I'm an urban planner at heart and by training, and, although I'm noting working in urban planning right now, I know that's where my path leads. I do my best to stay connected to the planning world (I never miss the Atlantic's Cities Blog), and I'm starting to plan my next career move--maybe grad school, maybe an entry-level job. But while I'm here, I love to notice the unique facets of the Russian urban experience.
Russia doesn't lead the world in planning innovations, and its cities are embracing many of the same bad concepts in planning that still plague American cities (car-centric design, big-box sprawl, highway-driven development). But Russian cities are very different from American cities. Russian cities very much bear the influence of socialist urban planning, and that means that they are dense.
Dense cities are great for public transportation because there is a high enough passenger volume to make bus, trolleybus, tram, or even subway services economical. Vladimir has about 350,000 people, but its public transportation system makes the system in Columbus, Ohio--a city more than twice the size--look comical. During off-peak hours, you have to wait for at least 15 minutes for a bus on Columbus's main street. I rarely wait more than five minutes for a bus here in Vladimir, even when I'm leaving work at 9:30pm.
A lot is being written right now about young people in America forgoing cars and moving to cities, and it's interesting to think how this trend will influence American culture and the American lifestyle. But still, there aren't many American twenty-somethings who would move to a small city and try to go carless for two years--it still isn't a reasonable choice in America. Going carless in Peoria, Illinois, for example, is something you do out of necessity, not because you want to. On the contrary, having a car here in Vladimir might actually make my life more complicated. It might shave ten minutes off my commute, but finding parking is next to impossible, gas is very expensive (the same price as in America, and my salary is half of a meager American salary), and any car that I could afford (only a used Lada) would be far more trouble than it's worth (Russians joke that when you buy a Lada, the dealership throws in a bus pass with the deal).
So, while sometimes I grumble about the bus commute and I definitely miss driving, I am proud to say that I've made it more than a year without a car, and it wasn't even very difficult. Now how's that for hipster credibility?
Russia doesn't lead the world in planning innovations, and its cities are embracing many of the same bad concepts in planning that still plague American cities (car-centric design, big-box sprawl, highway-driven development). But Russian cities are very different from American cities. Russian cities very much bear the influence of socialist urban planning, and that means that they are dense.
Dense cities are great for public transportation because there is a high enough passenger volume to make bus, trolleybus, tram, or even subway services economical. Vladimir has about 350,000 people, but its public transportation system makes the system in Columbus, Ohio--a city more than twice the size--look comical. During off-peak hours, you have to wait for at least 15 minutes for a bus on Columbus's main street. I rarely wait more than five minutes for a bus here in Vladimir, even when I'm leaving work at 9:30pm.
A lot is being written right now about young people in America forgoing cars and moving to cities, and it's interesting to think how this trend will influence American culture and the American lifestyle. But still, there aren't many American twenty-somethings who would move to a small city and try to go carless for two years--it still isn't a reasonable choice in America. Going carless in Peoria, Illinois, for example, is something you do out of necessity, not because you want to. On the contrary, having a car here in Vladimir might actually make my life more complicated. It might shave ten minutes off my commute, but finding parking is next to impossible, gas is very expensive (the same price as in America, and my salary is half of a meager American salary), and any car that I could afford (only a used Lada) would be far more trouble than it's worth (Russians joke that when you buy a Lada, the dealership throws in a bus pass with the deal).
So, while sometimes I grumble about the bus commute and I definitely miss driving, I am proud to say that I've made it more than a year without a car, and it wasn't even very difficult. Now how's that for hipster credibility?
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