Transportation And City Growth: How We Move Is How We Grow
Nestled in the hills, next to the Ohio River is the city of Cincinnati. It is a medium sized city built on the rolling hills that are a a standard feature of the country. Like all cities, Cincinnati has sky scrapers, apartments, small houses and larger houses built in the suburbs. Built at the end of the 1700’s it was considered one of the first North American boom towns and one of the early big inland cities. History can, in part, be followed by the development of the automobile. The introduction of the car led to a number of important businesses including gas stations, auto repair businesses, houses with garage doors, a need for Cincinnati Garage Door Replacement, a new Cincinnati Garage Door Opener, asphalt companies, street light manufactures and a hoard of other auto related industries. Cincinnati recently voted against support for a trolley car and train system.
As urban centers develop with the car as a key design feature they bring on a slew of problems. Automobiles must be parked, the roads must be large enough to accommodate them, automobile pollution rises, and pedestrian access competes with access for the automobile. Creating the balance between accommodating cars and creating accessible cities has always been a challenge for city planners.
The Big Apple, New York City, is a mass transit success. The subway system make it possible to travel all over the city. In some ways the city is custom designed to support a subway and light rail system. It is relatively condensed with many major destinations located in a small area, with all the neighborhoods radiating out from a defined center. It was a city that began before the advent of the age of the automobile. No system is without its flaws, but the New York City mass transit model allows people to have relative access to most parts of the city with relative speedy access. New York City has the largest and most used rail system in the United States. Traveling by subway, a person can disappear underground, and pop up like a prairie dog in a different part of town. The mass transit system allows pedestrians to leave their home and go about their day without requiring a car. In fact, the New York City mass transit system is so good, street parking so difficult and garage storage so expensive, that most residents don’t own a car.
Mass transportation also increases pedestrian traffic as people move to the subway stops. Pedestrian traffic helps increase business.
Los Angeles is at the opposite side of the spectrum. Los Angeles developed around the automobile with many different centers spread over many miles. It became a freeway city with most places require the use of automobiles for easy access. It does have a decent mass transit system and is working to create light rail access, but the city is so large that it has many centers of business, including Hollywood, Century City, Santa Monica, Westwood and the down town area. The light rail does not access the major areas of business on the other side of the hill in the San Fernando Valley. To make a couple stops for meetings or errands in Los Angeles could require a days time and serious route planning, compared to a couple hours in NYC. Every urban area wrestles with transportation, and each city struggles to meet its own unique challenges.
Tags: Cincinnati Garage Door Opener, Cincinnati Garage Door Replacement
Window Hardware | Jane | 12 March 2010 |
