Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
our daily activities, whether going to work, or using educational, health
or other public services, or just for leisure. Housing location influences the
distances to different types of facilities, and the spatial location of most of
these facilities suggests that average travel distances will be shortest for
inner-city residents. However, there are claims that high accessibility to dif-
ferent services might create an increased demand for transport. Moreover,
opting for a wider range of jobs, shops and leisure activities might establish
the need for more everyday travel.
2.3.2.1 New Urbanism and Transit-Oriented Development
In urban design literature, the development of what is loosely referred to as
'New Urbanism' applies a raft of sustainable objectives to new urban layouts.
The evolution of this movement may be traced to the development of urban
villages (in the UK) and sustainable growth management projects, also known
as New Urbanism (in the United States), that have been 'directed toward
creating an alternative to the typical car-dominated suburban sprawl that pre-
dominates on the fringe of virtually all western cities and towns' [68, p. 207].
The main design concept in New Urbanism is the creation of a 'module' or
'ped-shed' (walkable urban design and sustainable place making). It is made
up of a walkable neighbourhood with a 400-m radius to shops, services and
transport nodes in which the fabric creates a series of interconnected pedes-
trian friendly streets. It does not necessarily ban the private car; however, it
serves to 'maximize interaction while minimizing the travel needed to do it'
[68, p. 209]. The logic is that there will be a dramatic reduction in car park-
ing provision. It decreases from the predominant post-war patterns of two
or three spaces per dwelling to one space or less. Consequently, a link is
established between reduced car parking standards and the design of mixed
uses, small street blocks and interconnected streets [69]. At a more funda-
mental level, conventional Western post-war car parking layouts are chal-
lenged by the need to raise residential densities to make for greater land-use
efficiencies [70] and to foster non-car-based trip generation where a provi-
sion of less than one space per dwelling is a desirable objective [71]. Morris
and Kaufman acknowledged that this focus on New Urbanism will make a
significant contribution to achieving more sustainable cities, yet they voiced
concern that 'While the intentions and potential to re-shape cities and towns
towards less car dependence is a strong thrust of many practitioners of new
urbanism, the evidence of major gains on the ground is limited' [68, p. 208].
The two approaches, New Urbanism and transit-oriented development,
do not target increasing densities—any increase in density that is achieved
is basically a by-product of a minimal nature. The emphasis of the New
Urbanism movement is on small towns. New urbanists envision towns or
neighbourhoods that are compact, mixed use and pedestrian friendly [42].
The emphasis of transit-oriented development, whose principal proponent is
Calthorpe [49,72], is to plan balanced, mixed-use areas with a simple cluster
