Turning Japanese:
Could Asian cities influence the future of urban planning?
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
By Jessica Niles DeHoff
Kyoto, Japan (NCS) - “Traveling green” in America these days usually means using a hybrid vehicle to make the daily one-hour commute. In Asia, however, where populations and traffic jams are much denser, transportation planning is moving away from the individual vehicle and towards communal modes. In support of this goal, a conference of Asian mayors was held in Kyoto April 23rd-24th to discuss efficient, affordable, and safe ways of providing environmentally sustainable transport in cities.
The meeting brought together mayors, planning officials, NGO representatives, and expert advisers from all over Asia and the West, and was organized by the U.N. Center for Regional Development, the ASEAN Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, along with the Asian Development Bank and several ministries of the Japanese government.
the number of automobiles keeps on increasing to fill any number of newly widened roads and new parking structures. Clearly the solution lies not in more accommodations for the car, but fewer. Local and national governments share a responsibility to provide workable alternatives.
Many Asian centers already have highly evolved urban transport systems in place. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila and Kuala Lumpur, for example, each possess an extensive network of subways and commuter trains. At the same time, dense development above ground makes it possible to use non-motorized transport like bicycles and rickshaws to get from one local destination to another.
Despite these strengths Asian cities cannot rest on their laurels: growing populations necessitate ever more efficient and sustainable transport solutions. Several of the conference’s participants presented interesting innovations. The team of representatives from Seoul presented a comprehensive system of color-coded neighborhood, citywide, and regional buses, while Ulaan Baatar’s mayor spoke frankly of the need for financial and legal structures to support the right kind of urban development.
These are ideas that American urban planners would do well to study. Initiatives like the National Trust’s Main Street Program, combined with a new focus on “smart growth,” have revitalized most of the major cities in the U.S. and urban densities are increasing. Streetcar lines are reborn as light-rails, mixed-use developments reappear, and empty nesters as well as young professionals are re-inhabiting downtown in droves.
As these cities grow and densify, becoming more like cities in other parts of the world, Americans will need more than their transportation planners are currently providing. Reversing the trend toward sprawl and edge development will take more than a light rail or two: it will take some serious imagination, and maybe some help from the folks in Asia who have done it before.
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Over two days, the leaders used this opportunity to show off their successes (cooking oil reused as fuel, low-impact gondola systems mounting steep slopes), bemoan their failures (public health problems, bureaucratic disagreements), and share their hopes for the future. Representatives from developed and developing countries alike agreed that increasing traffic loads are fast worsening problems like congestion and pollution.
American cities, too, know that
