If you do not know already, Euclidean zoning is the separation of residential zones from commercial zones by several miles. In effect, this makes cities/towns require cars and are always unsafe or unfriendly for pedestrians.

WHY are we building cities for cars and not the people who live in them?
There is zero good argument for why we should make sure every U.S. citizen goes into tens of thousands of dollars of debt early on in life just to participate in society.

Disadvantages of car-centric zoning:

• Gaining of Debt early in life just to get around
• High-cost housing
• Higher taxes, roads are hard to maintain on large scale
• A feeling of entrapment in your neighborhoods that are extremely separated
• Less space for housing
• Increased homelessness 
• High cost for cities and states that need to maintain roads
• Decreased air Quality
• Increase in noise pollution, contributes to stress
• Increased crime
• Increased pollution into the Chesapeake
• Separation of schools and pedestrians leading to unsafe roads surrounding schools
• Expensive gas
• Decreased happiness
• Urban Sprawl
• TRAFFIC
• States loses money subsidizing roads
• Promotion of predatory Oil industry
• Less overall small business
• Black and low-income communities are HEAVILY affected.
• UNSAFE STROADS

 

 

Advantages of mixed-use/non-Euclidean zoning with promotion of pedestrian and cycling traffic:

• Promotes small business
• More affordable housing
• States make more money
• Less noise pollution
• Improves overall happiness
• Higher air quality
• Kids gain more independence by walking or biking to school
• Less water pollution
• Less need to go into debt to buy a car
• Decreased crime
• Potential for lower taxes
• Increased state revenue allowing for large community projects
• Less traffic, which actually IMPROVES driving
• Decreased Homelessness and Food-Insecurity
• Higher population density but at the same time quieter streets
• Reduced Traffic
• Less noise pollution and thus less stress
• Prettier Cities
• Increased access to essential services such as hospitals
• Fantastic public transport by streetcars, trains, and busses.

 

 

Common arguments:

• “I don’t want to live next to large parking lots”
  Parking lots wont really be necessary when services are so easy to access by foot or cycling. Plus, we can build underground parking and better public transport.
• “Business can play loud music and have big neon lights, that will keep everyone awake at night”
  This is actually an extremely easy thing to include in our zoning code and laws!
• “I like cars”
  I think cars have their uses and are a fantastic bit of modern engineering. I just don’t believe that we should force everyone to buy one just to participate in living.
• “I like my single-family house”
  I am not advocating for a ban on the idea of Single-family detached housing. I think they can be great, but why should that be the only thing we build. Also, why should those neighborhoods be separated from necessary and essential services like grocery stores and school.
• “Wont this be expensive!?!”
  The current suburbia is much, much more expensive to build and maintain than communities of non-Euclidean style zoning. We can build/zone new areas in a much better way that will overall reduce cost.
• “Wont this take a long time?”
  Yes, it is expected, but wouldn’t you want your children and grandchildren to live in a much better place.
• “Will they tear apart our existing neighborhoods?!”
  The hope is that we play this smart, and we create new, non-Euclidean zoned towns and cities. After a long enough period, we can move on to fixing existing, outdated infrastructure. I do not advocate for the destruction of homes.

 

Final notes:

Building pedestrian and Cycling infrastructure is crucial in the further development of this state and nation. If we don’t act fast, we will be stuck in a further worsened suburbia. Reducing the sizes of roads, increasing the amount of protected bike lanes and bike parking, increasing protected sidewalks, reducing speed limits, increasing greenery in cities, improvement to public transit, and overall improved traffic laws which speed things up for both drivers and pedestrians are all actions we can take with just the click of a pen.

Thank you for reading, I greatly appreciate you making it this far.

Resources:

• Not just bikes explains massive pitfalls of North American city design while comparing it to places like Amsterdam.
• Stroad definition
• Problems with current trains
• How suburbia is subsidized
• How we do speed limits wrong
• How to build a cycling city (quickly)
• Origins of R1 and how bad the suburbs are
• Zoning in MD (Map) (note, "medium residential" is still R1)