Creation of new residential areas
Creation of new residential areas
After the car was invented in 1885, motorization becomes the icon of social advancement. In the second half of the twentieth century, urban planners design the car-friendly city, which is primarily put into practice in sprawling American metropolises, where it remains a reality today: “In the United States, people have made extensive use of the available space and spread out across the country, meaning that the population density is so low that it is difficult to develop public transportation networks,” emphasizes Professor Dirk Heinrichs. He is the head of the “Mobility and Urban Development” research department at Berlin’s DLR Institute of Transport Research. In cities with populations of more than one million, such as Phoenix and Houston, people cover up to 92 percent of the total distance they travel around with city with their own cars. And even outside of the US, the car led to the creation of new residential areas – suburbs around highly populated cities are seen as the ideal place to live, with one or even two cars in the garage for the commute to work. Small towns only survive because their residents remain flexible thanks to owning their own cars.