Green Neighborhoods on Streets of Steel

Images of houses bulging with solar panels, air turbines and geothermal heating are the typical things that come to mind when thinking of promoting sustainable and green cities. However, University of Georgia professor Dr. Jack Crowley thinks that there is more to consider.

Dr. Crowley, who spent 10 years as the dean of the UGA School of Environmental Design, spoke Nov. 7 at the College of Architecture. Students and faculty interested in the feasible development of a sustainable transportation infrastructure listened to him speak about his ideas.

Crowley opened by saying he was "taking green from a fiscal perspective." To do this, he focused on two large ideas: an efficient infrastructure and changing transportation.

To start, Crowley discussed pipes and why the current method of laying down pipes is inefficient. The current way that towns go about laying pipes is like this: they dig a trench, lay a small pipe and wait until they need to re-dig the trench and lay a bigger pipe. Thus more trenches are always being dug and more pipes are always being laid.

"I call that the Trench Syndrome, a highly complicated phrase I made two days ago," Crowley said.

Instead, Crowley suggests that companies lay a single, slightly larger pipe so that only one trench needs to be dug and more people can be satisfied. He also emphasized the importance of optimizing the usage of a single pipe by mixing its use. "It's like the idea of a parking lot," Crowley said.

The "parking lot" is the idea that a single parking lot could satisfy multiple organizations. Say, for example, that a Chick-fil-A, an office building and a church share a single parking lot. The Chick-fil-A and office building do not require parking on Sundays, while the church only requires significant parking on Sundays.

Instead of the Chick-fil-A, the office building and the church all having their own parking to match their peak necessity, they can coordinate and share a single parking lot. By mixing use so that multiple groups can use a single resource, everyone saves money, space and time. "Thousands are served, more efficiently," Crowley said.

When asked if this will ever actually happen, "...water shortages will drive trends in the right direction. A sustainable infrastructure implies mixed use," Crowley said.

When Dr. Crowley began to talk about the current state of transportation in America, his most significant point became apparent. "The automobile took over the country," Crowley said. "Look at the differences between new automobile cities and older pre-automobile cities."

Pre-automobile cities, such as New York, Boston and most large cities in Europe have better mass transit systems and are more concentrated. Cities like Atlanta, Phoenix or Los Angeles, on the other hand, have less developed public transportation and suffer from urban sprawl.

"Automobiles prevent density and encourage sprawl," Crowley said. Density is an idea that Dr. Crowley emphasizes just as strongly as mixed use. Denser populations require less space, less pipes, less cars and ultimately less resources to be sustained.

"Automobiles also prevent rail development," Dr. Crowley said. He suggests that rails are only efficient in dense areas, such as London or New York. As cars prevent density, they prevent rails. He also accuses the current tax system as being ruinous for transportation as a whole.

Gas taxes are volume-based, not value-based. "This is fatal...construction costs rise hugely. At the same time, we want more miles per gallon, giving less money to highway systems," Crowley said.

Finally, Dr. Crowley talked about the obstacles barring change. Everything from habits and skepticism to trucking lobbyists and the American Automobile Association try to prevent change. "They would lose money, and they don't like it," Crowley said.

He also emphasized that scarcity could promote a more efficient infrastructure. His last slide showed a sketch of a car driving away in the distance. "It's a car, hopefully driving off a cliff into the setting sun," Crowley said.

During a question-and-answer session after his presentation, Dr. Crowley responded to several key issues. One student asked whether larger pipes will contribute to urban sprawl. "Well, yes. And it takes a benevolent dictator to control it," Crowley said.

A benevolent dictator is a person, or a council of people, that are willing to control the expansion and construction of the infrastructure in a town.

When asked where the leadership will come from, Crowley said, "It is going to happen. It's just a matter of when...not everywhere at first, but it will start somewhere. And that's all that it takes."

In conclusion, Crowley explained the largest obstacle: lag time. "It's all about money...and if it takes 15 years before they make any money, it won't happen," Crowley said.

Companies think of establishing efficient infrastructure as a gamble. Just like the company constructing a hotel would take years to get out of debt, converting to a denser, rail-driven infrastructure would take years to make any revenue.

Yet Dr. Crowley asserts that there would be revenue. Land near rail hubs would skyrocket in value. People would begin to accept the new methods of transportation.

"For example, MARTA is a good beginning. It's got a long way to go, but it's a good beginning. And that's all that it takes," Crowley said.