URBAN SPRAWL TO URBAN CRAWL (Steve Roberts 2006)

THE WALKING VS DRIVING PARADOX
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The paradox of walking versus driving is that on one hand being able to walk everywhere (with no need for a car) is freedom but having a car to travel across the city quickly and extensively is freedom as well

The car is a convenience that cannot be removed from our urban environment easily. However, in order to permit more sustainable urban development, it appears we may need to make walking, transit and cycling more viable and attractive alternatives. Presently, these modes of transportation are not often given preferential treatment especially in car-based low-density suburbia. For example, in new subdivisions sidewalks are now only one side of the street (and no sides if the street is not busy).

My vision of future urbanization will not exclude the car but rather restrict it and include more transportation options. The face of urbanization is a reflection of what people want at that price. For example, car-oriented box stores would not exist if people did not want them. That is not to say that they could be designed better but their existence is rooted in consumer demand.

THE CAR IS SUBSIDED BY GOVERNMENT POLICY AND INCENTIVES.
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Everyone talks about gridlock, traffic and cookie cutter subdivisions but the government continues to allow developers to be the architects of sprawl. Currently, it is widely believed that road building and suburban development is being subsidized through government policies and incentives. New suburban cities like Brampton and Vaughan are more pro-development than older urban cities such as Toronto. Therefore, it is no surprise that 80-90% of election donations come from land developers and construction firms (ref= Robert McDermid, Political Science professor, York U).

The GTA (Greater Toronto area) is becoming polarized into a city that either urban sprawl and urban tall. Governments talk about more compact living and getting people out of their cars to take transit but we are not offered a spectrum of choices. It is either a tall and small expensive condo in the city or a house in the suburbs. There is nothing really in-between that is affordable and offers a breathable amount of space. A 650 sq foot condo is barely acceptable for one person but for two people or a family one needs a living space that is at least 3x larger. For this group, the only feasible alternative is the cookie cutter homes in the suburban periphery.

How do we stall urban sprawl? Perhaps, the situation can be improved more compact and efficient housing that has a lower impact on the environment. Unfortunately, urban sprawl is like financial debt, it will continue until the consequences hurt. If we let the real cost flow through unsustainable actions may be stopped or curbed. Unfortunately to change human behaviour we need to use incentives and disincentives such as high parking costs, high fuel costs, or with incentives such as High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV) for mass transit or car-pooling.

The Ontario Government is implementing HOV lanes on the 400 series highways but has been pathetically slow in the implementation and is shying away from the 401 altogether. Our busiest most congested highway with 25 lanes for some reason cannot spare one lane to do the job.

SUBURBAN DREAM MEANS COMMUTER NIGHTMARE
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Most people like to live in a big house on a large private lot in spacious subdivision away the “pollution and crime” in the city. The trade off for living away from the city and jobs is that one must commute and no one likes to commute. Very quickly, the suburban dream also means commuter nightmare.

We need a new urban template for housing. The current car based model is unsustainable and not pedestrian friendly. Distance and bad weather are the enemies of the pedestrian. Therefore, whether an individual decides to walk depends on the destination distance, aesthetic quality of the route, and the weather.

More compact living does necessarily mean less living space but it could mean smaller lots, less roads, no driveways, and no double car garages. Sheltered common parking with sheltered pedestrian access to our individual homes or clustered housing could be an environmentally sound, cost effective, and pedestrian-friendly alternative.

GREEN URBANISM INSTEAD OF NEW URBANISM
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While North America talks about New Urbanism (which is really “old” urbanism), Europe is talking about green urbanism. Green Urbanism is about trying to build and live in a sustainable manner. It encompasses waste output, energy input, physical footprint, access to transit, walk-ability, reduced or no dependence on the car. It involves green energy such as solar or passive solar in terms of conservation. It is less expensive but it does require an attitude and behaviour change with residents. It involves high density and smaller living spaces but it is also about efficiently. It offers a more human-scale living experience and increased social interaction. It is more inclusive of seniors, children and those who do not have cars.


Here is a brief summary of some excellent books, journals, and websites that I am using in my research:

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BOOKS:
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OUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT: REDUCING HUMAN IMPACT ON THE EARTH. Mathis Wackernagel, William E. Rees (1996)

GREEN URBANISM: LEARNING FROM EUROPEAN CITIES.
Timothy Beatley, (2000)

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES: A NEW DESIGN SYNTHESIS FOR CITIES, SUBURBS, AND TOWNS. Sim Van der Ryn, Peter Calthorpe. (1986)

THE NEXT AMERICAN METROPOLIS: ECOLOGY, COMMUNITY, AND THE AMERICAN DREAM. Peter Calthorpe. (1993)


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OUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT: REDUCING HUMAN IMPACT ON THE EARTH. MATHIS WACKERNAGEL, WILLIAM E. REES (1996)
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This is a great book that allows the reader to quantify and translate what it means to be living sustainable. While it can be literally cartoon-ish at times it nevertheless maintains its academic integrity. The concept is simple and reduces the world to either a CO2 sink or CO2 creator. A CO2 sink is a carbon storage or absorber such water or trees. Therefore, how many trees would it take to absorb all the CO2 to reduce the effects of global warming? We could possible help meet Kyoto accords target by preserving trees in a new housing subdivision. A subdivision should have enough trees to repatriate carbon from the atmosphere also known as carbon sequestration. Urbanization can affect the environment and global warming by removing CO2 sinks through deforestation and promoting CO2 creators such as cars by building roads.

We need to strive for lower impact development and lower impact design. What ever format the developed world uses now becomes the model for the developing world tomorrow. There are many parameters affecting the environmental. The transportation we use, housing size, consumption rate, energy type, waste output, and other material requirements.

Ecological footprint analysis is a sustainability accounting tool that determines how much productive land area would be required to sustain a given population with respect to its resource consumption and waste assimilation rates.

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= GOOD QUOTES (WACKERNAGEL, REES)
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<<__The first step toward reducing our ecological impact is to recognize that the “environmental crises’ is less an environmental and technical problem than it is a behavioural and social one. On a finite planet, at human carrying capacity, a society driven mainly by selfish individualism has all the potential for sustainability of a collection of angry scorpions in a bottle. Certainly human beings are competitive organisms but they are also cooperative social beings__>>

<<__The conventional approach to development has been highly successful at expanding economic activity and economic growth…[However], higher level income has not made the “haves” noticeably happier nor satisfied the basic needs of the world’s poorest one billion people. While 20% of the world’s population enjoys unprecedented material wellbeing, at least another 20% remain in conditions of absolute poverty__>>

<<__Ecological footprint concept accounts for the flows of energy and matter to and from any defined economy and converts these into the corresponding land/water area required from nature to support these flows…the conventional dream is that the human enterprise can be expanded forever on a finite planet. This expansionist vision might sound attractive but it is bound to fail in its current form. This failure would be very painful. It would hurt the poor first, the rich a little later, and all the way along destroy many of our fellow species__>>

<<__Conventional approaches to development treat the environment as a kind of backdrop to human affairs. The environment may be aesthetically pleasing but it is expendable if economic push comes to shove. The loss of the environmental value is still seen as an unfortunate but mostly necessary trade-off against economic growth__>>

<<__The ecological footprint of any population can be used to measure its current consumption and projected requirements against available ecological supply. In this way, it can assist society in assessing the choices we need to make about our demands on nature…To put this in to perspective, the ecologically productive land available to each person on Earth has decreased steadily over the last century. Today there are only 1.5 hectares of such land for each person. In contrast the land area appropriated by residents by richer countries has steadily increased. The present ecological footprint of the typical North American (4-5ha) represents three times his/her fair share of the Earth’s bounty. Indeed if everyone on Earth lived like the average Canadian or American we would need at least three such planets to live sustainably__>>

<<__To accommodate sustainably the anticipated increase in population and economic output of the next four decades we would need 6 to 12 additional planets__>>

<<__In today’s materialistic, growth-bound world, the politically acceptable is ecologically disastrous while the ecologically necessary is politically impossible. Developing sustainability strategies that are consistent with the ecological bottom line therefore depends on the convergence of ecological and political practicality…. the ecological footprint is a consciousness-raising tool that can help us to develop a common understanding of the problem and explore the implications of alternative solutions__>>

<<__We regularly sacrifice nature to development because the immediate short-term benefits exceed the (discounted) present value of foregone future benefits. For example, paving over agricultural land for a shopping centre today assumes that we know both the future value of the lost ecological productivity and the anticipated money profits will more than compensate for this loss. Both assumptions are increasingly risky in today’s uncertain world...__>>

<<__Ecological footprint analysis by no means implies that living at carrying capacity is a desirable target. Rather the EF is intended to show how dangerously close we have come to nature’s limit. Ecological resilience and social well-being are more likely to be assured if the total human load remains substantially below Earth’s carrying capacity. Living at the ecological edge compromises ecosystems’ adaptability, robustness, and regenerative capacity, thereby threatening other species, whole ecosystems, and ultimately humanity itself__>>

<<__Many “prosperous” countries are running massive unaccounted ecological deficits with the rest of the world … with many of these countries their principle strategy is economic growth. Global sustainability cannot be ecologically deficit financed__>>

<<__A municipality can substantially influence the size of people’s footprint by making high density more vital and attractive and planning a less car-dependent transportation system…living in multi-unit condo or apartment of similar value to a suburban house and using a compact energy efficient car rather a standard-sized vehicle can reduce a household’s transportation and housing footprint by a factor of three__>>

<<__The mounting pressure of population growth, rising expectations and increasing competition might push ecological decline and social unrest to the point where the presently rich may be forced to accept lower material standards in exchange for enhanced ecological and geopolitical security__>>

<<__Current human consumption of agricultural products, wood fiber, and fossil fuel have an EF that exceeds available ecologically productive land by close to 30%…UN statistics that 20% of the world’s population that lives in wealthy countries consumes up to 80% of the world’s resources…the developed world alone occupies an Ecological Footprint larger than global carrying capacity__>>


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GREEN URBANISM: LEARNING FROM EUROPEAN CITIES. TIMOTHY BEATLEY, (2000)
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Forget about New Urbanism what we need is “Green Urbanism” for our urban areas. This book is a very comprehensive look at the ecological approach to urbanism that Northern Europe (mainly The Netherlands) is taking. New urbanism is not going far enough to improve sustainability it delivers slightly more density but the car is still needed and the impact on the environment is still there.

This book looks at many aspects of urban environmental sustainability such as solar energy, car-free/car-restricted zones, pedestrianization of the city core, car sharing, fast and efficient mass transit, traffic calming, road tolls, higher density, bicycles, and parking restrictions. However, the sustainability problem cannot be solved with only initiative all must be interlocking strategies working simultaneously.

Also experiences in Heidelberg Germany found aggressive traffic calming strategies lowered accidents and fatalities of pedestrians, reduced noise levels, promoted greater pedestrian and outdoor activity and reduce air pollution levels.

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= GOOD QUOTES (Timothy Beatley)
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Here are some of the best quotes and concepts from the book. Where possible, I have also searched the Internet to get photos (all referenced) of the cities described in the book. While the books does provide some photos, there are many places mentioned with no photos:

<<__New urbanism is often synonymous with sustainable communities but the reality is that NU projects rarely reflect a clear or significant concern about reducing ecological impacts or promoting ecological sustainable lifestyles. It may promote European-like development style but it needs to become much greener__>>

<<__In US cities, planning is controlled more by land developers and the private sector. Planners have a modest role usually setting broad land use parameters through largely reactive policy instruments typically zoning and subdivision ordinances. The European model is more public control and guidance of future growth__>>

<<__Green urbanism accepts that public and private decisions about how cities grow, the kinds of transportation system they employ and the ways they generate and supply energy and food for their populations have tremendous environmental impacts. Green urbanism takes as a primary goal that the need to greatly reduce ecological footprints of cities and to live within the limit of local and regional ecosystem__>>

<<__There is no doubt that future development patterns that are much more compact, contiguous to existing developed areas, and considerably denser than existing development would do much to make American communities more sustainable on a number of ecological and social criteria…demographic and economic trends toward suburbanization and de-concentration suggest to many that Americans are not yet interested in compact, dense living environments, and attitudinal surveys suggest that most Americans still prefer the single-family detached home with house , garden, and garage. What is sometimes described as the American dream seems alive and well and seemingly contrary to the vision of compact communities that so many of these European cities have been able to achieve__>>

<<__European cities can be a model of future American urban growth: [European cities employ] strategies that reinforce and strengthen existing urban patterns and texture that are of a much higher density and includes public transit, bicycles, and walking…the European cities profiled here also effectively demonstrate that it is possible to achieve compact urban form at the same time that greenspaces in and around cities are protected. In many Scandinavian cities (e.g. Helsinki) large wedges of greenspace and nature extend into the very centre. In many respects it is the very compactness that allows these networks of greenspace to exist in such proximity to large populations._>>

<<__In thinking about the American translation of compact urban form it is also important to recognize that substantial additional density is possible and desirable even while maintaining an emphasis on single family housing units. Single-family detached or attached units can be organized in ways that enhance walk-ability, connectedness and higher density while also recognizing the values of privacy and private yard space__>>

<<__European cities show it is not the density by itself that is undesirable but how it is configured and designed along with the package of urban design, green features, access to transit and other amenities that will be important…European examples of high density can be attractive and a highly desirable living environment – 100 or more dwellings per hectare can be achieved without building monolithic high rises__>>

<<__Efforts are being made to design new housing developments in ways that minimize and discourage the use of automobiles – new projects near developed areas or with mixed uses can reduce the need for the auto…The physical design can limited the auto – “an increasingly common development style is to cluster all parking on the outer perimeter of a development not allowing cars to penetrate the interior areas (and not allowing residents to drive their cars right to their doorstep)__>>

<<__Ecological footprint analysis is increasingly being applied to European cities and it is emerging as a powerful technique for understanding extra-local environmental effects and resource demands__>>

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CAR-FREE AREAS, CYCLING AND WALKING-FRIENDLY CITIES:
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The city core of FREIBURG (GERMANY) is car-free and limited to only streetcars, pedestrians, and bicycles. In the areas where cars are allowed the speed limit is restricted to 30km/h.

FREIBURG (City Core)

http://www.webshots.com

RIESELFELD (FREIBURG Suburbs)

www.freiburg-i-br.de/freiburg_page/freiburg_rieselfeld.htm


GWL TERREIN PROJECT IN AMSTERDAM (NL) is a good example of car-restricted eco-friendly project. There are 600 dwelling but only 135 spots plus 25 visitor spots. The project is designed to minimize it physical footprint as well as energy, water and waste.

www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~britt/amsterdam.htm

Other notable “almost” car-free housing projects in Germany and Holland:

ZWIJNDRECHT NETHERLANDS –
<<__De As development is organized along a 500m pedestrian only street…cars are relegated to several peripheral lots as well as to parking behind units…front doors are oriented to pedestrian street…[which] provides a safe play area and important area for socializing__>>

WALDQUELLE, (BIELEFELD) GERMANY –
<<__130 homes clustered together along a series of common spaces connected by pedestrian pathways. Auto access to homes is provided through a limited network of narrow stone streets. A common parking lot is proposed to replace the interior parking__>>

Some European cities have been able to reduced car use and increase transit use with road tolls. Pioneer cites in Norway such as Oslo. Road tolls are only used during morning rush hours in Randstad Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

BIELEFELD, GERMANY - Pedestrian Streets in City Core

http://travel.webshots.com/


Bicycle Transportation in Europe is an integral part of the transportation strategy. For example, Berlin has 800km, Freiburg (410km), Vienna (500km), and Copenhagen (300km) of bicycle lanes and pathways.

GRONINGEN, UTRECHT, AMSTERDAM, LEIDEN (NL) are all bicycle friendly cities with extensive separated bicycle lanes and trails complemented with bicycle traffic signals. The city core is connected to the suburban areas by bikeways.


GRONINGEN http://www.camcycle.org.uk/newsletters/15/article14.html


LEIDEN (NL)has pedestrian streets are restricted cars: Haarlemmerstraat, (pedestrian only) Breestraat (bicycle, buses, and taxi

http://travel.webshots.com

NIEUWLAND IN AMERSFOORT (NL) has a bicycle and pedestrian route
to the Centrum
www.oja-services.nl/iea-pvps/cases/images/nld_0101.jpg

NIEUW SLOTEN AMSTERDAM (NL)– pedestrian/bicycle-friendly. Mixed use with streetcar into city centre


www.bk.tudelft.nl


www.brianrose.com/amsterdam/amsterdam.htm

<<__American transportation researcher John Pucher reports dramatic increases in cycling in Germany especially in MUNSTER, BREMEN, MUNICH, AND FREIBURG [is related to] building integrated network of bikeways and bike paths, providing new extensive parking facilities, improving signage and giving bicyclists priority over cars…further traffic calming, high costs of automobiles (gas, parking) and restrictions on new road building… make auto use more expensive, more difficult, less convenient, and slower than it used to be. That has increased the competitiveness of alternative modes such as public transit walking and bicycling__>>

STROGET, COPENHAGEN (DENMARK)- Europe’s first street conversion to a pedestrian zone (1962)

http://family.webshots.com

<<__Copenhagen is similar [to Stockholm] – the city has developed regionally along rail lines with suburban and satellite communities situated like pearls along a necklace. Albertslund has city hall, shopping and office areas adjacent to the main train line and most residential neighbourhoods with a few minutes walk or bicycle ride to the station__>>

STOCKHOLM’S DROTTINGATAN STREET (SWEDEN)

http://travel.webshots.com


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= MORE QUOTES (Timothy Beatley)
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Stockholm’s Satellite Rail Towns
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Land Use and Transportation Policies have significantly influenced the development of such cities in Sweden around Stockholm. The rail towns are connected to Stockholm and serve to bring commuter into the inner core but employment opportunities in the center of the satellite cities (next to the rail stops) also serves to bring equal number of commuters out to these locations as well.

<<__Stockholm has impressive examples of transit based satellite communities – since 1950’s many have been build along Tunnelbana regional rail system. Communities such as Kista, Skarpnack, and Vallingby are high density high access communities designed around subcenters incorporating retail and various community services (library, daycare, movie theatre…the communities are largely walk-able with a discernable town centre and higher density housing within a few metres of the train station…Several key ingredients that help to explain Stockholm’s success: the rail fares are low, the cost of owning and operating automobiles relatively high (e.g. high parking fees in city center, and high motor vehicle taxes); a high degree of city ownership of land, high degree of public subsidy for housing__>>

VALLINGBY was built in 1954 and has about 25000 dwellings of various housing types. It has a car-free public square in the middle with stores, community centre, theatre, access to the rail network (Tunnelbana) and greenspace on the perimeter.

http://maps.google.com


http://outdoors.webshots.com/


SKARPNÄCK – bicycle friendly, scaled to pedestrian

http://maps.google.com


KISTA

http://outdoors.webshots.com/


<<__More sustainable urban development is possible- clearest lesson from European urban practice is that alternative patterns of growth and development do exist and it is possible to organize space and public investments in ways that create compact walkable green communities…public transit, walking and bicycle use, under the right circumstances and with the appropriate long-term public policies can serve as viable alternatives to reliance on the automobile__>>

<<__[European] cities also strongly demonstrate that compact urban form and other sustainable design measures need not conflict with a high quality of life. Indeed just the opposite is the case. Compact, denser, walkable communities offer tremendous amenities, social, and environmental and are life-enhancing as well as ecologically restorative__>>

<<__Many European cities are [also] grappling with American trends of decentralization and increasing auto use...the solution is not simple but involves a package of initiatives, which includes: investment in comprehensive integrated public transit systems, coordination of land use and transportation investment decisions, increased opportunities for bicyclists and pedestrians. And [employing] creative ways to minimize or reduce auto mobility and reliance__>>

<<__The hallmark of many of these successful city efforts is the attempt to take an integrated holistic approach…these measures include simultaneously investing in and expanding public transit, expanding bicycle networks and facilities, pedestrianization and traffic calming, aggressive parking restrictions and locating major new developments near public transit and where walking and bicycling can take place__>>

<<__New ideas about car-free or car minimal developments have been creative and promising but they will ultimately fall short unless human behaviour is addressed and modified. Integrated approaches to green urbanism are essential__>>

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PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR POWERED HOUSING
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The following suburban developments are powered by photovoltaic solar panels. Priority is given to pedestrians and bicycles.

LINZ, AUSTRIA

www.linz.at/images/WSG2mi.jpg

“Solarsiedlung", FREIBURG, GERMANY

www.rolfdisch.de/default.asp?id=8&sid=-1318205075

NIEUWLAND IN AMERSFOORT (THE NETHERLANDS)

www.oja-services.nl/iea-pvps/pvpower/18_01.htm


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SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES: A NEW DESIGN SYNTHESIS FOR CITIES, SUBURBS, AND TOWNS. SIM VAN DER RYN, PETER CALTHORPE. (1986)
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<<__Compact mixed use land planning may compromise the quantity of private land for the separate household, but will reduce travel time, land devoted to automobiles, and air pollution__>>

<<__Cheap energy isolated buildings from their environment and the auto disbursed urban life, the shared domains from courtyards, porticos and arcades to semiprivate streets, common yards were eliminated__>>

<<__The notion of the commons is the central element of design for resource conservation and environmental stability…it is the shared ground, responsibilities, and systems at the community scale which offer the potential for a more benign form of human settlement, both socially and environmentally__>>

<<__As cities grow without limit- the zero congestion ideal has become unattainable…in economically strong cities, congested roads are a given. Improvement is possible in the “quality of the congestion” more than in its elimination__>>

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THE NEXT AMERICAN METROPOLIS: ECOLOGY, COMMUNITY, AND
THE AMERICAN DREAM. PETER CALTHORPE. (1993)
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<<__Building walkable neighbourhoods may not get people out of their cars…but people should be given a choice…a diverse and inclusionary environment filled with alternative ways of getting around is inherently better than a world of private enclaves dominated by the car__>>

<<__The alternative to sprawl is simple and timely; neighbourhoods of housing, parks, and schools placed within walking distance of shops, civic services, jobs, and transit…the convenience of the car and the opportunity to walk or use transit can be blended in an environment with local access for the daily needs of a diverse community. It is a strategy which could preserve open space, support transit, reduce auto traffic, and create affordable neighbourhoods. Applied at a regional scale, a network of such mixed use neighbourhoods could create order in our balkanized metropolis. It could balance inner-city development with suburban investment by organizing growth around an expanding transit system and setting defensible urban limit lines and greenbelts__>>

<<__Such neighbourhoods, called pedestrian pockets or transit oriented developments, ultimately could be more affordable for working families, environmentally responsible, and cost effective for business and government. But such a growth strategy will mean fundamentally changing our preconceptions and local regulatory priorities__>>

<<__The goal of community planning for the pedestrian or transit is not eliminate the car but to balance it…the suburban goals of privacy and independence do not have to be abandoned in the interests of developing communities with vital urban centres…this new balance call for the integration of seemingly opposing forces. Community and privacy, auto and pedestrian, large institutions and small business, suburban and urban; these are the poles that must be fused in a new pattern of growth__>>

<<__The move to the suburbs is largely for privacy, mobility, security, ownership…[suburban development] is at the root of many regional ills: serious environmental stress, intractable traffic congestion, a dearth of affordable housing, loss of irreplaceable open space and lifestyles which burden working families and the isolate the elderly__>>

<<__There has been a decentralization of the workplace causing new traffic patterns and suburban gridlock. Where downtown employment once dominated, suburb to suburb traffic patterns now produce greater commute distances and driving time…these new patterns has seriously eroded the quality of life in formerly quiet suburban towns__>>

<<__Density and configurations typical to suburbia make transit a heavily subsidized safety net rather than a functional alternative to the car__>>

<<__Pedestrian-pocket mixes several mid to high-rise housing types with jobs over shops at a transit stop. The size of the pocket was set by the comfortable walking distance at 1.4 mile…it is grid pattern but still based on the Radburn model of cul-de-sac streets with segregated pedestrian paths leading to the center… Concept has been expanded to include low-density housing including large schools, major parks, and light industrial – this formed basis of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) concept__>>

<<__All land in North America is controlled by codes and planning documents that evolved after WWll. These controls have been largely founded on modernist principles- segregation of uses, circulation systems focused on the car…with a few exceptions every city, county, and town has a set of zoning ordinances, planning codes, street standards and comprehensive plan that binds the area to future of sprawl-like development. To redirect the form of growth for the next generation, each of these documents must be revised…local ordinances and standards eventually should be rewritten to allow mixed use and more walkable neighbourhoods, and to eliminate the current bias towards the auto__>>

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CREATING WALKABLE PLACES: COMPACT MIXED-USE SOLUTIONS. ADRIENNE SCHMITZ, JASON SCULLY (2006)
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<<__The sidewalk is the most important public open space and the focal point of community life. In retail districts the sidewalk is the generator of commerce. In residential neighbourhoods it is the social connector. Places must be designed to be experienced on foot (human scale)__>>

<<__Children today are walking less than 1969. In 1969, 48% students walked or biked, in 2001 less than 15% and 1% biked (US EPA 2003)__>>



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WEBSITES
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Life in the Urban Landscape Conference, http://www.urbanlife2005.com/proceedings/main.asp
www.urbanlife2005.com/proceedings/main.asp

Creating more livable communities. Smart Growth British Columbia
www.smartgrowth.bc.ca/index.cfm

Victoria Transport Policy Institute
On-line Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Encyclopedia
www.vtpi.org/tdm/index.php#incentives

List of car-free places
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carfree_places

Less Car Traffic Through New Town Planning Concepts: The Model District Freiburg-Vauban, Address at Towards Carfree Cities IV, Conference of World Carfree Network (July 21, 2004). Claudia Nobis,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carfree_places

Less Car Traffic Through New Town Planning Concepts: The Model District Freiburg-Vauban, Address at Towards Carfree Cities IV, Conference of World Carfree Network (July 21, 2004). Claudia Nobis,
www.worldcarfree.net/conference/2004/details.php#vauban

Towards Carfree Cities IV - Programme
www.worldcarfree.net/conference/2004/programme.php

Walkable Communities
sierraclub.org/sprawl/community
www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/community/walkable.asp

New Urbanism – Creating Livable Sustainable Communities (Pedestrian Cities)
www.newurbanism.org/pages/519562/

Green Development Conservation Subdivision Design
www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/greendev/subdivision.shtml

Smart Communities Network: Paying the Costs of Sprawl: Using Fair-Share Costing to Control Sprawl
www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/articles/sprawl.shtml
<<__The market price of low-density, energy inefficient, sprawling developments does not incorporate the social costs associated with car dependence, loss of open space, and deterioration of downtowns. The trick is to determine a way to incorporate these costs into the marketplace and put the financial burden on the developer and homeowner. In recent years, a number of growth control policies have been instituted by cities around the country to try to reduce the impacts of sprawl. These strategies have included growth boundaries, restrictions on building permits, service area fees, cooperative city and regional planning, impact fees, and excise taxes. While impact fees have focused on placing the economic burden of sprawl back on the homeowner or developer, they have been limited to paying for the additional infrastructure costs associated with sewage, water, roads, and municipal services. Fees in the form of excise taxes could be, however, designed to more fully address the costs of sprawl. Another approach is to set up an impact fee system that varies relative to municipal services or density__>>

Sustainable Planning in European Cities. Paper presented to "Creating Sustainable Place" Conference. Timothy Beatley, Univerity of Virginia
www.socsci.umn.edu/~bongman/urbansustainability BEATLEYP.htm

THE URBAN OASIS: Guideways and Greenways in the Human Environment Roxanne Warren,
faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/oasis.htm

Groningen: Integrated town planning and traffic policy
www.p2pays.org/ref/24/23442.htm

Environmental Activism and Social Networks: Campaigning for Bicycles and Alternative Transport in West London. Simon Batterbury, S.P.J. 2003. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 590: 150-169.
simonbatterbury.net/pubs/annals.htm

WHO Regional Office for Europe, Healthy Cities Network. 1997
www.who.dk


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ARTICLES/JOURNALS
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QUALITY OF AN URBAN COMMUNITY: A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QUALITY AND PHYSICAL FORM. Landscape and Urban Planning Volume: 39, Issue: 2-3, Nov 30, 1997, pp. 229-241 by Smith, Tara; Nelischer, Maurice; Perkins, Nathan

<<__Mobility facilitates frequent and regular movement of residents to all parts of the community. It includes accessibility, convenience, opportunities for activity and legibility. All people, especially the elderly, children, and the physically challenged, need to have safe and easy access to all places in the community, to other people, a variety of activities, resources, places, and information. Convenience is something that increases physical comfort by being nearby through the proximity to shops, schools, work, recreation and transit routes…legibility is the ease with which the environment is to read or understand__>>


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CREATING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES, HEALTHY HOMES, HEALTHY PEOPLE: INITIATING A RESEARCH AGENDA ON THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH. Shobha Srinivasan, Liam R O'Fallon, Allen Dearry. American Journal of Public Health: Sep 2003.Vol.93, Iss. 9; pg. 1446

<<__Recent research explores the effect of improved built environments on physical activity, asthma, obesity, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer mortality, and mental health__>>


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URBAN SPRAWL AS A RISK FACTOR IN MOTOR VEHICLE OCCUPANT AND PEDESTRIAN FATALITIES Reid Ewing, Richard Schieber, Charles V Zegeer. American Journal of Public Health: Sep 2003.Vol.93, Iss.9; pg. 1541

<<__Ewing, Schieber, and Zegeer seek to determine the association between urban sprawl and traffic fatalities. After discussing the results of the study, they concluded that urban sprawl was directly related to traffic fatalities and pedestrian fatalities. Subsequent studies should investigate relationships at a finer geographic scale and should strive to improve on the measure of exposure used to adjust pedestrian fatality rates__>>


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ECOLOGY AND COMMUNITY DESIGN: LESSONS FROM NORTHERN EUROPEAN ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES. Saunders, Todd. Alternatives Journal. Waterloo: Apr 1996.Vol.22, Iss. 2; pg. 24,

<<__Although many Canadian architects and planners profess an interest in both ecology and community design, there are no contemporary built examples of "ecological communities" in this country. Northern Europe, in contrast, supports a long tradition and ever-expanding practice of ecological community design, with a large palette of academic and practical research to draw upon. An example includes Frasenweg, in Kassel, Germany__>>

oekosiedlungen.de/frasenweg


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SYNERGY AND MOVEMENT WITHIN SUBURBAN MIXED-USE CENTERS: THE TORONTO EXPERIENCE. Journal of Urban Affairs Volume: 22, Issue: 4, October 2000, pp. 419-438

<<__Some of the most accessible suburban sites (typically those near expressways or rail transit) have come to host mixed-use centres that generally combine a regional-scale shopping mall, a concentration of office space, ancillary hospitality services. These centres have variously been labeled edge cities, suburban downtowns, suburban nodes or suburban mixed-use centres…while praised for bringing unprecedented concentrations of activities to the suburbs, mixed use centers are not without problems. Far from relieving suburban transportation and environmental problems, suburban centers are major generators of car journeys and therefore exacerbate traffic congestion…this considerable reliance of the car is mirrored in the landscape of suburban mixed-use centers where much of the space is dedicated to the automobile. As a consequence buildings tend to be isolated from each other by vast parking lots and heavily traveled arterial roads, a pattern that deters pedestrian-based interaction between these centres’ different activities __>>

Mississauga City Centre (mall surrounded by office towers on ring road) http://maps.google.com


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A PORTLANDER'S VIEW OF SMART GROWTH. The Review of Austrian
Economics Volume: 17, Issue: 2, June 2004, pp. 203-212 O'Toole, R.

This article is a negative commentary on Portland’s model for sustainable development since it appears that opposite of what is intended is happening. The imposed urban growth boundary is forcing prices and making Portland one of least affordable areas the US. Further service costs, traffic congestion, air pollution are not going down.

<<__Portland Oregon has written and implemented the nation’s strongest and most comprehensive smart-growth plan. For a region expected to grow in population by 80% in the next 5 decades, the plan call for a mere 6% expansion of land area, high-density housing in the form of apartments, mixed use developments, and single family homes on small lots; pedestrian friendly design codes, 125 miles of rail transit; and almost no new highway construction__>>


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THE DUTCH PLANNING EXPERIENCE. Landscape and Urban Planning
Vol: 58, Issue: 2-4, Feb 15, 2002, Pp. 201-210 Arnold Van Der Valk.

<<__Spatial planning has developed into comprehensive growth management- it focuses on the need to plan rationally to accommodate the impacts of growth. It assumes that even if a single jurisdiction succeeds in managing its growth responsible fashion, it may well experience the negative effects of unmanaged growth by neighbouring jurisdictions__>>

<<__Primary goal of spatial planning and growth management is to enhance the quality of life. In the Netherlands quality of life is linked to sustainability, livability and the quality of the spatial environment…sustainability, livability and spatial quality are linked to a well-maintained physical environment, a clean and healthy environment, a safe environment, an environment that allows freedom of choice (e.g. mobility, living conditions)__>>


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Mitchell, Christopher. PEDESTRIAN MOBILITY AND SAFETY: A KEY TO INDEPENDENCE FOR OLDER PEOPLE. Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation 22.1 (Jan-March 2006): 45(8).

Mitchell advocates that since older people do not have as many mobility options as younger adult members of society, pedestrian routes should be made safer and easier. Consideration should be given to: <<__continuous pedestrian routes; resting places; signing pedestrian routes; road crossings that are better suited for older people; and reduction of traffic volume and speed, particularly in residential areas and town centers__>>.
Other provisions include locating shops, community facilities, and services within walking distance of residential areas.


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Southworth, Michael. DESIGNING THE WALKABLE CITY. Journal of Urban Planning and Development 131.4 (Dec 2005): 246(12).

<<__Not only does pedestrian transportation reduce congestion and have a low environmental impact, it has social and recreational value. Recent research suggests that walking also promotes mental and physical health. The quality of the pedestrian environment is key to encouraging people to choose walking over driving. Six criteria are presented for design of a successful pedestrian network: (1) connectivity; (2) linkage with other modes; (3) fine grained land use patterns; (4) safety; (5) quality of path; and (6) path context__>>


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Zhang, Ming. THE ROLE OF LAND USE IN TRAVEL MODE CHOICE: EVIDENCE FROM BOSTON AND HONG KONG. Journal of the American Planning Association 70.3 (Summer 2004): 344(17).

<<__For work trips in Boston, higher population densities at both trip origins and destinations were significantly associated with higher probabilities of commuting by transit or non-motorized modes. Higher employment densities at trip destinations increased the likelihood of taking non-driving modes. But employment densities at trip origins did not show statistical relevance to people’s decisions on travel means to work. Increased network connectivity at trip origins tended to encourage walking biking or taking transit but with marginal statistical significance. Yet decreased network connectivity at trip destination increased the likelihood of driving alone__>>


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EX-POST EVALUATION OF THIRTY YEARS OF COMPACT URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE NETHERLANDS. Geurs, Karst T., van Wee, Bert. Urban Studies; Jan2006, Vol. 43 Issue 1, p139-160, 22p

<<__The analysis shows Dutch spatial planning to have been successful. Without compact urban development policies, urban sprawl is likely to have been greater, resulting in less compact urbanization patterns, more car use at the cost of alternative modes, higher emissions and noise levels in residential and nature areas, higher congestion and lower accessibility levels, along with a stronger fragmentation of wildlife habitats__>>


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Laura E. Jackson THE RELATIONSHIP OF URBAN DESIGN TO HUMAN HEALTH AND CONDITION National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, US EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC

<<__Proponents of traditional and neo-traditional urban design advocate high residential densities, mixed land uses, and grided street patterns to maximize not only social contact, but also physical exercise and open space (e.g. Kunstler, 1996 ). However, many of these claims are as yet unsubstantiated by formal research. Berman, 1996 and Cervero, 1996 do report studies finding that high densities and mixed use increase pedestrian and bicycle activity. Clearly, this confers health benefits upon participants while preserving open space by concentrating development__>>

<<__On the negative side, Berman notes that the style of on-street housing sacrifices privacy… people prefer loop and cul-de-sac street designs to grids, even though grid residents report the highest sense of community, neighbor friendliness, and convenience to shopping and schools. However, grids were rated the lowest on proximity to parks, and cul-de-sacs the highest on visiting with neighbors outside. Both Berman and Cervero suggest that the social and environmental goals of neo-traditional design are more likely to be met through infill and redevelopment of existing urban area, rather than through enforced mixed use in an otherwise isolated new neighborhood__>>


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Walmsley, Anthony, GREENWAYS AND THE MAKING OF URBAN FORM. Landscape and Urban Planning Vol: 33, Issue: 1-3, Oct, 1995 pp. 81-127

<<__The pedestrian street was derived from a plan at Trudeslund Birkerod Denmark 1981 exemplifying a Scandinavian concept of collective housing known as in America as Co-housing. Trudeslund has 33 houses on 4 acres 1.6 ha arranged in a double row L shape with automobiles on the outside and a park on the inside. The rows are discontinuous and between them is a pedestrian street where families and children play stroll and meet…there is a community building with common dining room, hobby room and daycare centre. Each house has garden__>>

http://www.mtn.org/~fholson/dk-pix.htm

<<__Deer Park in New York is the US version…a mini-greenway system services every house, threading through each neighbourhood and leading to the central community facilities to reduce automobile use for internally generated trips…environmental benefits: shorter, narrower streets and compact utility systems means less costly infrastructure, less runoff convey in grassy spillways saves on engineering and replenishes ground water systems…tight configuration of neighbourhood around pedestrian streets concentrates site disturbance to limited areas__>>


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URBAN CONTEXTUAL FORM AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE – ECOSTRUCTURE. Carmela Canzonieri, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto.

Planning for a permanent ecological infrastructure of urban areas is as indispensable a planning of more common forms of infrastructure. Intensification of urban use on the development side requires strategies of intensification for natural processes on the ecological side. Within any urban setting there is ecological infrastructure or “ecostructure”. <<__[Ecostructure] is a network of landscape elements that includes woodlots, rivers, streetscapes, larger patches, corridors and smaller contributing sites__>>

Urban design has traditionally been composed of architecture and urban design. However in order for urban designers to be more ecologically aware a third component relating to Landscape Ecology in the urban setting must be considered.

<<__While there is fully established field of conservation studies devoted to studying ecological integrity in pristine environments, the challenge of maintaining ecological processes in urban and urbanizing landscapes still needs further investigation, debate and development. We need to know more about how natural systems manage to emerge on the surface of urban configurations, and how urban configurations are denying and failing to recognize their natural foundations. Incorporating landscape ecology in the urban vision fulfills the task of not degrading ecosystems and at the same time gives planners an instrument to accomplish social planning goals of balancing social and environmental inequity__>>

<<__The achievement of an urban ecological infrastructure may be a complex negotiation and cooperation process. [However, we must] realize that human activities are very flexible in terms of location while ecological processes are instead very rooted in place. Human activity takes land but human activity is not place-specific anymore. Most human activities have options of where to happen and have area requirements that are not dependent on a specific natural element. [Conversely], what the environment needs is not only a part or a percentage of the total available area, but very specific elements in very specific locations. This means that when humans and environment have to negotiate space for existence it should be the environment that gets its primary selection of places__>>

<<__Context, as defined by the landscape matrix, plays a key role in determining the continuing existence of viable areas of the ecostructure. It is not only the current landscape matrix type but also its potential for future change that imply different alternatives for otherwise similar landscape elements. Depending on the nature of these alternate possible effects on each of the components, different strategies will have to be considered. A scan of the large territory is necessary to grasp ranges of possible combinations__>>


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Cities Vol: 12, Issue: 1, February, 1995 pp. 41-51 STOCKHOLM'S RAIL-SERVED SATELLITES Cervero, Roberta Department of City and Regional Elsevier Science

This is a good summary on Stockholm’s urbanization after WWll. Unlike other European cities, Stockholm could have sprawled in the same manner as many North American cities since the land is flat and relatively abundant. However, Stockholm’s urban development has been based on the implementation of efficient rail transit called Tunnelbana to satellite cites that orbit the central city (Innerstad). These satellite cites not only serve as bedroom communities but employment centres in some cases. About 750,000 make up municipality of Stockholm.

<<__To maintain central Stockholm’s vitality regional planners built an extensive rail network that links satellite new towns with downtown Stockholm. The combination of multi-centred settlement pattern and suburban rail network has produced a tremendous amount of cross-haul commuting in the Stockholm region. Compared to other natural suburbs in greater Stockholm, relatively few Stockholm new town residents work locally. Likewise, most new town workers are imported from the outside. The external commuting that takes place, however, is overwhelmingly by rail transit. Stockholm’s sustainability lies in the strong rail orientation of the its new towns, rather than in any kind of balanced growth or self-containment__>>

==Intersting Conclusion== <<__Stockholm’s new towns are regional mobility success stories despite their lack of self-containment…overall experiences in greater Stockholm show that jobs-to-housing balance and self-containment are not prerequisites to reducing automobile dependency or promoting sustainability…in fact compared to UK towns [which are self contained] there seems to be an inverse relationship__>>


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Cities Vol: 14, Issue: 4, August, 1997 pp. 209-217 URBAN COMPACTION: FEASIBLE AND ACCEPTABLE? Breheny, Michael Department of Geography, The University of Reading Elsevier Science

Assuming that even if more compact neighbourhoods are technically feasible and do provide the environmental benefits, do people want live more closer together with less land?

<<__The main economic doubt about the compaction case concern the degree to which the compaction logic defies the market and the degree to which the market can or will bend…while compaction stresses the need to focus people in urban core and small dwelling units without gardens preferences stress suburban and rural locations and houses with gardens…there seems to be direct conflict between the views of dedicated compactionists who promote the virtues of high-density urban living and consumers who have consistently voted for the opposite still expressing a preference for decentralized spacious living…should people be then coerced into more sustainable lifestyles…some planning professional says this is morally and politically unacceptable__>>


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Applied Geography Vol: 25, Issue: 1, January, 2005 pp. 67-79 SPRAWL
AND FOREST COVER: WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP? MacDonald, Kristia; Rudel, Thomas K.b, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University

<<__Sprawl may contribute to climate change by destroying carbon sequestering secondary forests and by encouraging the consumption of fossil fuels to heat larger homes and fuel longer commutes to work (Casperson et al., 2000). Sprawl induced forest loss also has far-reaching ecological consequences including declines in neo-tropical migrant birds that breed in forest habitats (Robbins, Dawson, & Dowell, 1989), declines in water quality, and increases in erosion along streams that result from the replacement of forests by the impermeable surfaces that characterize built environments. Given this array of potentially negative environmental consequences, it seems important to assess both the type and magnitude of sprawl's impact on forests__>>


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EVALUATING PEDESTRIAN CONNECTIVITY FOR SUBURBAN SUSTAINABILITY Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Volume 127, Issue 1, pp. 1-15 (March 2001), Todd A. Randall and Brian W. Baetz

The pedestrian route directness (PRD) ratio compares the straight-line route vs. the actual route for pedestrians. PRD =route distance/geodetic distance. For example, pre-1940’s streetcar suburbs which have a grid street pattern have an average PRD ratio of 1.2, whereas conventional auto based post-war suburbs which have cul-de-sacs and curvilinear street patterns have a PRD ratio of 1.7. Therefore, walking distances were 40% longer in the conventional street pattern vs. the traditional street grid pattern. Improvements to a case neighbourhood in Hamilton Ontario reduced walking distances by creating pathways from key cul-de-sacs and through schools and parks, thereby reducing the need to travel by car since walking distances are relatively close to stores and employment and transit. Unfortunately, the article does answer how one gets neighbourhood acceptance to knock down a house in order to make a pathway connection from a cul-de-sac.

<<__Neighbourhoods should be constructed with sustainability concepts in mind. Those providing good pedestrian and cycling environments and more green space, while connecting the neighbourhood to a larger region with effective transit service are becoming more common place in North America…these concepts are applied with relative ease to the construction of new neighbourhoods on greenfields. However, there is a large stock of already-built neighbourhoods in the large suburban belts around cities that need to be retrofitted with some of these more sustainable enhancements__>>



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REDESIGNING SUBURBIA FOR WALKING AND TRANSIT: EMERGING CONCEPTS. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Volume 120, Issue 1, pp. 48-57 (March 1994)

<<__Suburban sprawl has caused many problems in the last several decades. Of particular concern is over reliance on the automobile and the lack of alternative forms of transportation such as walking, bicycling, and transit. The advocates of neo-traditional town planning have developed the traditional neighborhood development (TND) and pedestrian pocket (PP) concepts for redesigning American suburbia to solve its deficiencies. This paper describes these concepts and then evaluates their potential usefulness to allow walking and transit in suburbia. It is concluded that these concepts offer a unique opportunity to integrate land-use and suburban development policies with transportation policy to stop sprawl and create compact, mixed-use communities. However, of the two concepts reviewed, the pedestrian pocket offers a better potential for developing a new suburban growth pattern on a metropolitan scale that is pedestrian- and transit-oriented. Its successful implementation depends on the existence of a supportive metropolitan-scale land-use and transportation plan__>>