3/9/22, 4:13 PM 7 principles for building better cities | by Coralie Carbonneau | Medium

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Jun 9, 2020 · 3 min read

7 principles for building better cities

Why the 7 principles presented by Peter Calthorpe in his Ted Talk are so important for the
future of urban planning

More than half of the world’s population is already living in cities, and another 2.5 billion
people are projected to move to urban areas by 2050. The way we build new cities is at the
center of our lives, from climate change to economic vitality to our well-being and sense of
connectedness.

Peter Calthorpe is already at work planning the cities of the future and advocating for
community design that’s focused on human interaction. He shared seven universal
principles for solving sprawl and building smarter more sustainable cities during his talk
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3/9/22, 4:13 PM 7 principles for building better cities | by Coralie Carbonneau | Medium
principles for solving sprawl and building smarter, more sustainable cities during his talk
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The 7 points he mentioned are :

1 — Preserve

Preserve natural ecologies, agrarian landscapes and cultural heritage sites.

2 — Mix

Create mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods.

Mixed use is already popular in city planning, but Peter Calthorpe emphasizes that the
creation of cities where mixed income, mixed age groups as well as mixed-land use must
remain a priority. By creating such mixed environment, it will allow a better integration of
varied communities and reduce inequality between individuals.

3 — Walk

Design walkable streets and human scale neighborhoods.

“There’s no great city that you don’t enjoy walking in.”

Places where walking is almost impossible is not enjoyable to visit, and we just don’t go
there. This is the conclusion that the urban planner drew in his exposé. Because we go on
vacation where walking is easy and enjoyable, why not make it so everywhere else?

4 — Bike

Prioritize bicycle networks and auto-free streets.

Bike is the most efficient means of transportation that exists. Many examples of great
urban planned city evolves around the utilisation of bicycles. In Europe, Copenhague and
Amsterdam are two great examples of such cities. Still, this system can be implanted
almost everywhere in the world. In Asia, bicycles were historically very important as a
means of transportation. With the proliferation of the autonomous vehicle and it’s
cheaper alternative, the motorized bike, the bicycle was left behind. Initiative, like the
new policies adopted by the government of China to return to the use of bicycles in cities,
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3/9/22, 4:13 PM 7 principles for building better cities | by Coralie Carbonneau | Medium

will become more frequent, for the better.

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5 — Connect

Increase density of road network, limit block size.

The idea behind this concept is to create a network of streets that will allow many routes
to go to the same place, instead of singular routes. Also, those routes must be varied, must
provide many kinds of streets, instead of only providing one. That way, citizens will be
able to use varied means of transportation (walk, bike and transit transport) to go to the
same place.

6 — Ride

Develop high quality transit and affordable BRT.

We have to invest more in transit transportation. It is the only solution. Autonomous

vehicles are not going to solve anything for us. As a matter of fact, they’re going to
generate more traffic, more VMT, than the alternative. Therefore, to limit the growth of
this industry, we must provide better options to people. The idea is to present public
transportation as the first choice alternative when walking and biking isn’t an option.

7 — Focus

Match density and mix to transit capacity.

We have to use the varied means of transportation, like bicycle, public transportation and
autonomous vehicle, to create a varied transit path. The place that each will occupy must
depend on their affluence. Therefore, green means of transportation will have the priority
in our street as well as in our mind.

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