The problem of Auckland

Staying in Auckland for a few days this week has reminded me again of what a problem modern cities present.

If we are to survive as a race on this planet we will have to solve this problem.

I refer to the unsustainable way we devote space and resources to our daily activities.

Take roading for example. Huge amounts of space are invested in roading systems so that hundreds of thousands of people can travel, one person per car most of the time, one way in the morning and the other way in the late afternoon. Whereas if we could organise our society in flexible working hours, we could get by with much less space devoted to roading.

And half a century ago Ivan Illich worked out that if we totalled all the time spent on roads and vehicles and their fuel, and compared that with the total distance travelled by everyone, the resulting average would be walking speed. I have never seen anyone since who had an answer for that. Illich had a simple low-tech solution, similar to Gandhi's ideas; but no- one has ever been really interested. We're all too seduced by ideas of progress and technology.

But this is only one example. Schools, sports fields, and commercial buildings, which are only used a few hours a day, or a few days per week, are another example of poor investment planning.

In this world of strictly limited resources, especially space, areas left unused for any length of time represent poor management of the planet.

But there does not seem to be any interest in improving this situation: we keep building out into the countryside, when a better solution would be to concentrate population and preserve as much agricultural land as possible for growing food. In fact, housing should really be on otherwise waste space, like high altitudes, over shallow water, and so on.

What do others think?