The Evil European

Planning. In particular urban and spatial planning.

Europe being the dense and cramped bit of the world that it is has developed a particular urban form. Our settlements have developed primarily during a time without the car. The high population density means that if we still want to have countryside and grow food, we have to live close to each other.

The plus side of this is decent public transport, and more importantly, an ability to reduce our dependence on travel by car. Europeans on average consume half the energy as Americans for a similar standard of living (and there is plenty of room to improve those figures).

The Guardian published an interesting piece on the changing nature of the car culture in the USA. The impact of cheap fuel of the decades has created a unique spatial distribution based around suburbs and exurbs. This distribution is being hit really hard by high oil prices. It raises the possibility that the slums of the future will be these former autopias, while city centre will come back to life.

The most worrying aspect of the article comes right at the end with regards to China's rapid development path. The same issues can also be made for the rise of the rest.

"McKibben spent last week on a visit to Beijing. He was worried about what he saw. Even as America's obsession with the car lifestyle is ending, others are embracing it. 'The Chinese have spent the Bush years starting to build their own version of America. A key question for the planet is whether they still have time to build a version of Europe instead - global warming will probably hinge on the answer to that question,' he said." The Guardian, 7/07/08

Planning always struck me as a rather odd subject, a mixture of geography, architecture, sociology to name but a few. It also have very practical applications.