1.
The town I was raised in is Irwin, Pennsylvania, which is about thirty minutes outside of Pittsburgh. Irwin would be best described as an automobile suburb as it is designed primarily for people to travel by car and there are no buses or other public transportation available. In addition, there are no sidewalks and shopping areas are located in separate locations. Irwin is a small town and as such had a population of 3,918 as of 2013. The urban density for Irwin is much lower than that of Pittsburgh. The houses are typically for a single family and spaced far apart. In addition, there are also a great deal of farms in the community which spaces out buildings even further. My personal connection to the town is that I was born and raised in it until I was 18, at which time I left to pursue a career in the military.
2.
The first city I selected is Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. One of the first aspects of this city that stood out was the heavy reliance on cycling and how it has become a social norm. I think that an influx of cycling would have a positive impact on both health and pollution in my hometown. Unfortunately, modifications would have to be made to exiting roads in order for this to occur. Currently, the roads in my hometown are narrow, curvy and go through many hills. While this does not completely limit people from cycling, it does make it more dangerous on roads that automobiles use. One work around that would not be very expensive would be to create gravel bike paths on the sides of the roads.
3.
The second city I selected is Curitiba, Brazil. The main aspect of this city that stood out was that is was designed for buses rather than automobiles. In addition, this choice was made because the construction of a subway system was too expensive. While my hometown does not warrant a bus system on the scale of Curitiba, I do believe that busses could be incorporated in a lesser manner. Specifically, if neighboring towns with a bus system could be extended to my hometown, we could have the added benefits for just a fraction of the cost of creating our own. Terminal points along the roadside would be one of the few development costs associated with such a plan. In addition, it would need to be determined if extending the service would create enough passengers for the project to be relevant.
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I was interested in your post because I also compared my city to Copenhagen. I have been to Irwin and I agree with you that cycling around the area would be very difficult. I specifically liked how you gave a way of creating a way in your area that would still be beneficial and help cyclists be safe. I am also from around the area of Pittsburgh, and I find it very interesting that there was a large bicycle trail that was created. I immediately thought of this when reading about Copenhagen.
Hey there! My name is Katy. Your post caught my attention since we both compared our cities to Copenhagen. I agree with you when you stated it would be complicated and expensive to re-design roads to make biking safer. I have drove the roads around Altoona, and agree that they would not be safe to bike on. They would make for a really good work out though. Pittsburgh has a similar problem, but the roads are unsafe due to the amount of automobiles traveling on them.
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