The First UN Habitat Brian Williams Memorial Lecture The Challenge of Urban Mobility in the 21 st Century!!

Transcription

1 The First UN Habitat Brian Williams Memorial Lecture The Challenge of Urban Mobility in the 21 st Century!!! Delivered by Elliott Sclar, Professor of Urban Planning Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development Earth Institute Columbia University New York, NY May 3, 2011

2 Brian Williams In Memory

3 World Urban Population

4 World Mega-regions

5 The Process of Urban Change Path Dependency Seattle

6 The Process of Urban Change Path Dependency Seattle

7 The Process of Urban Change Path Dependency Manhattan

8 The Process of Urban Change Path Dependency Manhattan

9 The Process of Urban Change New York City Interborough Rapid Transit Urban spatial form results from the complex intersection of technology, social values and structures of governance

10 The Process of Urban Change New York City Interborough Rapid Transit The ways in which our urban places evolve is a reflection of the ways in which we as a society value our different members in terms of their ethnicity, class and gender.

11 The Heritage of 20 th Century Urban Spa:al Form Los Angeles form intended to maximize the quest for individual mobility

12 The Heritage of 20 th Century Urban Spa:al Form Beijing This has had a profound impact on the ways in which urban spa<al form is now evolving in the rapidly expanding urban spaces of Southeast Asia

13 The Heritage of 20 th Century Urban Spa:al Form New York Urban mobility as it evolved over the course of the 20 th century ini<ally evolved as a solu<on to the severe degenera<ve conges<on of clogged streets and clogged lives that were the major nega<ve by- product of urban industrializa<on

14 The Heritage of 20 th Century Urban Spa:al Form Chicago Commuters defined by the technologies of heavy and light rail lines that expanded urban living op<ons in metropolitan regions while permigng workers to gather in concentrated employment centers

15 The Heritage of 20th Century Urban Spa:al Form Oasis Freeway, CA 1950s but eventually almost en<rely supplanted by individual and private travel in automobiles

16 The Heritage of 20 th Century Urban Spa:al Form I-90, Los Angeles the promise of more personal freedom through more personal mobility has con<nually proven to be more fantasy than reality

17 The Heritage of 20 th Century Urban Spa:al Form Kampala, Uganda the reality of urban circula<on systems throughout the developing world where most people walk on the margins of roads that the luckier few who find themselves signg in traffic that slowly drains away the hours of their lives as they inch closer to their des<na<ons

18 The Heritage of 20 th Century Urban Spa:al Form Levittown th century urban spa<al forms were built on the assump<ons of rela<vely low cost energy to power our private vehicles and sustain scajered land uses and the idea that the extrac<on and use of energy and disposal of energy waste products was, rela<vely speaking, environmentally harmless

19 The Type I and Type II Urban Transport Errors Beijing 2006 The first is the already referenced mistake of confusing mobility with access. Urban places create value by crea<ng access

20 The Type I and Type II Urban Transport Errors Mumbai 2006 The result is that we create far less of it than is necessary to meet the needs of good urban density. When this occurs we are faced with our type II urban transport error, too lijle efficient urban public transport mobility.

21 The Type I and Type II Urban Transport Errors UK The design of urban spaces must be undertaken in a manner that places its highest priority on crea<ng mixed use land uses to minimize travel

22 The Type I and Type II Urban Transport Errors 34 th St Plan, NYC Its second priority is to ensure that the spaces between various ac<vi<es are easily reached along safe walkable pathways.

23 Urban Public Transport as a Public Good It is absolutely vital that urban public transporta<on be considered a public good afforded the same status as services such as safe drinking water, sanita<on, police and fire protec<on

24 Urban Public Transport as a Public Good Hatsfield, UK 2000* *Private rail line charged with breaking safety laws what consistently emerges is a low quality product, that while completely market driven tends to be unsafe, fails to alleviate conges<on and is open governed by organized criminals

25 Urban Public Transport as a Public Good London Virtually all of the demand for urban transporta<on is derived from a desire to achieve something else, visi<ng friends, gegng to work or school, ajending a concert, etc

26 Urban Public Transport as a Public Good Subway Tokens the price that we can charge them has to be one within their ability to pay regardless of whether or not it covers the full cost of providing the service in ques<on. Good urban public transporta<on systems are expensive to build and operate

27 Urban Public Transport as a Public Good Nairobi Bus Terminal The best systems in the world are systems in which the full diversity of the urban popula<on uses the system. A system that is deliberately designed to only serve the urban poor quickly becomes a poor system

28 Conclusion Toronto, 2011 Ci<es that are most inclusive in their priori<es are the most vibrant and healthy places in which to live. Ci<es in which there is more exclusion in their access priori<es suffer from stagna<on and poorer health outcomes.

29 Thank You Lily Furendi 1933