Seven rules for sustainable communities

New ideas:Streetcar City as crucial to sustainability

Canada and US comparisons prove falsehoods

Integrating green infrastructure is possible at high density

We can cut carbon by over 50% just by land use changes alone.

, 1975

We forgot that:

Every City over 5,000 people had Streetcars.

We forgot that: Most homes in the streetcar city were single family homes.

Restore the Streetcar City

“Tax Lots” were economic place holders.

In Vancouver it took 80 years to realize planned density on streetcar arterials.


The walking distance city and the streetcar city.

Housing form changes from townhouse to bungalow

Interurban to Bloomsbury Park, Raleigh North Carolina

1913

We forgot that: Interconnected streets provide many alternative routes if congested

Only two types of streets:

Residential streets

Streetcar arterials


The agricultural landscape of 40 acre squares is cut up into 8 equal 5 acre blocks.

Streetcar arterials every 4 blocks or 10 minute walk apart.

Design an Interconnected Street System

US and Canadian cities identical during streetcar city period.

Grid is most common form of interconnected street system. 640 x 320 feet.

VANCOUVER B.C.VANCOUVER B.C.

SEATTLE WA.SEATTLE WA.


Intersection density much higher in Streetcar City form

No alternative routes and highly loaded main intersections in sprawl form


Intersections impossible to cross on foot.

Big Box magnets at overloaded intersections.

400% more traffic through intersection.

60% more pedestrian fatalities.


Ideas from the 1960’s pollute our thinking. We think the region is made of nodes. But for most southern, midwestern, and western cities it is really made of corridors left over from the streetcar and interurban era. We value speed over everything. We value access not at all.

Locate Good Jobs Close to Home

Transit systems continue to be built as hub and spoke systems, even though jobs are no longer in the center.


Ideas from the

We forgot that:

Five minute walking distance is a key feature of the streetcar city.

In the streetcar city the five minute walk merges into continuously accessible corridors.

Larc 581Sustainable Cities A five minute walking distance to commercial services and transit

J.

Larc 581Sustainable Cities A five minute walking distance to commercial services and transit

J.

.3 Mile

A five minute walking distance to commercial services and transit

.3 Mile

We forgot that:

The Streetcar city concept allows for many jobs close to corridors.


Jobs do fit into block stucture.


Speeds on congested freeways now approaching jogging pace.

The quest for speed is hopeless.


Streetcar arterial in Oklahoma City.

Capable of absorbing many thousand new jobs.


Plan from the Damascus Area Design Workshop.

Jobs areas grouped within the block and arterial structure

We accept that:

For slower transit to make sense affordable housing must be more evenly distributed in regions.

Different house types all on the

same street close to transit.

Different Dwelling Types on the Same Street.

Density doesn’t need to look dense.

Vancouver architects have re learned this lesson.

3306 West 5th Ave.

Freestanding house is less than 15’ wide.



Hidden secondary suites



Secondary suites

Over 50,000 secondary suites. 25,000 of them “illegal”



Intensifying the arterials.



Doubling the frontage.

Laneway housing.



Vancouver architects have re learned this lesson.

5458 Larch Street

Project is 28 DU per acre. One level of underground parking.


Suburban housing using most energy per sq. foot and per capita.

15,000 KWh/year

High rise is better.

8,000 KWh/year

Midrise is best.

5,500 KWh/year


We know that:

Preserved Nature provides a natural interface to the streetcar city grid

Why?For zero impact

For access to nature

To bound and protect neighborhoods

Larc 581Sustainable Cities A Linked System of Natural Areas and Parks

Infrastructure that works with not against natural systems.

Plan from the Damascus Area Design Workshop.

An armature of linked natural areas and parks.

We forgot that:

We spend too much on infrastructure.

Every dollar’s worth of pavement produces a dollars' worth of environmental damage.

Work with natural systems not against them.

Lighter Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure

Natural Forest

Zero runoff, 45 percent evapotranspiration.


Urbanized situations, runoff added.

Velocity increases by 100

Amounts increase

Temperature increases


Green infrastructure condition.

1” a day or 1 mm per hour infiltration across the site.

Larc 581Sustainable Cities Lighter Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure

http://www.pringlecreek.com/

http://www.pringlecreek.com/

THANK [email protected]

Streetcar CityA City of: Linked Centres, A Green Grid, Green

Jobs, and Linked Riparian Zones

http://www.urbanstudio.sala.ubc.ca/2010/book%20templates.html

Seven rules for sustainable communities

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