Transit
Oriented Developments:
By: Chris Pacanowski
With
the gas prices on a new found high, transit oriented developments are becoming
a booming area. When looking at how much you use the car each and every day to
do the most basic of things, work, school, and play, you start to notice that a
lot of money is being spent on filling up the tank. A solution to that would be
to utilize public transportation. Transit oriented developments take that idea
to the next level, they don’t only create a hub or transportation but they
bring all of the necessary things together in one place so that you don’t have
to travel as far as you would normally. I find this idea very interesting and
believe that it should be utilized in every location that has some sort of
connection to public transportation. One area in particular that I had found
interesting is in downtown Kansas City. I had run upon a video that had showed
the whole idea of transit oriented developments.
In this new development
proposal it focuses on a new light rail transit system interconnecting major
areas in the city but also being accessible to the whole city of Kansas. This
system is different from other transit systems that are in discussion today,
PRT’s are an idea that is going around in the architecture and transportation
world. The difference between a PRT and a Light Rail is the amount of people
that it can carry and the flexibility of them. PRT’s can move small groups
anywhere between 4- 8 people at one time to their destination of choice. That
system uses focal stops and the person in the vehicle can choose which
destination they want to stop at, instead of stopping at every stop on the way
to their stop.
The light rail system
can be compared to the trolley system that is still being used in some cities.
With the light rail system it is just modernized. The great thing about the
system is it has the capability to carry a larger amount of people to their
destinations. One light rail that comes to my mind is the one that is in
Amsterdam. When I had visited Europe I had noticed this system and thought it
was a very interesting way to have people travel through the cities
The thing that caught
my attention was how easy it was to access the light rail, along with the way
it traveled through the city. It was directly on the ground and was accessed by
a little raised path that was at the level of the car entrance. The system also
traveled at a fairly slow pace but it was a constant pace so it still got you
to where you wanted to go in no time.
New
city transit systems are becoming a great influence on how people interact and
travel through cities and keeping traveling people at the level of a walking
person creates a great connection to the city and its people. If it’s a light
rail or PRT they both accomplish moving people from destination to destination
without a problem and should be utilized in every big city as well as in new
devolving places.
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