GEOG 346: Day 10
Chapters 1- 2 of Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities
Housekeeping Items
 IT says that, on Friday, between 10:00 and
11:30 p.m., they expect erratic or no access to
the following: VIU websites , VPN, D2L Web
sites, shared drives, and other resources.
 I will circulate information about the Campus
Food movement’s jobs, if I haven’t already.
 I will have the outlines back to Tuesday; have
been too swamped this week.
 I need to know the destinations for the next
two field trips so I can prep the driver – next
Tuesday meet downstairs between this
building and the Chemistry building just
before 10 o’clock.
Significant Point from Chapter 1
“Normally, GHG production is described by sector.
We often read that buildings account for about half of
all GHG production; transportation, for about 25
percent; and industry, for most of the rest. But this
division obscures a fundamental point: cities are
responsible for 80 percent of all GHG—caused by the
way we build and arrange our buildings, by all the
stuff we put in them, and by how we move from one
building to the next. Since the problem is caused by
cities, the solution should be there too” (Condon).
SEVEN RULES FOR SUSTAINABLE,
LOW-CARBON COMMUNITIES
1. Restore the streetcar city.
2. Design an interconnected street system.
3. Locate commercial services, frequent transit, and
schools within a five-minute walk.
4. Locate good jobs close to affordable homes.
5. Provide a diversity of housing types.
6. Create a linked system of natural areas and parks.
7. Invest in lighter, greener, cheaper, and smarter
infrastructure.
[PLEASE READ THESE CHAPTERs CAREFULLY!]
The Streetcar City
 Do you agree with Condon’s claim that “U.S. and Canadian cities built
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between 1880 and 1945 were streetcar cities”? He argues that this
applies to virtually all cities of more than 10,000 people. You can find
stats on the history of North American and Latin American streetcars at
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/List_of_town_tramway_s
ystems_in_Canada.
He argues that the street car city is the “fundamental architecture” of
North American cities. Do you think this is true?
He sees it as combining four key principles: an interconnected street
system, a diversity of housing types, a 5-minute walking distance to
services and transit, and good jobs close to affordable homes.
Has Nanaimo ever had streetcars? As to the 10,000 threshold, I was
unable to find any historical population figures for Nanaimo.
Was Vancouver Island ever divided into the square mile tracts as
occurred elsewhere in North America?
The Streetcar City
 Condon cites numerous studies that show that people drive less in a
streetcar city.
 Is a streetcar city (grid pattern) always the only way to go?
 While not antithetical to streetcars, downtown Nanaimo has a radial
pattern from the original 1864 plan by George Deverill:
http://maps.nanaimo.ca/nanaimomap/.
 Other urban typologies include: resource towns designed in a utopian
spirit (Kitimat). Source: GEOG 350, UBC.
Urban Form: Street Patterns
Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Urban Form: Street Patterns
Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Urban Form: Variant of Fused Grid
Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Urban Form: Pedestrian-Friendly Non-Grid
(South False Creek)
The Vancouver neighbourhood – South False Creek –was designed in the
mid-70s to minimize intrusion by cars.
[Drawing by
Stanley King]
http://www.placesonline.com/north_america/canada/british_columbia/vancouver/map.asp
European and Early American Cities
vs. Streetcar Cities
 In contrast with the nodes, intersections, and squares of European and
early North American cities, streetcar cities have “civic life” along the
length of the main arterials – what are known in Great Britain as the
“high streets.”
European and Early American Cities
vs. Streetcar Cities
 Condon argues that linear cities can be just as rich as nodal cities. What kind of
city is Nanaimo?
 With the advent of the streetcar, which replaced the original walking cities,
commute times did not change that much, but people were now occupying an
area sixteen times larger at much lower densities.
 The automobile has facilitated even more spread, and increasingly longer
commute times [see statistics].
 The global population of cars – which has grown from somewhere between 48000 in 1900 to 800,000,000 cars and light trucks today to a projected
1,200,000,000 in 2030 – has radically transformed our cities.
European and Early American Cities
vs. Streetcar Cities
 As is well-known, General Motors, Firestone, and Phillips Petroleum conspired
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to destroy streetcar systems throughout the U.S.
Los Angeles once had the largest system of streetcars and interurban tram lines
in the world. Hard to believe!!
While he has strong views on the subject of transportation/ transit generally, he
favours a reduction in kms. travelled regardless of the mode.
What do you think about his arguments for modern streetcar technology, as is
being deployed in Portland and much of Europe – in contrast with so-called
LRT systems (for instance, Skytrain), which are often grade-separated?
In Vancouver there is a big debate regarding Broadway. Currently, there are
frequent stop buses combined with express buses (the B-line). Some have
argued for at grade light rail, Skytrain, or more likely a subway to connect
existing systems to UBC.
Condon argues for three principles: ● shorter trips ● low carbon ● what is most
affordable. For metrics for each of these, see pp. 36-38.
What transit system would best serve Nanaimo given its layout?
Role Play/ Design Exercise
 The role play will work like this: you will be in one of four
or five groups. Your task will be to determine how – over
a ten year period – to radically improve Nanaimo’s
transit with limited resources. The five groups will be:
transit users; car drivers and other taxpayers who
don’t want to pay for transit infrastructure; transit
officials who sincerely want to improve transit, but who
have limited resources at their disposal; urban
planners who have to coordinate land use decisions
with creating better conditions for transit, and the
VIUSA wich, historically, has been opposed to a U-Pass
system for VIU students.
Role Play/ Design Exercise
 You will have a certain amount of time for
brainstorming, then you will have put your ideas down
visually on the acetate and write a point summary for
sharing with the class (3 minutes maximum each
group).
 This is one of the two mini-assignments mentioned in
the course outline and is worth 10%. It will be evaluated
based on the originality of the ideas your group comes
up with, how eloquent your spokesperson is in putting
across your ideas and arguments, and how much each of
you participates in the process of your group.