Published: 2020-11-08

Whom is the city intended for? People or vehicles?

Jerzy J. Parysek

Abstract

It is almost universally acknowledged that one of the chief factors in spatial development and spatial-structural changes, as well as a growing challenge to the functioning of modern cities is motorisation, and more precisely – the car. It is this technological invention which is responsible for the sprawl of urban environment, rising costs of cities functioning, construction of new roads and infrastructural networks and higher and higher outlays on the development of public transport. Among the problems that have been growing in intensity are crowded streets, road accidents, air pollution, noise, rising costs of living in the city and shrinking public spaces. As a result, in recent ideas of urban development and town-planning conceptions there appear measures intended to curb the impact of motorisation on the development and operation of cities. This paper presents the influence of motorisation on the spatial development and functioning of cities as well as those town-planning conceptions which lead to the formation of ‘a-city-for-people’ approach. Regarding the examined situation, the question ‘Whom is the city designed for?’ is one of those that must be answered by both city authorities together with town-planning experts and city dwellers – and this as quickly and in as concrete terms as possible.

 

Keywords:

city, inhabitants, mobility, cars, spatial development and planning

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Citation rules

Parysek, J. J. (2020). Whom is the city intended for? People or vehicles?. Studia Miejskie, 23, 9–27. Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uni.opole.pl/index.php/sm/article/view/2546

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