Since I do not live in an urban area, I will discuss Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Williamsport lies near the western branch of the Susquehanna River in Lycoming County in the upper-half of Pennsylvania. It is much larger than my home town, estimating at about 29,000 people (very pedestrian-oriented/urban, but mainly Use Mixture); with the rough area of 9.5 square miles, it could be considered fairly dense population-wise (~3,450 people/square mile). While the river is not used much besides fishing now, it was used to transport lumber many years back helping to bring economic prosperity. I feel a connection to Williamsport as it was where my brother and I attended college (Penn Tech and Lycoming, respectively). The residents are ok, although “sketchy” at times. As long as one stays in the “college town” and “tourist” areas (Williamsport is well-known for Little League Baseball) – normally well-lit, populated, and overall “friendly” – one could have a grand time. Like all populated cities though there is crime – with a shocking amount occurring near the colleges.

The first city I would like to discuss is Curitiba, Brazil. For the sake of comparison, I shall be referring to the transportation aspect (more specifically, their bus system). While Williamsport does have a public bus system, I believe it could be improved. Unlike Curitiba, I believe the transport in Williamsport was “thrown in” rather than planned around. There is not much one can do a though, due to the already existing physical infrastructure.  I did like Curitiba’s idea of people paying at stations before boarding; Williamsport only has one station where people can pay, so not everyone would be able to make it to that single station. Their bus system also travels to several different locations instead of the main city center, confusing first-time bus users and taking more resources to run more buses. The timing is something could also be improved; while Curitiba’s systems will run within a minute of each other, Williamsport’s will run within a half-hour (at least). There could be much time and money saved if Williamsport were to follow Curitiba’s lead.

The second city I would like to discuss is Bogota, Columbia. In this instance, I will also be discussing the matters of transportation along with the topic of pollution in relation to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Ciclovia, taking cars off the streets/limiting them drastically every Sunday from 7:00am-2:00pm, is something that I think would benefit Williamsport as well. Williamsport’s size and infrastructure lead to a lot of pollution (especially air pollution) not only in regards to the businesses that operate there, but for the transportation as well. Since buses do not run in Williamsport on Sundays as is, I do not think this would be too difficult to implement. As a side-effect, this could actually boost business for local spots as well; since everyone would be “out and about” due to not worrying about the traffic running them over and anything else bad happening, they would become potential customers to local businesses who could benefit from the extra commerce.