I will be talking about State College since I was born here and have lived here my entire life. As all of you would be familiar with, State College has a very urban downtown with lots of pedestrians, but alongside those pedestrians is a high traffic area with public transits such as buses. I think what makes this area unique from many places is that it’s an urban downtown right next to a large college campus. However once you leave the main area of campus and downtown there are many spread out neighborhoods that are automobile suburbs. Many of them, such as my own, have roads with many cars but do not have sidewalks on them for people to walk down. Many of the other main roads in State College are mainly focused on automobiles, but do have sidewalks for people to walk on. Once you get off the main roads most of the back roads are strictly oriented for automobiles with no sidewalks. Due to these reasons I think State College is a very varied place in terms of types of towns.
One of these cities mentioned in the module which I thought was very interesting was the city of Copenhagen. They have a huge population of people who do not own cars, but instead ride bicycles everywhere. With dedicated bike lanes and specific traffic laws it keeps bicycling as a very safe and efficient alternative to driving cars. I think State College could definitely learn something from this city to benefit itself. As I previously said and you all know State College has a large urban downtown right next to a huge college campus. Many college students can’t afford a car and prefer to ride bikes around. If State College were to construct more bike lanes I think it would greatly increase the number of people using bicycles to get around downtown and campus. This would make State College a much more green town, as well as make everyone healthier.
Another city I thought was interesting that was talked about in the module was Boston. Specifically it talks about Beacon Hill a place in which walking is the most common way of commuting around town. This is another place where I think State College could learn something from. It has very dense neighborhoods where you can’t drive cars built right next to the large downtown area which makes it easy for people to walk to and stops people from driving cars. Although State College has lots of neighborhoods around downtown they are all automobile neighborhoods with large roads. If they were to build more densely populated neighborhoods with smaller roads it may influence more people to walk and bike places rather than driving cars.
Hey man, its Segall. Hilarious that we’re in the same class. Tell Dan to leave the basement. Also, here’s a link to my post.
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/module-7-6/
I, too, think State college would benefit from looking at Copenhagen’s design. I biked to and from class Freshman-Junior year, up until my bike was stolen, and had to traverse Atherton Street, College and Beaver Ave, as well as many other side roads. Installing bike lanes to the roads, as well as potentially making many streets of downtown non-motorized could benefit our little hometown.
Hello, my name is David Youn and I study chemistry and University Park. Your post caught attention to me because I wish my hometown was more like State College. My hometown is very heavily dependent on automobiles to get around places. Ever since I was little it was very difficult to grab food after school because I never had a ride to go to convenience store. Living in State College for the past few years made me realize that a good balance of car and pedestrian-orientated city is very good.
http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/03/18/david-youn-module-7/
Hi Kevin, I am Alyssa Massaro. Your post caught my interest because I also wrote about Copenhagen and their system of safe and limited traffic. I am from Harrisburg, PA, where there are also a lot of cars. I too thought my city could benefit from less cars and more opportunities for people to walk and ride bikes. I think this promotes a sense of community, which every town could benefit from! Here’s the link to my blog post: https://sites.psu.edu/geog30/?p=47552&preview=true