Urban Planet: Calthorpe on China's Automotive Urbanization ...

August 16th, 2012

By Hilary Best // No Comments

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We?ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

China's cities are growing at a feverish pace and so are its traffic jams. "In the last five years, China has built 20,000 miles of expressways, finishing the construction of 12 national highways a whopping 13 years ahead of schedule and at a pace four times faster than the United States built its interstate highway system. Over the last decade, Shanghai alone has built some 1,500 miles of road, the equivalent of three Manhattans. China's urban population is projected to grow by 350 million people by 2020, effectively adding today's entire U.S. population to its cities in less than a decade." New Urbanist Peter Calthorpe worries that China is pursuing an American style of urbanization with all of the negative health, environmental and social impacts that come along with it. In this piece on Foreign Policy, he explores why the Chinese experience may be even more catastrophic than the American.

Image from?Foreign Policy

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Source: http://spacingtoronto.ca/2012/08/16/urban-planet-calthorpe-on-chinas-automotive-urbanization/

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