‘Urban Sprawl’ is nourishing the ‘Death Star’

While the Death Star is allowed to flourish, the quality of life for its citizens will remain compromised. There have been some suggestions of a need for change. Small murmurings, but it’s a start.

So how has it come to pass that the motor vehicle has managed to maintain such a vice-like grip on our city? What is it that has been nourishing the Death Star? Because unsurprisingly, the motor vehicle’s domination of our city hasn’t happened by accident. And it is something that is still being perpetuated. A deliberate and orchestrated process has been taking place right under our noses.

Urban sprawl is a deliberate result of district plans adopted by city councils. Our city planners, (with plenty of cohersion from the motoring lobby and some visionless politicians), have been busily creating a fertile environment for motor vehicles. We see, hear, smell (and die from) the fruits of their labours on a daily basis.

There is international and local evidence that shows urban sprawl is the result of minimum parking requirements and old fashioned traffic engineering.

Currently, 30% of land in urban areas is assigned to vehicle storage. ‘Car parking’ is the word that is probably the more familiar description. This is an expensive use of public land. And of course, this vast over-supply imposes huge costs on property developers, who in turn pass on these costs to businesses, consumers and households.

We are all subsidising our low density, car dominated environment.

A compact city will occur naturally when minimum parking requirements are removed. When people face the direct costs of parking, many will choose to make fewer trips by car and thereby creating a market for alternatives such as public transport and cycling.

The public is told it is hooked on urban sprawl. Just like it is told that Aucklanders don’t do public transport.

While such a hostile urban environment exists, cycling will remain a marginalised transport option.

You, me, we, have, been, ‘sold a pup’.

Cycling. It’s as easy as walking, but faster….