I have lived in Fort Worth Texas for the last 12 years. I live in a typical subdivision with a subdivision elementary school about a block away. The area I live in is 30 miles from either the cities of Dallas, Texas and Fort Worth, Texas. I live in an automobile suburb. The total people that live in the Fort Worth area is 813,980. The connection I have to this place is that it’s just a place. I moved here to get out of my small Illinois town. Once I had my daughter and schools became important I decided to stay in the subdivision till I could find another job in another preferred state. This area is lacking good outdoor activities. The distance you have to drive to get to a park gives you no option to walk, you have to drive to get to anything you want to do.
The city of Copenhagen is Denmark is similar in one aspect to Fort Worth in that they both suffer/suffered from serious congestion. Copenhagen used to consider themselves in a “car invasion” and the metropolitan area of Fort Worth is still going through this “car invasion”. We don’t have places to walk too unless you drive or take public transit downtown and then walk around. Copenhagen used to be filled with motor traffic and currently the metropolitan area in Fort Worth is filled with motor traffic and a simple 5 mile drive could take you about 15-30min. Copenhagen changed from being in a “car invasion” to creating a more social environment with the push to make non-motorized transportation the best method of getting around. I wish Fort Worth would take the initiative to create something like that. It forces people to be more interactive with one another and appreciate their community and environment.
The city of Curitiba, Brazil is similar in one aspect to Fort Worth in that they both have a bus system. Unfortunately Fort Worth’s bus system is nothing in comparison to Curitiba’s bus system. The Fort Worth bus system called, The T, takes you to all the downtown hot spots like museums, shopping areas, college campuses and airports. The T does not travel within the surrounding communities to drop off but have pick up/drop off spots that are on the edge of some of these communities and then they walk the rest of the way. One idea Fort Worth could use from Curitiba’s bus line is to change the popular transportation method from cars to public transportation in downtown areas to minimize the amount of pollution and allow for more room for more buses to come and go.
Hi, my name is Jessica and here’s a link to my blog post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/14/urban-planning-jessica-moritz/. I found your blog interesting because Fort Worth, TX sounds like my hometown of Southampton, PA. Even though you have a much larger population, we both live in automobile suburbs. I never realized it until you mentioned it about your city, but mine also lacks outdoor activities; just to walk my dog in a park, I have to drive there because there are no sidewalks to safely walk there. If Fort Worth, TX started a bus system like Brazil, it would also help with the air pollution that the crazy amount of cars are giving off. I also like your idea that it would be a way for people to interact more with each other.
Hi Tenaya! My name is Emily and I found your post to be very interesting. It must have been a huge change to move from Illinois to Texas, but I see where you are coming from. I am also from a very small town without much to do, so I plan on moving to a larger suburban area in the future. My town is also reliant on automobiles as a source of transportation. I like your idea of the incorporation of a bus line in Fort Worth to decrease the use of cars. It would be much more efficient to do so. Here is a link to my blog post: http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/03/14/sustainable-cities/