Module 7 – Ryan Gebhardt

My I live in my small hometown of Delran, NJ, about 20 minutes away from Philadelphia. It has a decent sized population of 17,000 and is overall a middle class township. Being a town of 7 square miles, the population is pretty dense at 2500 per square mile. It’s definitely an automobile suburb, but I often found myself walking across the town to get some food with my friends as a kid. I grew up in this town all of my life, and experienced a lot of what it had to offer. In the part of Delran I lived in, the main community spot was the local swim club. During the summer it was very common to see a lot of your neighbors, making it great to socialize and get to know your neighbors. We also had a park close by that was often frequented by kids from all over, especially during the summer.

The Danish city of Copenhagen is the first city I would like to talk about. It really caught my eye and I thought what they did there was what I’d like to see more cities do. The emphasis on pedestrian and cycling modes of transportation is definitely appealed to me, as it both adds an incentive to use automobiles less, which lowers emissions and less pollution, and creates a relaxing release from stress. If more cities had better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, we could see more human-based architectural development that could lead to some beautiful cities. While my town is no city, I would like to see some of these ideas implemented in my hometown to further encourage social activities, which can really pull together a community.

The second city I’d like to talk about is the New England city of Boston, Massachusetts and its Beacon Hill. I chose this one because one of my roommates was born and raised around Boston. This place is another example of a pedestrian focused town, something I really value. I really love the design of pedestrian only streets, especially with the beautiful Boston architecture. Without a doubt I think that pedestrian designs are effective in bringing a community together, since you aren’t as solitary as you would be in a car and are more likely to socialize. It also has the effect of lowering car usage and therefor emissions produced will also decrease.

2 thoughts on “Module 7 – Ryan Gebhardt

  1. Hey, my name is Katelyn. The link to my blog is http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/03/18/hometown/

    I also grew up in a small town where I drive everywhere but walked about to get food when I was younger! Walking around with my friends when I was younger was so much fun. I miss those days. I agree with the Danish city of Copenhagen. I love the emphasis on pedestrian walking and cycling. In my blog I talked about how I would love to live in an area with no cars. Great post, I really enjoyed it.

  2. Hello Ryan, my name is Adam Abbott and I’m a senior in IST. I think it is interesting to hear a first hand case about an area that is larger than mine. I come from a town of 1,800 people and nowhere near a significantly larger area. I think that your city could benefit from adopting a transit system like buses to get around so that people don’t have to rely on just cars. I like how you were able to use examples to help state that idea as well. The pedestrian design would be good to try and implement as well so that your city stops using fossil fuels and emissions. I talked about how my area is automobile focused as well even though it is a small town in a small area. Great job on your post!

    If you would like to read my post you can find it here: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/module-7-my-home-areas-urban-style/

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