3 ms·

The first suburbs were built around the public transportation option of the time, streetcars. It's a shame that most cities threw that away when cars appeared.

The first suburbs were built around the public transportation option of the time, streetcars. It's a shame that most cities threw that away when cars appeared. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb Ignoring the implementation detail of the street car form, the fundamental idea of designing a suburb neighbourhood around major transit nodes, with some light commercial at the core stops makes tons of sense. Walk or bike 5-15 minutes to the transit node, get on transit, get to town. No car necessary.

_delirium 12y ago
This is more or less how Copenhagen is built. It's most famous for the high degree of biking in the city (~50% of people living in the city proper commute by bike), but if you take the metro area as a whole, it's surprisingly sprawling. Of 1.5m total people, only about 500k live in the city, and the other 1m live in the suburbs, which spread out to a surprisingly large radius considering that it's not that large of a population (the outer suburbs are about 40-50km from downtown). However that quite geographically large sprawl is mostly channeled along five main corridors [1], with a fairly fast commuter-rail system serving as the backbone of each corridor. That allows having large expanses of single-family homes, but still good transit access. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Plan
- rayiner 12y ago
  That's also how Westchester in NYC is built. Lots of little suburban towns built around Metro North stations.
maw 12y ago
I agree with the main thrust of what you're saying but feel compelled to point out that suburbs are much older than streetcars. See http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=suburb&searchmode=phrase http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=su... for instance.
Nicholas_C 12y ago
Dallas has a very small streetcar line. It's extremely useful for getting to downtown from uptown. If I worked in downtown I would use it every day,as many do.

_delirium 12y ago

This is more or less how Copenhagen is built. It's most famous for the high degree of biking in the city (~50% of people living in the city proper commute by bike), but if you take the metro area as a whole, it's surprisingly sprawling. Of 1.5m total people, only about 500k live in the city, and the other 1m live in the suburbs, which spread out to a surprisingly large radius considering that it's not that large of a population (the outer suburbs are about 40-50km from downtown). However that quite geographically large sprawl is mostly channeled along five main corridors [1], with a fairly fast commuter-rail system serving as the backbone of each corridor. That allows having large expanses of single-family homes, but still good transit access. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Plan

rayiner 12y ago
That's also how Westchester in NYC is built. Lots of little suburban towns built around Metro North stations.

maw 12y ago

I agree with the main thrust of what you're saying but feel compelled to point out that suburbs are much older than streetcars. See http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=suburb&searchmode=phrase http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=su... for instance.

Nicholas_C 12y ago

Dallas has a very small streetcar line. It's extremely useful for getting to downtown from uptown. If I worked in downtown I would use it every day,as many do.