[sustran] Big issues to talk about

[Dharm Guruswamy]

On Wed, 14 May 1997, A. Karp wrote:

> Regarding Dharm's comments on Asian city gridlock as a function of road
> development (10% v. New York's 25%):

Adam,
     The 25% reflects all the surface area dedicated to streets, parking
lots, gasoline stations, etc.. NOT just the roadways.  I in no way
intended to imply that Bangkok should try and devote 25% of their surface
area to automobiles, just that Bangkok's traffic problems are a function
of how LITTLE space they devote to automobile.  When I was a
undergraduate, we had planners from St. Petersburg, Russia (formerly
Leningrad), visit our program and state on a AID funded study tour.  

The noted that they are planning for the influx of automobiles with plans
to widen areterials and build parking garages in certain dense districts.
However, they balanced that with plans to continue to expand the Metro and
maintain the bus system.  More and more people were going to be owning
cars and these planners did not necasserily like it, but they acknowledged
reality.

> 	I must disagree with the argument that expanding arterials is a
> must in order to avoid total havoc.  The 25% figure New York boasts is no
> accolade.  To understand the extent to which New York has been ruined by
> such overdevelopment, see JOSEPH CARO, THE POWER BROKER: ROBERT MOSES AND
> THE FALL OF NEW YORK (1975), a biography of the now-infamous Robert Moses.

I agree that Moses did some pretty bad things, but you have to remember
this same Moses won a lifetime achievement award from the fairly
progressive American Planning Association.  I would suggest you read
Moses' own work _Public Works: A Dangerous Trade_ (1970, McGraw-Hill).  I
think the quote in the foreword (by Raymond Moley) symbolized the thinking
at that time: 

"From the pyramids of Egypt, to the Rebuilding of Rome after Nero's fire,
to the creation of great medieval cathedrals and the reconstructionof
Paris Baron Haussmann all great public works have somehow been associated
with autocratic power.  FOR PURE DEMOCRACY HAS NEITHER THE IMAGINIZATION,
NOR THE ENERGY, NOR THE DISCIPLINED MENTALITY TO CREATE MAJOR
IMPROVEMENTS."

Look at all the bridges and tunnels created in Moses's era... How many
have we built since then??  

---
Dharm Guruswamy - 3rd year grad. student, City Planning & Civil Engineering
snail mail: 960 Atlantic Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
phone/fax: HOME (404) 685-3294  WORK (404) 894-6402	
internet:dharm at trec.ce.gatech.edu | URL: http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~dg63