Linear city

A typical city grows in two dimensions, and would happily grow in three and four and five if it was possible.

That doesn't mean it should.

A basic problem of city planning is making sure everything is within reasonable reach of every highway, bus route and subway station, while not spending too much.

What's a city planner's wet dream? That this would be straightforward, easy. That you could predict the load on a given section of subway, now and in the future.

Suppose you didn't have any cities. You're a king in a country of farmers. What even is a city, they ask you.

Suppose you then build a stretch of rail across your kingdom. With no particular location to connect to, you can choose the flattest parts of land, to make your rail as cheap and straight as possible. It's still expensive, but it lets farmers from one end trade with farmers from the other end.

You build your castle and other stuff along this rail. Eventually there are marketplaces, industries, services, hotels, and apartment buildings. The rail is starting to pay for itself. Ford is marketing a new thing called 'automobile', but you feel no need to import any. There's still plenty of empty spots along your rail, and all buildings are within walking distance of the rail. Even bicycles don't interest anyone: the train is fastest.

Commute is sometimes long. But there is now so much dense cityscape along your rail, that you can afford to build a vacuum-tube train. Now commute is short, always short. The use of the vactrain is 100%: it's perfectly placed, so its potential is reached.

What links here

• #design
• Halt city growth
• The commute problem