A BRIEF HISTORY OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT

How Transportation Shapes CitiesGavin Hales, January 2012

Dynamic Cities

Cities throughout the world are constantly being reinvented.

Sometimes this is the slow product of new construction along with changing tastes, sometimes a sweeping top-down redesign to reflect a new vision of what the city should be.

Planned Cities:Haussman’s redesign of Paris

Between 1853 and 1870, Baron Haussman renovated Paris: adding boulevards and widening the existing streets.

He changed the character of the city from one of winding medieval streets, to the city of grand boulevards and monuments we know today.

Planned Cities: St Petersburg

Planned cities are not a new idea. Founded by Peter the Great in 1703, St Petersburg was built from the ground up to serve as the capital of Tsarist Russia.

Refugee Cities

But not all cities were shaped by intention. Often cities fall victim to events.

In 1994, Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Among its many provisions, was one allowing the United States to

export corn to Mexico. This provision has led to the displacement of 1,500,000 agricultural

workers, many of whom moved to Mexico City.

Unintended Consequences

This influx of population, combined with the increased availability of cars, and the cities natural topography to produce some of the worst air quality in the world.

American Cities

Perhaps nowhere in the world is the effect of transportation on city development more evident than in American cities.

American cities can be said to have gone through four distinct phases: The walking/carriage city. The railroad city. The omnibus/streetcar city. The highway city.

The Walking/ Carriage City

Before 1820, most cities in America were small enough that you could walk from one end to the other in under an hour.

The Railroad City

With the widespread construction of railways between 1830 and 1860, cities began to take shape around railroad stations, with key industries located as close to the station as possible.

The Omnibus/ Streetcar City

Beginning with New York and Harlem Railroad in 1832, cities began to build rail mass transit systems. Initially horse drawn on rails built into the street, these gave way to cable cars and electric trolleys by the late 1880’s.

Streetcar Heyday

By the late 1930s streetcars were ubiquitous. Almost every major city in America had extensive streetcar systems. Portland had almost 500 miles of streetcar lines.

The End of WW II: The Beginning of the Automobile City

In 1944, Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.

Among its provisions was one entitling each of the millions of returning veterans to a low-interest, no down payment home loan for those wishing to buy homes.

The demand for new single family homes skyrocketed.

The Highway City

With Congresses passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1956, the United States began construction of a the 41,000 mile Interstate Highway System.

Its construction over the next several decades would have a profound effect on the shape of American Cities. For the first time it became possible to live miles from where you work, resulting in the development of massive suburbs and exurbs.

Present Day

At present, over 60% of Americans live in the suburbs.

As most employment is still confined to the cities, their daily migration results in huge traffic jams.

The average American commute time (time it takes you to reach work from your home) has now reached 45 minutes each way.

But it doesn’t have to be this way…

While many cities have embraced the highways to the suburbs model, numerous examples exist for building cities differently.

Alternatives to the Highway City:Density

San Francisco and New York have grown upward instead of outward, with many more people per square mile than most American Cities.

Alternatives to the Highway City:Density

Paris is also an extremely dense city, with 7x the density of Los Angeles, and 90 times the density of unincorporated suburbs.

Alternatives to the Highway City:Multimodal

Most cities outside of America (and several large American cities) rely predominantly on a combination of rail transit, bus transit, bicycling, and walking to get around.

Alternatives to the Highway City:Multimodal

The Car, though present, is at best a secondary method of travel.

End of Part 1: Questions?

Case Study: Atlanta

In the later half of the 20th century Atlanta responded to its booming population by building three interstate highways around its downtown (CBD).

Case Study: Atlanta

City planners had hoped the additional freeways would reduce traffic and overall commute times. Instead, the projects produced some of the worst traffic in the national, while facilitating massive suburban sprawl.

Case Study: San Francisco

San Francisco’s density, combined with their decision to retain their streetcar system (while most cities in America were tearing them up or paving them over,) has produced one of the healthiest downtowns in the country.

Case Study: Jerusalem

Contemporary Jerusalem finds the balance between a modern metropolis and preserving the holy sites of three religions.

The Fortress City

Many cities in the world were built to defend themselves from hostile neighbors. Dubrovnik, Croatia and Bourtange, Holland are surviving examples.

Questions?