Cities - for people or for vehicles?

Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute has some ideas for transforming our cities from traffic-laden, polluted regions to sustainable places.

Every city has been adding people by ten-fold in less than a decade. Quality of living naturally suffers. In many cities of the developing world, 'the air is so polluted that breathing is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day'. Jam-packed streets mean commuters spend hours sitting in traffic-congested streets, raising stress levels. Conservative estimates say that traffic congestion in and around New York city costs the region more than $13 billion a year in lost time and productivity, wasted fuel, and lost business revenue.

How many of our cities can do what Bogota did under mayor Enrique Peñalosa? 'Under his leadership, the city created or renovated 1,200 parks, introduced a highly successful bus-based rapid transit system, built hundreds of kilometers of bicycle paths and pedestrian streets, reduced rush hour traffic by 40 percent, planted 100,000 trees, and involved local citizens directly in the improvement of their neighborhoods. In doing this, he created a sense of civic pride among the city’s 8 million residents, making the streets of Bogotá in this strife-torn country safer than those in Washington, D.C.'

'When 95 percent of a city’s workers depend on cars for commuting, as in Atlanta, Georgia, the city is in trouble. By contrast, in Amsterdam 35 percent of all residents bike or walk to work, while one fourth use public transit and 40 percent drive... Even though these European cities are older, often with narrow streets, they have far less congestion than Atlanta.'

Brown suggests some ways like imposing parking fees, encouraging cycling, etc to curb the traffic, while also talking of developing new cities from the scratch instead of straining the existing ones. Cities need to be redesigned for people rather than for vehicles, notes Brown.

Time our city planners took note when hacking trees and widening roads for vehicles. For instance, we need around 20 trees per eprson for oxygen needs. We have right now around 40, and that number is drastically falling!