Critiques of New Urbanism - Research Paper Example

This paper evaluates the New Urbanist critiques of contemporary urban development, as well as the critiques of New Urbanism principles. New Urbanism is a form if an urban design program which encourages the traditional concepts of neighborhood design and apply them into a range of urban and suburban settings. The movement started as a response to the conventional suburban planning in the United States since the 1940’s where the communities are decentralized and dependent mainly on cars as a form of transportation.

New Urbanists claim that the orthodox setup causes congestion in arterial roads, limited opportunities for people without cars, loss of open space and detachment to civic life. To resolve this issue, they created a reform program with planning and design principles including walkable neighborhoods in a spectrum of a five-minute walk; major orientation around public transit systems; better assimilation of diverse types of land uses at the neighborhood level; affordable housing; strong citizen participation; and social and economic diversity (Fulton).

The New Urbanist criticisms of contemporary urban development, specifically of the sprawl were discussed by Ellis (262-266) on a research on the New Urbanism movement. . great automobile dependency in sprawl communities can be minimized dramatically by the installation of proper transit platforms through the New Urbanist principles. While transit investments are intergenerational and long-term, they can form the framework for more efficient, reasonable and sustainable urban regions. The land-use mixtures and street patterns that New Urbanist offers are also advantageous for pedestrians and cyclists.

The designs that the street patterns suggest better traffic systems and quality of the travel experience. On the other hand, higher densities and mixed uses can yield considerably lower vehicle miles travelled. Although studies regarding the impact of street patterns to the reduction of automobile commuting are limited, neoclassical economists believe that the benefits of New Urbanist designs will be fully achieved when land-use and transportation planning are applied in the regional level (Ellis 265).

Moreover, New Urbanism holds the potential for substantial environmental benefits. Ellis (265) stated that “more compact development patterns, combined with infill strategies, make it easier to conserve sensitive environmental areas.” Even if the New Urbanist designs will reap the environmental benefits or green engineering techniques only after several years, the idea is feasible and the results of studies are encouraging. The evidence of recent researches maintain that the New Urbanist designs “can play a role in reducing wasteful land consumption and the negative environmental impacts of auto-dependent sprawl” (Ellis 266).

Hence, the proper use of growth management, land-use planning and urban design strategies in urban planning can capitalize on the potential of the New Urbanist concept. However, New Urbanism’s incorrect