I’m from Robinson, which is about 10 miles from the city of Pittsburgh. This area is an automobile suburb. The area consists of mainly family homes and some small businesses. People use their cars the get to school, work, and stores. The only place within walking distance is your neighbor’s house. A census done in 2013, reported that 13,354 people were living in the area. The population density is around 890/ sq. mile. The community may be relatively small, but being close to a big city gives it assets associated with living in the city. We have a local bus system, but it’s very inefficient and people only use it if they have to. I enjoy living in Robinson it’s a quiet, safe neighborhood, where parents can enjoy raising a family. I wouldn’t consider my neighborhood sustainable, but it has other advantages.

The first city I will be talking about is Rochester, New York. I chose this city because it’s your stereotypical family neighborhood. Everything such as grocery stores, work, shopping malls, and schools require you to drive to and from. This neighborhood has a low population density like the one I live in. Also, like my neighborhood there aren’t many sidewalks because we rely on cars to transport us. This causes problems for public transportation because everyone is so spaced out. More routes and stops are needed to take people to their destination, which in term is almost impracticable. As we learned in the module population density has a significant effect on the pollution from that city. Insights from this city could help my town become more sustainable by building more apartments and taller buildings, increasing the population density. This will then reduce our environmental impact. Robinson contains a lot of abandoned buildings which could be remolded into green buildings. This change could improve environmental standards making up for the overuse of automobiles.

The next city I chose was Bogota, Columbia which is an automobile based town like mine. In Bogota they shut down 75 miles of streets for people to do activities such as biking, dance, and aerobics. Shutting down the streets is a great idea for my community. Car-free streets would allow people to exercise and have events like Ciclovia. This also would promote other modes of transportation such as walking, or biking. In the module we talked about how pedestrian neighborhoods are overall healthier because of the exercise they receive from going places. Shutting down the streets in my town would allow people to feel safe to walk, while maybe participating in neighborhood activities such as kickball. Stopping traffic would also lead to less pollution from cars decreasing our town’s environmental impact. This would be a great way for people to come together and get fresh air.