Creating Humane and Sustainable Cities
April 2007
Banner photo: Lawrence Worcester/Getty Images
Return to a Walkable City
Sprawl, which can be defined as the continuous outward spreading of single-use, low-density development completely dependent on the private automobile, is one of America's most serious problems. It is the cause of numerous social, economic and environmental problems, and it is behind the disintegration of our cities and communities.
Sprawl is a relatively recent phenomenon that got its start in America around 1945. Prior to that, much of the U.S. was laid out in the form of walkable towns connected by extensive train systems. After 1945, the U.S. government made a major investment in highways from coast to coast. Helping them out were a handful of large corporations in the auto, oil and tire businesses that systematically purchased and removed most of America's rail systems. This paved the way for miles of roads filled with cars and lined with sprawl. The result has been the massive migration of people out of cities to the suburbs and the resulting death of cities.
Urban Sprawl
[James Marshall/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images]
One of the main problems with sprawl is that because everything is single-use, low-density and spread out, people are forced to drive miles for everything. This in turn requires constant road expansions to accommodate the increased driving, encouraging more driving and more sprawl. It's a vicious circle consuming ever more land, money, oil and people's time, while spewing out ever more pollution and causing environmental damage on a global scale.
Closely linked to sprawl are the worsening problems of traffic congestion and continuous road construction. Governments at all levels in the U.S. spend close to $200 million every day constructing, fixing and improving roads in their futile attempt to solve congestion.
Other sprawl-related problems include social isolation, lack of exercise, growing air pollution and related health problems, loss of land and space due to huge parking requirements, plus the now daunting issues of global warming and Peak Oil. Experts predict that sometime between 2006 and 2012 we will have used up half of all known oil reserves in the world. The world fuel gage is down to half a tank, and there's no more fill-ups. Complicating this is the rising world demand for oil and the fact that the remaining oil will be more expensive and difficult to recover.
A Way Out
Fortunately, there is a solution. Transit Oriented Development, also known as TOD, is the exciting, fast-growing trend in creating vibrant, livable communities. It is the creation of compact, walkable, mixed-use communities designed around high-quality train systems. Transit Oriented Development brings together places to live, work and play--organized in a pedestrian-friendly form, directly connected to a train line. This combination makes it possible to live a higher-quality life without dependence on a car for mobility and survival.
One of the best examples of the benefits of TOD is in Washington, D.C., known as the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in Arlington County. When the D.C. Metro system was being planned in the 1970s, Arlington County leaders decided to run their part of the Orange line underground along an aging suburban corridor. Costing a lot more to build this way, the idea was that it was worth the extra expense because it would help revitalize the entire corridor. They planned five closely spaced metro stations and enacted what they called "bulls-eye zoning" around each station, calling for the highest density in the center at the station, and tapering down to medium density, and then to lower density to blend in with the surrounding historic neighborhoods.
Thirty years later, the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor has proven to be a huge success in converting a worn-out, auto-dominated suburban strip into a compact, high-density, walkable corridor that looks and feels like a city. Millions of square feet of mixed-use development has been built along these five metro stations, and there has been no increase in traffic beause most people ride the metro or walk to services nearby. Over 70 percent of these metro riders arrive at the station on foot. Other stations along this line that were not planned like this are still surrounded by huge "park-and-ride" parking lots.
Transit Oriented Development is most effective when it is planned and built on a regional scale, bringing together a number of communities. The Washington, D.C., region is a great example of this, with many different dense walkable communities connected to the metro system. These all work together synergistically to form a network of walkable places where you could live near one station, work near another, and enjoy shopping and cultural activities near a number of other stations.
TOD is growing rapidly in America, but is still a tiny percent of development. A major new commitment to Transit Oriented Development at all levels of government would help us meet the serious challenges we face. The many benefits include better places to live, work and play; higher, more stable property values; less traffic congestion; less driving; less accidents; healthier lifestyles; and a higher quality of life.
Andy Kunz is a town planner and advocate of New Urbanism, Transit Oriented Development and sustainability. See: www.newurbanism.org
