I live in Bucks County, PA, more specially, in Newtown Township. Newtown is an automobile suburb with a population of 19,299 and a population density of 1,522.6 / sq m according to the 2010 census. There is no public transportation in my town so unless you live right in the center of town, which is quite small, you have to have a car to get around. I do like the location of where I live because it is driving distance to many places. The beach is about an hour drive, New York City is about two hours and Philadelphia is a little less than an hour. I have lived in Newtown since I was five and although sometimes I do wish I lived in an area with more options for entertainment, I do like the small town feel that I have there. I like having access to other major cities that are so close but still be able to have the benefits of living in a small town.
The first city from the module that I want to discuss is Boston, MA. I have been to Boston many times and love how pedestrian oriented it is. I would so much rather walk than bike or drive to where I need to go if it is not a ridiculous distance away because I enjoy taking in the scenery and enjoying where I am. Boston is one of those places that allows me to do this. Comparing Beacon Hill to my hometown, Newtown, there are many strategies that could be taken from Boston and implemented in Newtown. I think that it would be incredibly helpful if the streets into town were pedestrian accessible, unlike now where there are no sidewalks and the roads can be quite dangerous to walk on. Also implementing something like Jamaican Plain, with the rail system would be incredibly beneficial for my town.
The second city from the module that I want to discuss is Copenhagen, Denmark. I have had the pleasure of visiting Copenhagen for a day and was surprised at the lack of cars on the road and the large amount of bikers everywhere. I arrived in Copenhagen by car from Hamburg, Germany and felt out of place with the obvious lack of cars. After walking around for only a short time, I realized why barely anyone was using cars, they did not need to. Copenhagen made it incredibly easy to walk or bike around the city that it is disadvantage to explore by car. There are places that cars cannot drive as well as reduced speed areas. By making driving an inconvenience for people, car usage is reduced. Although it may be difficult to implement no driving areas in Newtown, the idea of reduced speed throughout the main town is a great idea that I think will deter people from driving through town because it will be faster to drive around it, which reduce the amount of traffic through town.
Hey Jacqueline, great post. It is actually ironic that I am also from bucks county. My father lives in Newtown Grant, if you know where that is, and my mother in Ivyland (as stated in my post). I think it is a good idea to make Newtown more pedestrian accessible as it is tough to navigate without a car right now. Once people realize how detrimental gas guzzling cars are to our sustainability, it will definitely be stopped. If you would like to see my post, go to: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/17/module-7-4/
Hi Jacqueline, my name is Nicolina and our towns are only 30-40 minutes from each other! I’ve been to Newtown before and there are a few similarities and differences from where we’re from. We do have a public transportation system, but we also can’t walk everywhere we want to go. I’ve lived in the same house for my whole life, so I think it would be nice to maybe have a bigger yard and some space between our houses like how the houses are in Newtown. Since your area seems very residential, I think the reduced speed is a good idea as well. We could impliment a reduced speed in my area as well. While we have a lot of busy roads, we also have residential roads, which some drivers don’t understand. Here’s a link to my blog http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/17/sustainable-cities-northeast-philadelphia/