Slow Cities

Conquering our Speed Addiction for Health and Sustainability

Paul Tranter, Rodney Tolley

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780128153178
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

Slow Cities: Conquering Our Speed Addiction for Health and Sustainability demonstrates, counterintuitively, that reducing the speed of travel within cities saves time for residents and creates more sustainable, liveable, prosperous and healthy environments.

This book examines the ways individuals and societies became dependent on transport modes that required investment in speed. Using research from multiple disciplinary perspectives, the book demonstrates ways in which human, economic and environmental health are improved with a slowing of city transport. It identifies effective methods, strategies and policies for decreasing the speed of motorised traffic and encouraging a modal shift to walking, cycling and public transport. This book also offers a holistic assessment of the impact of speed on daily behaviours and life choices, and shows how a move to slow down will - perhaps surprisingly - increase accessibility to the city services and activities that support healthy, sustainable lives and cities.

• Includes cases from cities in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia
• Uses evidence-based research to support arguments about the benefits of slowing city transport
• Adopts a broad view of health, including the health of individuals, neighbourhoods and communities as well as economic health and environmental health
• Includes text boxes, diagrams and photos illustrating the slowing of transport in cities throughout the world, and a list of references including both academic sources and valuable websites

Part I

Speed

• Chapter 1: Introduction: changing cultures of speed
• Chapter 2: The benefits of speed for individuals: real or illusory?
• Chapter 3: The benefits of speed for economy and society: challenging the dominant narrative
• Chapter 4: The ‘slow paradox’: how speed steals our time

Chapter 1

Introduction: changing cultures of speed

Abstract

This chapter outlines the widespread acceptance of speed as a positive aspect of urban transport during the 20th century, along with a growing recognition in recent decades that speed may not provide the advantages that have long been assumed. In 21st century urban planning, no longer are higher speeds always seen as the main objective. New goals are increasingly recognised as being more important: accessibility, liveability, economic vitality, child-friendliness, sustainability and health. The concept of ‘health’ in this book applies to human health, as well as economic health and environmental health. We explain how all of these types of health can be enhanced using the simple strategy of slowing city transport. A brief history of increases in transport speed is followed by a discussion of the evolution of the culture of speed in modern societies, to a level that can be compared to an addiction. An important aspect of the culture of speed is the story of motordom, the grouping of automobile clubs, car dealers and car manufacturers that began in the United States in the 1920s. A concerted campaign by motordom comprehensively dismissed the public’s negative views on speed. We then outline how, from the 1980s onwards, new thinking began to emerge about motorised city transport, in which the value of slowing it down became more widely discussed. We provide examples of various slow movements that have emerged since the 1980s. While some citizens and policy-makers may question (or even ridicule) the idea of slow movements, we reflect on where the ‘fast movement’ has taken us over the last 100 years. This chapter concludes with a preview of the chapters and parts of the book.

Keywords

transport policy

sustainable transport

human health

economic health

environmental health

holistic perspectives

culture of speed

time savings

motordom

new thinking

slow movements

‘There is more to life than simply increasing its speed’.

Mahatma Gandhi

1.1. Introduction: a faster route to health

From the mid-1920s, after the motor car became the dominant transport mode in many cities, few people questioned whether speed was good or bad. They simply assumed that faster was always going to be better. City transport policy in the 20th century became concerned mainly with faster roads and increased parking for growing numbers of cars. The (supposedly) ‘slower’ modes of walking and cycling were denigrated as ‘old fashioned’ and were ignored in policy-making.

Over the last few decades, there has been a discernible change in city transport policy. Many policy-makers, planners, politicians and members of the public are reassessing the way they think about the role of cities. Their focus is moving away from the singular goal of promoting speed to new goals: accessibility, liveability, economic vitality, child-friendliness, sustainability and health. Increasing numbers of decision-makers are embracing the concept of ‘slow cities’ (see Box 1.1), which can help achieve all these goals.

Box 1.1 What do we mean by ‘slow cities’?

In a society that values speed, ‘slow’ can be associated with pejorative synonyms such as lethargic, idle, indolent and slothful. We are not advocating cities that have these characteristics. Instead, we are thinking of the meaning of ‘slow’ in the sense of ‘lower speed’, which elicits synonyms such as ‘calm’, ‘careful’, ‘cautious’, ‘deliberate’, ‘leisurely’, ‘relaxed’, ‘measured’, ‘peaceful’ and ‘unhurried’. Our belief is that a city described in that way would have vibrant communities, living healthy and sustainable lives. Slowness in this sense is associated with several characteristics that are highly appreciated by people seeking a better quality of life, as explained in books such as In Praise of Slow (Honoré, 2004).

As this chapter outlines, ‘slow cities’ reflect the outcomes of two synergistic strategies: reducing the speed of motorised travel on the one hand and encouraging much greater use of walking, cycling and public transport on the other hand. The first of these strategies has already been implemented in large areas of many cities throughout the world, for example by implementing 30 km/h (or 20 mph) zones. Reducing motorised traffic speed supports efforts to increase walking, cycling and public transport in multiple ways, not least being the impact that lower speeds have on making streets safer and more pleasant for vulnerable road users. Six images that serve to illustrate these strategies are as follows (see Fig. 1.1):

1. a. Nelson, New Zealand: A residential area reduces traffic speeds through lower posted speed limits and re-design as a shared space, with visual and physical encouragement provided by a raised entrance gateway.
2. b. Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom: Unsigned traffic calming using a raised speed table at a junction, with psychological calming elements provided by different coloured and textured surfaces.
3. c. Bowden, Adelaide, Australia: A model of a planned low-speed development, incorporating healthy land-use elements designed to deter fast car movement and support active travel, such as high densities, short blocks, cut throughs for people on foot and bicycle, shade and easy access to recreation and play space.
4. d. Cambridge, MA, United States: Reducing traffic speeds by lowering the number and width of travel lanes, and re-allocating space in the roadway corridor in order to widen footways and add protected ‘Copenhagen style’ bicycle lanes.
5. e. Calle Madero, Mexico City: Many cities have slowed central areas by pedestrianising streets. The results are usually popular and economically successful, but their reconstruction frequently encounters opposition, especially from traders mistakenly fearing loss of business. After a long fight, Calle Madero was pedestrianised in 2010 and is now the second most economically successful street in Latin America. However, it should be stressed that a pedestrianised CBD does not make a ‘slow city’ if speeds are not reduced across the whole urban area.
6. f. Houten, The Netherlands: While many places have some elements of city slowing, few have pursued them as systematically as this small city near Utrecht. Here, all of the approaches deployed in images A–E have been used (and many others besides) in an attempt to harness their synergistic benefits. This image shows the result that can be achieved whe...