Urban Planning in Europe and the U.S - Essay Example

The paper "Urban Planning in Europe and the U.S" is an excellent example of an essay on social science. There are slight differences between urban planning in America and in Europe and particularly in Germany. For example, the urban planning approach adopted in Germany is more self-sufficient than the one employed by their American counterparts. In Germany, urban planning is founded on principles that everything that a person requires in their day to day life is integrated. This means that urban planning in Germany ensures that schools, parks, religious centers, banks, supermarkets, and other essential services and are connected to a means of public transport for easy accessibility and connectivity between work and home. During the planning stage, the type of buildings to be situated in specific areas are pre-determined coupled with their connectivity to public transport. 

For instance, planners draft up the locations of schools, restaurants, parks and enter into a legal agreement with the companies that provide public transport, like bus companies, which will serve the members of that town. This ensures connectivity between work and home. However, in the U.S, many residential areas have not been fitted with such a set- up, evidenced by the lack of schools, restaurants and other important establishments necessary for their day to day routines. Urban planning in the U.S does not adopt a comprehensive approach, meaning that it is harder to access some social services like recreation parks due to distance.
According to Evans, planning in Europe is so structured such that it is very hard for a person to be permitted by the city to establish a home in an area that the city has not designed as a residential area. This means that it is nearly impossible to reside in an area that is not under a development plan of a city and consequently, an area where a resident may be unable to access basic services like public transport. However, in the U.S, building a residential home in a secluded area is a common feature, where a person resides in a reclusive area with no neighbors and no access to public transport (Evans, 2014).
Levy argues that, like most European towns, German towns have no grid patterns and the general layout of many urban centers has an organic framework that entails having narrow roads that are reminiscent of 18th Century culture. American towns on the other hand place emphasis on accessibility to central districts and therefore the general layout consists of grid patterns (Levy, 2013). Read More