I live in a rather rural area, but the closest city of significant size is Scranton. Dubbed “The Electric City,” Scranton is located in Lackawanna county in northeast Pennsylvania along interstate 81. It consists of a city center like an urban downtown, with houses surrounding it on the outside in a somewhat suburban fashion. Including its metropolitan area, the total population is about 560,000. My connection with Scranton is that my campus is located within its metropolitan area, and if I ever want to do something, such as go to the movies, or go out to dinner, I have to make my way to Scranton to do so. Many of you may know Scranton as the city that the television show “The Office” is based in.
One of the cities from the module that I found unique was Curitiba. The specific aspect I found interesting was their transportation mode – the bus system. Curitiba has about 2 million people that live in the city. They were unable to build a subway system due to cost, so they built the city around the bus by making dedicated roads for buses and creating a pay ahead system for speeding the process up. Scranton does have a bus system, but the buses share the same roads as the car. Scranton is still mostly a city where everyone owns their own car. If Scranton could implement a bus system like the one in Curitiba, less people would need their own vehicle, which will in turn improve the overall sustainability of the city. However, it may be very costly in the beginning since Scranton was not built around the bus from the beginning.
The other city that I found interesting in how they help create sustainable development is Bogota in Colombia. Bogota is said to be the world leader in weekly car-free events that they call Ciclovias. This again could be considered as a part of their transportation mode. During these times, cars are not allowed on more than 75 miles of the city’s streets. With the streets clear, people can freely bicycle, skate, or walk on the streets. Not only does this sound fun, but it’s a great way to get people active. With less cars on the road, the city’s air quality would also improve. Scranton could probably adopt a similar method like Bogota’s to help create sustainable development. People already bike and walk in the city, but not on such a grand scale. I think it would be really interesting to see how it would affect Scranton.
Hi Tim! My name is Maura McGonigal. I am from a small suburb of Pittsburgh. As you described in Scranton, in my hometown everyone uses automobiles for transportation. Here is a link to my blog-http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/15/module-7-maura-mcgonigal/. I also was interested in Bogota’s Ciclovia and Curitiba’s bus system as unique ways to decrease pollution and improve sustainability in my hometown. I agree that it would originally expensive to implement a public transportation system, but I believe it would dramatically improve the sustainability of our hometowns.
Hello Tim my name is Rachael and I know exactly what you are talking about when it comes to Scranton area. My cousins live in Scranton so I have experienced the transportation and I agree it could definitely be improved. I think adopting the bus system like Curitiba would be very sustainable for the city. It would speed up the process and less people would have to use cars to drive themselves. All the times I’ve been to Scranton I saw very few people walking or riding bikes. There is quite a bit to see and I think walking would be way more enjoyable for the townspeople and better for the environment. I think you made some great points! If you would like to check out my post the link is http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/03/14/urban-planning-rachael-donnelly/