Jeff speck
Jeff speck is a city planner, urban designer, former art advocate, trained in architecture and art history. He talks about how America can be economically resilient, healthier and more environmentally sustainable. He states that the worst idea America and other places are facing is urban sprawl, which is the creation of landscape centred around automobiles.
He plans to make cities more walkable. He states 3 arguments he learnt from economists, firstly arguing that Americans in the 1970s sent 1/10th of their income on transportation, but that has increased to 1/5th of their income going to transportation, causing them to spend slightly more on transport than on housing.
The second argument is about health. Back in the 1970s, 1 in 10 American was obese and now 1 in 3 are obese. The second third of the population are overweight, 25% of young men and 40% of young women are too heavy to enlist in the military forces and according to the centre for disease control, 1/3 of children born after 2000, will get diabetes, causing them to have shorter lives. Inactivity, born from our landscape which removes the need to walk, increases the weight of people.
The last argument is about the most dangerous term of driving, car crashes. Cities designed around cars are more likely to have car crashes. Finally, the abundance of cars affect our environment and states that we are being green in a wrong way.
He ends with saying, no matter how much energy saving products we use, it can never measure to the amount of energy saved from a walkable city, whereby the reduction of cars and the increment of walking will benefit human health and the environment.
The last argument is about the most dangerous term of driving, car crashes. Cities designed around cars are more likely to have car crashes. Finally, the abundance of cars affect our environment and states that we are being green in a wrong way.
He ends with saying, no matter how much energy saving products we use, it can never measure to the amount of energy saved from a walkable city, whereby the reduction of cars and the increment of walking will benefit human health and the environment.
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