Creating Tomorrow - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 478

the problems. The automobile reduced our reliance on the old form of centralized city. The
digital revolution has the potential of reducing our reliance on the automobile. 15
Employment, education, and health care all face the need to do more with less. The old
paradigm of centralization was reflected in large factories, large schools, and large hos-
pitals. Economies of scale required that the brightest individuals and the best hardware
be given the greatest utilization and that meant bringing as many people as possible to
centrally located places. Digital communication now adds an explosive thrust in the other
direction. Access to work, access to education, and access to health care no longer mandate
phy s ic a l pr ox i m it y.
The latest master-planned communities include communication infrastructures that
connect houses and neighborhoods by way of computerized networks. The digital revolu-
tion is making new systems and opportunities as normal to our lifestyle as yesterday's
use of the telephone. Telephony, telemetry, and other forms of telecommunications-based
services are decreasing passenger miles for those who do not want to spend all day in their
cars, while providing needed care to those who do not have that choice. Medicine can be
dispensed electronically, with follow-up calls to confirm that it has been taken. If the calls
are not answered, help is sent with greater dispatch than the family doctor of old could
have hoped to provide (Figure 27.8).
27.1.7 Heroic Design and Commitment
We have suggested the need to extend the world of design to the design of the world . This could
be seen as arrogant if it were not such an obvious necessity. Furthermore, it is a commitment
FIGURE 27.8
Bicycle and pedestrian path system at DC Ranch. Creating compact, interrelated land-use patterns makes
bicycling a viable transportation option.