![]() ![]() Given the crisis we face, building higher will only get us so far. Unveiling the designs, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said “the city's vertically layered communities will challenge the traditional flat, horizontal cities and create a model for nature preservation and enhanced human livability.” In 2022, Saudi Arabia revealed plans to build a city over 160 kilometers long but only 220 meters wide. Whatever you make of these ideas, we do need to challenge the “flat earth thinking” that leads to unsustainable urban sprawl. Or consider the 800-meter-long hillside escalator that zips pedestrians from Hong Kong island’s Central district to its elevated Mid-Levels.Īlternatively, we could revisit alternative ideas such as straddling buses or old ideas that have been discarded or underutilized but which could help us navigate our cities better-for instance, suspension railways. Take, for example, the Teleferico Mexicable-a cable car that’s helping to cut pollution, congestion and commuting times in an urban area north of Mexico City. ![]() If science fiction thinking isn’t your thing, many cities already provide alternative sources of inspiration for vertical urban mobility. And there would be business opportunities in the form of retail and advertising space. Commuting times would come down, too, leading to economic efficiency gains. Buildings and their residents would be better connected and potentially more active and healthier, with interconnected walkways creating new, green neighborhoods in the sky. The latter already has the High Line, a popular green space above the streets of Manhattan. Imagine if we could celebrate its centenary by building similar walkways between clusters of buildings in dense cities such as Chicago or New York. For instance, Fritz Lang’s silent movie Metropolis depicts walkways between skyscrapers. Both offer a glimpse of how we could pair vertical and horizontal mobility in cities.Įxpanding our thinking might mean taking inspiration from unlikely sources-like science fiction. The Danish capital is home not only to the cycle-friendly “mountainside” paths of the 8HOUSE but to Dissing+Weitling’s elevated bike lane, Cykelslangen. ![]() To see their potential, you need only visit Copenhagen. That brings us back to bike lanes in the sky. That means embracing the concept of Vertical Urban Mobility and exploring how it could complement today’s “horizontal-first” thinking. The question is: Might we travel around the city in the same way? To do so, we’ll need to expand our thinking about the dimensions of travel. It’s that they travel vertically as well as horizontally. What’s interesting about drones isn’t that they fly from one point on the ground to another. Ultimately, though, what our fascination with any technology that involves VTOL-vertical take-off and landing-reveals is our lack of imagination about how to use urban airspace. What’s more, these emerging technologies are not especially energy-efficient. Few of us want to live in a science-fiction movie. They can also be noisy and, some might say, an eyesore. But there are problems with it too.įor one thing, unmanned aircraft and drones are potentially dangerous. Exploring this technology and its use cases, like food delivery or air taxis, is smart. Others are betting on drones and unmanned aircraft. But how does it square with the unprecedented growth of our cities? The idea has captured the imagination not only of architects and urban planners but government officials and public policy wonks, too. Take the 15-minute city-or the idea that all our necessities, from schools and shops to parks and libraries, shouldn’t be more than a 15-minute walk or bike ride from home. Right now, though, many of the proposed answers begin and end on the ground floor. In other words, assuming our cities get taller and denser, we need to think more imaginatively about how we’re going to get around them. ![]()
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