Movement Systems

Our seminar this week was focused on city design and transit. Just as our body needs a complex network of veins and arteries to circulate blood that helps keep the body alive, active and sustain various complex mechanisms, our cities need a well designed network of transport lines to sustain them and their various functions. Commuting needs of human society are natural and synonymous with their lives, for each activity we do requires movement from one place to another. The commuting needs of the society are varied; we need to travel to school, work, shopping,socialize or for entertainment. People visit churches, temples or mosques, they visit hospitals and institutions. Our industries are fed by trucks, railways or  sometimes airplanes. 

                    To sustain this complex network of activities, we need a well integrated transit system in our cities. Looking back at history, ancient cities developed along waterways, as they facilitated trade and movement.The cities during the industrial era developed around railway lines. Hence,the cities have grown around and along transit. Our guest speaker this week, a colleague of Don at urbanxyz discussed with us the transit oriented design. Through a digital presentation, he gave us examples of  how TOD designs are helping develop beautiful viable urban environments. A transit oriented development on a city level facilitates the use of public transit. It focuses dense growth around the transit stop and makes way for walkable urban environments.

                    The reading for this week, The Next American metropolis by Peter Calthrope clearly describes that transit exists to serve a city and make it a healthier place to live in and not the other way round. As he says " A healthy walking environment can succeed without transit, but a transit cannot exist without the pedestrian." Next principle which Peter highlights is that a TOD makes development affordable. Affordable for communities ; as it provides various housing options, reduces auto dependence and for environment as it preserves open space and controls air pollution. This lays out some of the most important principles, that we can use in our urban lab. I will try to incorporate them into my design proposal.