Is Slowing Down Cities Actually A Thing?
Why bustling metropolises cause stress and how slow cities organize their space to time well spent
Hello out there - in a rushed world,
Here comes your weekly permission slip to Un-rush and Slow Down.
If you enjoy reading this post from my Newsletter Un-Rush, feel free to share it with your friends and click the❤️ button, so more people can discover it on Substack. Thank you!
IMPULSE
Is Slowing Down Cities Actually A Thing?
Why bustling metropolises cause stress and how slow cities organize their space to time well spent
A bustling metropolis, bursting in diversity, with a vibrant art, culture, and entertainment scene holds an undeniable allure for many. The fast-paced lifestyle of big cities has some attractions. But many of us might also despise the increasingly frenetic, homogenized pulse of our modern cities, with never-ending streams of people and events.
Numerous cities in the past have done their urban planning with the idea of faster travel, saving time and making everyone better off. It turned out this concept didn’t always make us live and work better but actually made everyone worse. Did you notice?
As slaves to speed, we would benefit from slowing down cities.
The fast lanes that you might get stuck on
Sitting in a taxi on a 12-lane highway (twelve!) trying to get to the Dubai airport some months ago made us wonder if this is what humans are striving for: Sitting in a traffic jam on the most modern highway system, surrounded by millions of metal boxes on four wheels wasting hours of their lifetime to get to places they often don’t even want to be.
The UAE, a nation striving to define the future of transport, started out in the 1970s with more camels than cars on a few roads. Travel time between Abu Dhabi and Dubai was around four times slower than today. Motorists could not drive fast as they always had to watch out for camels passing by, and traffic congestion was not heard of. Fast-forward, rapid changes happened in the 1990s and early 2000s when the UAE saw a construction boom. In the last 50 years, according to the Roads and Transport Authority of the Emirates, the UAE constructed a total of 18,255-km road network. Next, highly anticipated, will be flying taxis. A transformed transportation system within 60–70 years, from camels to flying cars. What a ride!
Urban planning is different in modern, fast-growing cities like the UAE or Asia, or in the “newer” countries such as the US, compared to Europe where cities were built centuries ago with different needs in mind. Thus, many of the European cities feel cozy, human, walkable, and sociable, with atmosphere and character. They lend themselves to interacting with others, walking, bicycling, pausing, and sitting for a cup of cappuccino.
When I moved to San Francisco, I appreciated living in a walkable city with cafés and green parks everywhere. Visiting some big cities in the States often made me feel uncomfortable, and I felt like I was in an artificial, anonymous place not made for humans. I found it odd that you had to drive everywhere, with no sidewalks in sight, and entertain yourself by wandering around a massive shopping mall.
The fast pace of life in big cities can be overwhelming and stressful. Plenty of people feel like they are constantly running to keep up with the demands of the city, leaving little time for relaxation and making it not easy to form meaningful relationships and connections with others.
Here is one way to counteract the stress that is connected with fast-paced cities
Slowing down cities
In a world that seems to be sprinting, there is a different lifestyle that asks us to pause, to appreciate, and to reconnect - “slower cities”. The idea of slow cities, or Cittaslow, was founded in 1999 in Italy and was inspired by the slow food movement that was initiated in Italy in 1986. The goal of slow cities is to improve the quality of life in towns by slowing down their overall pace, especially in a city's use of spaces and the flow of life and traffic through them.
What makes a city stressful is its noise level, the hustle and bustle, and the tempo with which people run around. The idea of a slow city is not about pace or slowing down time, it’s about less honking, less hustle, and a desire for the authenticity of experiences. It’s about the desire to challenge the increasingly hectic, non-stop moving, and overdeveloped modern cities.
And the slow city movement proved that this is possible. There are meanwhile 297 cities in 33 countries registered as a “cittaslow”, slow cities. These cities have to uphold 55 distinct pledges, spanning environmental, infrastructure, cultural, and community criteria.
The flow of traffic and movement of people can be organized in such a way that it decreases congestion, physical inactivity, and pollution. More time and nerves can be saved by slowing city transport than by speeding it up.
Healthier and happier cities
Urban planning used to be for speed and mobility, focused on saving time. If you want your city to be healthier, happier, safer, wealthier, less unequal and more child-friendly and resilient, just slow it down. When cities organize their space with a focus on accessibility, the perspective shifts to time well spent.
Cities like Oslo, Helsinki, Paris, Bogotá, and many others, have lowered motorized traffic speeds and increased active travel. The Spanish city Pontevedra demonstrates how slowing transport across an entire city benefits all types of health. Turns out, after the city reduced speed limits to 30km/h, physical activity and social connection improved as more people walked. And, for seven years, there was not a single traffic death. Slowlondon invites city-dwellers worldwide to discover joy in daily commutes, to challenge workplace norms, and to view time not as a fleeing enemy, but as a cherished companion. It encourages individuals to stand up against the rush and insist that there exists a slower, richer way to experience life.
Slowing down cities is a thing
Slow cities are rich in squares, theaters, workshops, cafés, restaurants, spiritual places, unspoiled landscapes, and fascinating craftsmen, where people still appreciate the change of the seasons, with their rhythm of authentic products, and the spontaneity of living their traditions. Good living means having the opportunity to enjoy solutions and services that allow citizens to live and experience their city or town easily and pleasantly.
Can the crazy, buzzing heartbeats of major world cities ever sync to the calm rhythm of slowed-down cities? The underlying principles resonate universally.
There is a universal call inviting “every urban heart, every city skyline, and every bustling street to discover the symphony in slowing down. As cities around the world grapple with similar challenges, the Slow City principles offer a harmonious tune that resonates globally.” - Cittaslow
INSIGHTS
Curated stories/links on the topic of slowing down and living better – designed to open up new ways of looking at why you should give yourself permission to un-rush.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Un-Rush by Claudia Brose to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.