Mobility and the Urban Form

This post is part of our Re-imagining Cities discussion series, following the third edition of the NewCities Summit in Dallas in June 2014.

Urban sprawl, its effect on mobility, and how we can tackle it, was the focus of this discussion. Mark Dixon began by asking whether allowing people to work from wherever they want could offer a solution. Professor Alex Krieger explained how North American cities have grown up around the car, yet this has created an impending crisis as the population has risen. Dixon went on to suggest that, by re-imagining how people work and use the Internet, we could increase employee productivity. If work is where you live, there is no need to commute, he said. However, he noted, most people do not want to work from home.

If work is where you live, there is no need to commute – Mark Dixon

Lorenzo Reffreger highlighted that urban design is essential to reducing urban sprawl, noting specifically different economic developments strategies. In India, a commute can take up to four hours. Solutions need to entail driverless technology. In the United States, Professor Kreiger argued, there is still significant resistance to the idea of living in high-density areas excepted among the millennial generation.

Harold Madi offered his insights from Toronto, arguing that we cannot force citizens to move to high-density areas, but we can create enabling regulations that will make it easier to have mixed-use development. Dixon added that the resistance to high-density living also comes from those who create jobs. Employers often believe that employees should be together in one place to obtain optimum productivity.

We can create enabling regulations that will make it easier to have mixed-use development – Harold Madi

Dixon agreed that in the future, everything will be shared and enabled by technology. A space previously used by 10 people can now be used by 100 people. The future is about distributed work. How can companies operate and employ talent without everyone coming to the city? Professor Krieger insisted that increased mobility should not be the only goal in reducing urban sprawl; cities needed to think of levels of service too. Madi concluded that giving residents choices is key.

Speakers

• Mark Dixon, Founder, Regus – @RegusBlog
• Alex Krieger, Principal, NBBJ & Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design – @NBBJDesign
• Harold Madi, Director of Urban Design, City of Toronto – @haroldmadi
• Lorenzo Reffreger, Head of Sales & Systems, Bombardier Transportation – @Bombardier

Moderated by: Aaron Seward, Managing Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper – @aaronseward1