Pedicabs like this one above are found throughout the world. Photo by drs2biz from Flickr.
To celebrate World Town Planning Day, the Ontario Planners Institute called on planners, towns and cities to “start planning ahead for a future where the car is a thing of the past.” Although it’s difficult to imagine a post-car city, we only have to look back to recent history to realize that cities are fluid, transforming over time, often based on the dominant form of transport. Because most of our cities emerged during the age of the automobile, it should come as no surprise that most of our cities have been shaped for and by the car. But this wont always be the case. The rising cost of oil and the environmental and human cost of congestion and air pollution is turning the logic of car-dominated cities on its head. As we explore options for a post-car future, it’s instructive to turn to the developing world, where cars still haven’t flooded the streets, and examine one of the most ubiquitous and green-friendly forms of transportation: the pedicab.
In our automobile driven cities, the pedicab occupies the bottom rung of the transportation ladder, frowned upon by both rich and poor alike. Where buses are seen as undisciplined nuisances with which cars must begrudgingly share the road, the pedicab is viewed as a backwards mutant not even deserving of the asphalt. Even pollution spewing autorickshaws and tuktuks are preferred to the pedicab. Some even refer to pedicabs as “road roaches” because they scamper and scatter in and out of traffic like cockroaches in the light. But as far as green cred goes, all other modes of transport pale in comparison to these human powered vehicles. Pedicabs generate no emissions and produce no waste, unlike cars and buses, with their heavy metals from used batteries that leech into the soil. Read the rest of this entry »
A street shot of pedestrian friendly London. Photo by *Berto from Flickr.
During the months of March and April I lived in pedestrian-friendly London, the biggest of the half-dozen cities around the world that now impose a congestion charge on motor vehicles entering the city during daytime.London’s congestion charge currently stands at £8 ($16) per day, and it has been very successful in (a) reducing the amount of traffic in the city by about 30%, and (b) raising significant revenues to support upgrading of the city’s mass transit systems. In my view, the congestion charging has also considerably improved London’s quality of life. I stayed for a month in a club near the British Museum that had four Underground stations, on three different lines, less than a 12 minute walk away. Throughout the whole of Central London there are great pedestrian accommodations, as well as extensive networks of bike- and bus-lanes. Some streets have been completely pedestrianized. On others, only buses and taxis are allowed. Sidewalks throughout the city center have been broadened. Pedestrian crossings are numerous and large, and have satisfyingly responsive pedestrian push-buttons.
Many businesses have responded well to the high volumes of pedestrians on the streets. Pubs would have a bustling clientele spilling out onto the streets for many hours of the day; new restaurants, retail boutiques, and small businesses had proliferated around the Underground stations. London has become a magnet for young people from all over Europe. It definitely had a polyglot new liveliness, and the late-evening streets seemed safer than they did back in the 1990s.
The road to Lhasa. Photo by y It’s Tony from Flickr.
Chinese state media recently reported that Lhasa, the once quaint capital of Tibet, nestled in the in a valley high in the Himalayan mountains, has opened its first underground parking lot as a response to a boom in car ownership. The International Herald Tribune, covering the story, explains that Lhasa 400,000 residents now have 70,000 cars, “a per capita car ownership rate close to Beijing’s.”
The phenomenon is a side effect of India’s rapid urbanization. As Delhi expands, with half a million new residents moving in every year, the green areas in and around the capital, which for centuries have been the monkeys’ habitat, grow smaller. Their territory encroached on, many monkeys uproot to settle in the city center.
If you live in a suburb like this one in Las Vegas, it might be hard to walk to the grocery store. Photo by ulybug of Flickr.
While surfing the web I found this very interesting website, Walk Score, that calculates the walkability of a residence using an easy to use interface, just like googlemaps or mapquest. All you have to do is enter an address and out comes a rating, from 1 to 100, based on its proximity to nearby services, such as restaurants, parks, and schools.
For the last year I have been more than convinced that I live in a very walkable environment. Yet, I was not satisfied with my score of 78, which according to Walk Score means “Very walkable: possible to get by without owning a car.” Why was my score so low? Does very walkable mean that it’s possible to get by without a car? I would think that very walkable would mean a car would be unnecessary. After doing a little more research I found out that even this great website fails to incorporate things such as availability of public transit, safety, and connectivity, all of which are quite important to what I consider a walkable environment; an environment that supports pedestrian travel in an area. Living close to transit and having a pedestrian friendly design is what motivated me to live where I do and oddly this isn’t even taken into account. Read the rest of this entry »
An Indian street scene. Photo by Satbir from Flickr.
Last week the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune ran a story on the new Tata Car priced at $2,500 coming out in India in 2008. Some time ago NextBillion covered the new car from the “Bottom of the Pyramid,” angle and the NYT and IHT did more of the same, framing the debate around its affordability; like Ford’s Model T, it’s a car designed for the masses. What’s conspicuously absent from the reporting is what cheap cars actually mean to India.
On Sunday, The Washington Post Magazine ran a cover story describing the transport woes Washington DC-area residents face as they move further and further outside the suburbs in order to escape the ever-expanding sprawl. Marc turner, who is profiled in the article, drives 200 miles round trip from his house in Charlottesville, Virginia to his office in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia everyday. That translates into four hours that he spends in the car, isolated from friends and family.
Bicycles have been around for well over 100 years (see a brief history here), but the push to make bikes a viable alternative to automobiles seems to be truly hitting the mainstream. This weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) contains a prominently displayed article entitled “Building a better bike lane: Can the U.S. catch up to European cities?” (subscription required).
As a standard-bearer for free-market principles and conservative politics, the WSJ is seldom associated with alternative transportation issues.
But it seems that even financial executive-types are beginning to recognize the environmental, public health, and traffic benefits of replacing cars with bicycles for short trips and daily commutes. In fact, the article practically gushes over the good life enjoyed by bike-riding Europeans in cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen - where more than a third of commuters use pedal power to get to work. Read the rest of this entry »
Congestion pricing makes strange bedfellows: Listen below to New York City Public Radio and hear from representatives of the Manhattan Institute and Environmental Defense, both of whom support the Mayor’s plan for congestion pricing in Manhattan.
London’s congestion charge currently stands at £8 ($16) per day, and it has been very successful in (a) reducing the amount of traffic in the city by about 30%, and (b) raising significant revenues to support upgrading of the city’s mass transit systems. In my view, the congestion charging has also considerably improved London’s quality of life. I stayed for a month in a club near the British Museum that had four Underground stations, on three different lines, less than a 12 minute walk away. Throughout the whole of Central London there are great pedestrian accommodations, as well as extensive networks of bike- and bus-lanes. Some streets have been completely pedestrianized. On others, only buses and taxis are allowed. Sidewalks throughout the city center have been broadened. Pedestrian crossings are numerous and large, and have satisfyingly responsive pedestrian push-buttons.
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