Why the 7 principles presented by Peter Calthorpe in his Ted Talk are so important for the future of urban planning
More than half of the world’s population is already living in cities, and another 2.5 billion people are projected to move to urban areas by 2050. The way we build new cities is at the center of our lives, from climate change to economic vitality to our well-being and sense of connectedness.
Peter Calthorpe is already at work planning the cities of the future and advocating for community design that’s focused on human interaction. He shared seven universal principles for solving sprawl and building smarter, more sustainable cities during his talk of 2017.
The 7 points he mentioned are :
1 — Preserve
Preserve natural ecologies, agrarian landscapes and cultural heritage sites.
2 — Mix
Create mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods.
Mixed use is already popular in city planning, but Peter Calthorpe emphasizes that the creation of cities where mixed income, mixed age groups as well as mixed-land use must remain a priority. By creating such mixed environment, it will allow a better integration of varied communities and reduce inequality between individuals.
3 — Walk
Design walkable streets and human scale neighborhoods.
“There’s no great city that you don’t enjoy walking in.”
Places where walking is almost impossible is not enjoyable to visit, and we just don’t go there. This is the conclusion that the urban planner drew in his exposé. Because we go on vacation where walking is easy and enjoyable, why not make it so everywhere else?
4 — Bike
Prioritize bicycle networks and auto-free streets.
Bike is the most efficient means of transportation that exists. Many examples of great urban planned city evolves around the utilisation of bicycles. In Europe, Copenhague and Amsterdam are two great examples of such cities. Still, this system can be implanted almost everywhere in the world. In Asia, bicycles were historically very important as a means of transportation. With the proliferation of the autonomous vehicle and it’s cheaper alternative, the motorized bike, the bicycle was left behind. Initiative, like the new policies adopted by the government of China to return to the use of bicycles in cities, will become more frequent, for the better.
5 — Connect
Increase density of road network, limit block size.
The idea behind this concept is to create a network of streets that will allow many routes to go to the same place, instead of singular routes. Also, those routes must be varied, must provide many kinds of streets, instead of only providing one. That way, citizens will be able to use varied means of transportation (walk, bike and transit transport) to go to the same place.
6 — Ride
Develop high quality transit and affordable BRT.
We have to invest more in transit transportation. It is the only solution. Autonomous vehicles are not going to solve anything for us. As a matter of fact, they’re going to generate more traffic, more VMT, than the alternative. Therefore, to limit the growth of this industry, we must provide better options to people. The idea is to present public transportation as the first choice alternative when walking and biking isn’t an option.
7 — Focus
Match density and mix to transit capacity.
We have to use the varied means of transportation, like bicycle, public transportation and autonomous vehicle, to create a varied transit path. The place that each will occupy must depend on their affluence. Therefore, green means of transportation will have the priority in our street as well as in our mind.
