 square mile financial center with lots of neighborhood, hippies, music culture, and all that. Density and housing prices are high, so people live in the suburbs, and really do commute as far as 50 miles each way, on a daily basis. That seems rarer in Seattle, but until a few weeks ago I worked with someone who came in from Olympia every morning ( 62 miles each way ) and somebody else who commuted from North Bend ( ~35 miles ). It's not that everybody does this, or even most people ... but enough people drive awful distances to and from work to surprise me.

I think the SF thing is especially salient in the US. Most people buy into the dream of owning a house, and housing prices have been rising faster than salaries, so, to become home-owners, most people live pretty far away from where they work.

On the other hand, it's important to me to be able to go about most of my business without a car, so I chose to live in a place where that's possible.

I can't even IMAGINE an 80-mile RT commute -- I about hemorrhaged when I went to Germany for my first duty station and discovered the travel from off-base quarters to our post was 14 miles! Before then, I'd NEVER had a commute longer than 6 miles one-way, and since then, never more than 9.

Now, today, I'd like to ride that 14-miler out and back, just to say I did it -- there's a lot of climbing there, and one killer downhill (literally -- a massive oak at the bottom of the hill, where the street turns sharply left, is nicknamed 'the car eater')! Likely be a lot less traffic, as that base has been closed for 18 years....

The trend will last because it has to. There's only so many cars that can fit into a city and let the city remain livable. Many cities have reached this point already, and the rest will follow at some point.

In most American cities I would be happy to see about 10 % of trips by bike, 20 % walking, and 40 % mass transit. By what year? That depends on the city, but let's aim for 2050.

As long as the cities are crime infested by gangstas and hoodlums and vagrants and weird "homeless" people peeing in the sidewalk, don't expect many of us to return. Well, hmmmph, return, never was, no thanks.

Non-urbanism will continue across most of the land, this is largely an empty country with miles to go before I rest.

However, I do see a trend in this direction, perhaps on the coasts and perhaps a little more "community" development. Bike paths and lanes required across the country that are as patrolled by cops as are our motorways would be a welcome trend.

As long as the cities are crime infested by gangstas and hoodlums and vagrants and weird "homeless" people peeing in the sidewalk, don't expect many of us to return. Well, hmmmph, return, never was, no thanks.

Empty countryside contains much of the same.

we really haven't gotten to the mindset required for livable cities yet anyway. New development in urban areas are required to supply huge amounts of parking. I've seen recent stories about developments in New York and Washington D.C. where this was the case. Philly has recently shown that there is some chance that they would allow development without parking requirements, we'll have to wait on that though.

I'm still waiting for this urban century. A bike trail was started when I first moved to central MA 20 years ago, not even 20% is completed from Worcester, Ma to Providence, Ri.

Philly has recently shown that there is some chance that they would allow development without parking requirements, we'll have to wait on that though.
You got me thinking.

I went through Denver's new zoning code... Man, they require lots of car parking spaces for new development. Its sad really.

I'm still waiting for this urban century. A bike trail was started when I first moved to central MA 20 years ago, not even 20% is completed from Worcester, Ma to Providence, Ri.

It's already arrived here in Vancouver. In fact, Vancouverism is an urban planning and architectural technique pioneered in Vancouver, Canada. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouverism)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOjbLZrXTH8

A quick review of what sets Vancouver apart (http://uskyscraper.blogspot.com/2005/09/vancouverism.html)


The continent’s youngest major city with its highest residential density...

Vancouver is the only major city in North America without a single freeway within its boundaries...

Vancouver’s current planning decisions are almost entirely insulated from interference by city councilors and mayor...

While having immigrant and non-white population ratios comparable to New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles, Vancouver has escaped many of the striations and frictions that come with neighborhoods sorted by ethnicity...

the role that developers have in providing the social, cultural, and recreation infrastructure in new and renewed neighborhoods...

You got me thinking.

I went through Denver's new zoning code... Man, they require lots of car parking spaces for new development. Its sad really.

I wonder how many cities, if any, require any form of bike parking in new development areas. Is this a zoning requirement anywhere?

I wonder how many cities, if any, require any form of bike parking in new development areas. Is this a zoning requirement anywhere?
I believe Denver already does so, but reading through the draft of the new zoning code, I believe it does require bicycle parking for new developments, at least in the downtown area.

http://www.newcodedenver.org/rezoning/page/draft-code-and-draft-map

There's the code... of course I could be reading the whole thing wrong. Its large, and complex.

bike parking requirements are being incorporated in many municipalities. At least they are getting that part right.

As long as the cities are crime infested by gangstas and hoodlums and vagrants and weird "homeless" people peeing in the sidewalk, don't expect many of us to return. Well, hmmmph, return, never was, no thanks.

Non-urbanism will continue across most of the land, this is largely an empty country with miles to go before I rest.

However, I do see a trend in this direction, perhaps on the coasts and perhaps a little more "community" development. Bike paths and lanes required across the country that are as patrolled by cops as are our motorways would be a welcome trend.

I hear this sentiment often. I understand that dense cities aren't for everyone. However, suburbs aren't the only alternative. People seem to forget about towns. Towns with walkable centers and well organized (gridded) streets were the norm until car culture took over after WWII. I know many people who are adverse to living in dense, congested cities but would love to live in a town where they can walk/bike to schools or the grocery store and take commuter rail to neighboring towns or a nearby city. Collecting people into towns would make creating an efficient rail network much easier and reduce our dependence on cars without crowding everyone into cities.

I hear this sentiment often. I understand that dense cities aren't for everyone. However, suburbs aren't the only alternative. People seem to forget about towns. Towns with walkable centers and well organized (gridded) streets were the norm until car culture took over after WWII. I know many people who are adverse to living in dense, congested cities but would love to live in a town where they can walk/bike to schools or the grocery store and take commuter rail to neighboring towns or a nearby city. Collecting people into towns would make creating an efficient rail network much easier and reduce our dependence on cars without crowding everyone into cities.

+1000

Especially regarding the comments that none of this car culture crap started until after WWll... it is NOT as if cars have been molding our cities forever. Heck the interstate freeways didn't even come into existence until the Highway act of 1956.

Over the summer (between may and august), i'll have a ~70 mile round trip commute between northern philly suburbs and Allentown. I got an offer for a paid internship there, and since i'm a freshman (undergraduate), those things are probably less common than leprechauns.

Yes, I did consider living there, but since the company doesn't cover it would've cost too much. So my options are:
1) drive every day
2) bike there (which would probly happen at most once a week, and take 2.5 hours each way)
3) carpool

In any case, i'd be car dependent.

We really have to thank our politicians back in the 40's for letting war vets to enjoy single house with 2 car garage and a large yard without any consideration on how this would impact the cities across America; therefore this opened a can of worm on decentralizing cities and promoting growth in the suburb fringe. First mass produced suburb was born in this era which is being called the "Levittown".

There were suburbs back then before WW2 but life was hard there and it was too rural to obtain any kind goods & services cities had to offer. To solve the problem on the rural part in "Levittown", a perfect master plan at a grand scheme that needed all levels of government (federal, state, local govt, private companies) to buy in and that was to build freeways through the middle of cities center in order for these suburbanites to work in the city and rest in the suburb. This was achieved at the expense of mass transit funds that were supposed to be diverted to sustainable transportation infrastructure in the cities across America.

When sprawling growth in the suburbs couldn't keep up with building more roads to solve choking traffic, companies were being lured away into these so called "office parks" that's usually zoned with massive parking lots around building peremiter. This caused cities to be even more financially stranded on maintaining public services.

Bam fast forward 70 years later CNN has just realized suburb development is unsustainable and urbanizing America is the path forward.

We really have to thank our politicians back in the 40's for letting war vets to enjoy single house with 2 car garage and a large yard without any consideration on how this would impact the cities across America; therefore this opened a can of worm on decentralizing cities and promoting growth in the suburb fringe. First mass produced suburb was born in this era which is being called the "Levittown".

There were suburbs back then before WW2 but life was hard there and it was too rural to obtain any kind goods & services cities had to offer. To solve the problem on the rural part in "Levittown", a perfect master plan at a grand scheme that needed all levels of government (federal, state, local govt, private companies) to buy in and that was to build freeways through the middle of cities center in order for these suburbanites to work in the city and rest in the suburb. This was achieved at the expense of mass transit funds that were supposed to be diverted to sustainable transportation infrastructure in the cities across America.

When sprawling growth in the suburbs couldn't keep up with building more roads to solve choking traffic, companies were being lured away into these so called "office parks" that's usually zoned with massive parking lots around building peremiter. This caused cities to be even more financially stranded on maintaining public services.

Bam fast forward 70 years later CNN has just realized suburb development is unsustainable and urbanizing America is the path forward.

Actually the homes back then had a one car garage... I happen to be living in an area (subdivision) that was built in response to that post war need. It was built in 1953 along with hundreds of others in a new community built to support veterans going to work at local military industrial plants... we have actually seen the old ads of the area on a PBS special discussing how the area grew, then changed over time.

The PBS special discusses the growth of the area and how the suburban lifestyle spun off some rather bizarre consequences over time, including a Gulf war vet that stole a tank and terrorized the area in 1995. The movie is Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317273/ More here: http://motherjones.com/media/2002/01/cul-de-sac-suburban-war-story

The massive interstate freeway build was in response to the Federal highway act of 1956... when you look at that timeline, it is amazing at how pervasive the automobile has become in a relatively short time.

... when you look at that timeline, it is amazing at how pervasive the automobile has become in a relatively short time.
Not that amazing; think computers, Internet, and cell phones.

Not that amazing; think computers, Internet, and cell phones.

None of which required the huge scale modification of our cities the way that Interstate highways and auto-culture did.

Sure the changes brought on by computers, Internet and cell phones are dramatic, but the infrastructure was either existing (POTS) or was easily tacked on (network nodes and cell base stations). Nothing, compared to moving huge amounts of earth and the scale of construction required for the Interstate freeway network. Of course we are also talking different timelines too... with the auto-culture taking some 30 years or so to get rolling (pre WWll) to the latter 50 or so years to become so entrenched; where as the 'net has grown from a concept in the '70s to deep penetration 30 years later. Cell phones "arrived" in the '90s to become ubiquitous in about 10 or so years.

What is amazing to me are the physical changes to our cities that were "driven" by the automobile. (yeah, pun intended)

Actually the homes back then had a one car garage... I happen to be living in an area (subdivision) that was built in response to that post war need. It was built in 1953 along with hundreds of others in a new community built to support veterans going to work at local military industrial plants... we have actually seen the old ads of the area on a PBS special discussing how the area grew, then changed over time.

The PBS special discusses the growth of the area and how the suburban lifestyle spun off some rather bizarre consequences over time, including a Gulf war vet that stole a tank and terrorized the area in 1995. The movie is Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317273/ More here: http://motherjones.com/media/2002/01/cul-de-sac-suburban-war-story

The massive interstate freeway build was in response to the Federal highway act of 1956... when you look at that timeline, it is amazing at how pervasive the automobile has become in a relatively short time.



i remember that afternoon as i was living next to the hubbub in linda vista at the time.
if the the guy hadn't gotten hung up on that concrete median divider on the 163 freeway who knows what other damage he woulda done.
the local gendarmes/officials were essentially helpless-they must have felt like extras in a godzilla movie.


unfortunately, the automobile caters to our lowest common denominator tendencies...