Showing posts with label quality of life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quality of life. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
I love Denmark ...
From: Something Not Rotten in Denmark, NY Times Opinion Pages, October 19, 2015, by Paul Krugman
Denmark:
Denmark:
- Scandinavian country with a population of 5.6 million
- Welfare state - government programs designed to provide economic security
- universal health care
- free college education and student receive a stipend
- subsidized day care
- Working age families receive more than 3x as much aid as their U.S. counterparts
- Tax
- top income tax rate: 60.3 percent
- national sales tax: 25 percent
- tax take is almost half of national income
- Ranks at or near the top on international comparisons of life satisfaction :)
Friday, October 2, 2015
Clover Valley Farms Projects
I often think of the amazing experience I had as the live-in Intern at Clover Valley Farms. I want to share the many projects we worked on over the course of the 2013 summer, one of which, the farm blog I kept, helped me launch this project!
Animals: Poultry, Hogs, Turkeys, Layers, Bees
We raised about 300 Cornish Cross Broiler and Red Broilers and 50 turkeys. These happy animals were kept in 10x10 pens moved daily for new forage. The turkeys took over one of the orchards for the last part of their lives. At about 10 weeks they were processed and sold on site. In addition to meat birds we had laying hens. A couple dozen eggs were collected twice daily and sold to friends and neighbors.
The hogs arrived small, feisty, and shy. They were also part of a rotational pasture system, allowing them to forage in new territory once they had nearly dug their current one up. These were my favorite buddies, if you can tell by the picture of me joining in their wallow.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) at UMDuluth Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI): I helped Cindy with her IPM project, tracking pests in CVF and UMD orchards to inform more environmentally responsible pest control practices.
The Garden: beans, greens, squash, potatoes, corn, onions, cucumber, garlic, tomatoes, zucchini, radish, peas...you name it, we probably had it!
The Greenhouse: Cilantro, dill, parsley, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme. Herbs were harvested fresh for meals, dried for herb mixes, and used to infuse homemade vinegars!
Fruit: 3 apple orchards, grapes, high bush cranberry, juneberry, currants, gooseberry, wild berries
Planting & Pulling: The berm in front of the greenhouse was cleared and planted with a variety of fruit bushes! I also helped plant a new orchard with 3 varieties of apple for a total of 50 new trees.
Cooking... And Eating!!!
Wildlife: Readers who are unfamiliar with Minnesota, the northern part of the state has a very unique and spectacular biome that supports diversified flora and fauna.
Old Fashioned Bartering: Cindy and Jeff would trade goods with friends for things like this beautiful handmade crock!
Animals: Poultry, Hogs, Turkeys, Layers, Bees
We raised about 300 Cornish Cross Broiler and Red Broilers and 50 turkeys. These happy animals were kept in 10x10 pens moved daily for new forage. The turkeys took over one of the orchards for the last part of their lives. At about 10 weeks they were processed and sold on site. In addition to meat birds we had laying hens. A couple dozen eggs were collected twice daily and sold to friends and neighbors.
The hogs arrived small, feisty, and shy. They were also part of a rotational pasture system, allowing them to forage in new territory once they had nearly dug their current one up. These were my favorite buddies, if you can tell by the picture of me joining in their wallow.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) at UMDuluth Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI): I helped Cindy with her IPM project, tracking pests in CVF and UMD orchards to inform more environmentally responsible pest control practices.
The Garden: beans, greens, squash, potatoes, corn, onions, cucumber, garlic, tomatoes, zucchini, radish, peas...you name it, we probably had it!
The Greenhouse: Cilantro, dill, parsley, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme. Herbs were harvested fresh for meals, dried for herb mixes, and used to infuse homemade vinegars!
Fruit: 3 apple orchards, grapes, high bush cranberry, juneberry, currants, gooseberry, wild berries
Planting & Pulling: The berm in front of the greenhouse was cleared and planted with a variety of fruit bushes! I also helped plant a new orchard with 3 varieties of apple for a total of 50 new trees.
Cooking... And Eating!!!
Wildlife: Readers who are unfamiliar with Minnesota, the northern part of the state has a very unique and spectacular biome that supports diversified flora and fauna.
Dog Training: Honey joined us during my time there so I learned some serious dog discipline
Other Adventures: Community events, Great Lakes Aquarium, bike rides, hikes, Lake Superior swimming!
Thanks for reading!
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Evolutionary Psychology/Neuroscience & Good Feelings
I love learning about how things came to be, and how things work. Recently I've been enthralled by the human brain -- how it came to be in its current evolutionary form, how it works, along with everything new we're learning about the brain with the help of technology. One might wonder what this has to do with "urban planning/design"... I believe it has a lot to do with it. Simply put, it's possible to create and design places that appeal to us and the human condition, that can grant us health and make us feel calm, safe, and happy. This theme is nothing new to my blog, but I suppose I'm coming at it from a different angle this time by looking at the brain.
My aunt gifted me an amazing book last year for my birthday, which is essentially what sparked my interest in connections between psychology and urban planning. Written by German neurobiologist Gerald Hüther, The Compassionate Brain: How Empathy Creates Intelligence speaks on the newest science of the human brain, written like a user's-manual. We now have a better understanding of how the brain works than ever before, and the fact that the majority of us do not use this knowledge to our advantage daily is nonsense!
While the book itself is unrelated to urban planning, it gives insight to the idea that there are certain elements in our lives, from behavior to environments, that are proven to cooperate with our brain chemistry and be beneficial to our well-being.
This post is meant to introduce these ideas and open up the conversation. And more from science, environment, health -- a Washington Post article from 2007: If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Only Be Natural, speaking on neuroscientific discoveries about morality having biological roots. "The more researchers learn, the more it appears that the foundation of morality is empathy." Hüther argues that compassion takes empathy one step further, as the next step in the brain's evolutionary process; compassion is a current peak in intelligence.
These two pieces of scientific literature back me up: what is or feels "right" and "wrong" is not "'handed down' by philosophers and clergy, but 'handed up,' an outgrowth of the brain's basic propensities." Whether we know it or not, and as we struggle to determine exactly what triggers those good feelings, pleasure triggers are inherent within our brains, and we're now discovering how to get there. I would like to be part of what gets us closer to some of these answers, specifically pertaining to human connections with outside city environments!
UPDATE!
Another blurb found on another blog:
Sources:
The Washington Post
The Compassionate Brain, Gerald Hüther
Raptitude Blog
My aunt gifted me an amazing book last year for my birthday, which is essentially what sparked my interest in connections between psychology and urban planning. Written by German neurobiologist Gerald Hüther, The Compassionate Brain: How Empathy Creates Intelligence speaks on the newest science of the human brain, written like a user's-manual. We now have a better understanding of how the brain works than ever before, and the fact that the majority of us do not use this knowledge to our advantage daily is nonsense!
While the book itself is unrelated to urban planning, it gives insight to the idea that there are certain elements in our lives, from behavior to environments, that are proven to cooperate with our brain chemistry and be beneficial to our well-being.
This post is meant to introduce these ideas and open up the conversation. And more from science, environment, health -- a Washington Post article from 2007: If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Only Be Natural, speaking on neuroscientific discoveries about morality having biological roots. "The more researchers learn, the more it appears that the foundation of morality is empathy." Hüther argues that compassion takes empathy one step further, as the next step in the brain's evolutionary process; compassion is a current peak in intelligence.
These two pieces of scientific literature back me up: what is or feels "right" and "wrong" is not "'handed down' by philosophers and clergy, but 'handed up,' an outgrowth of the brain's basic propensities." Whether we know it or not, and as we struggle to determine exactly what triggers those good feelings, pleasure triggers are inherent within our brains, and we're now discovering how to get there. I would like to be part of what gets us closer to some of these answers, specifically pertaining to human connections with outside city environments!
UPDATE!
Another blurb found on another blog:
"There might be a very good reason why it's been so damn hard to make things work the 'traditional' way. What's traditional in your culture might clash very strongly with your biological and emotional makeup."____
Sources:
The Washington Post
The Compassionate Brain, Gerald Hüther
Raptitude Blog
Friday, August 14, 2015
Living Streets Part II
Among the dozens of pages I've bookmarked for conversations on my blog, I came across a page that has me thinking about Living Streets once again. I've been waiting to write about this topic for some time now, and since my most recent post, it keeps popping up; in my thoughts back to my own childhood (which I still plan to share), in the first few chapters of the Jane Jacobs classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and then stumbling upon this piece of research. So it was published almost 20 years ago, but in a journal entitled International Play... who doesn't think a research journal about playing is awesome?!
The research reinforces my personal feelings about residential streets loosing their function as social and play environments. It also, interestingly enough, mentions that Munich can be used as an existing model for reclaiming the streets for children, which I captured pictures of last fall. Not only that, but I spent my time in Munich as an Au Pair, taking care of 3 young girls aged 14 months to 6 years. Each day - weather permitting - we spent outside was spent doing some sort of activity in the street. I doubt there was a day that passed that I didn't see a group of kids playing in the "street," whether it was scootering and biking around or boys kicking a soccer ball (I bet this happened daily no matter what!). Even though our neighborhood was more suburban than urban, the streets played an important part in the way of life for people of all ages. It goes to show that "safer" streets with less or slower traffic are used for reasons other than driving or transport.
From the publication:
This is where Living Streets come in. The publication reviews "traffic calming" in countries that have had success in reclaiming the streets as social space - not surprising that the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark are mentioned here. Munich is highlighted:
Sources:
http://www.ecoplan.org/children/general/tranter.htm
http://www.ncsu.edu/www/ncsu/design/sod5/phd/resources/Streets_as_Playgrounds.pdf
The research reinforces my personal feelings about residential streets loosing their function as social and play environments. It also, interestingly enough, mentions that Munich can be used as an existing model for reclaiming the streets for children, which I captured pictures of last fall. Not only that, but I spent my time in Munich as an Au Pair, taking care of 3 young girls aged 14 months to 6 years. Each day - weather permitting - we spent outside was spent doing some sort of activity in the street. I doubt there was a day that passed that I didn't see a group of kids playing in the "street," whether it was scootering and biking around or boys kicking a soccer ball (I bet this happened daily no matter what!). Even though our neighborhood was more suburban than urban, the streets played an important part in the way of life for people of all ages. It goes to show that "safer" streets with less or slower traffic are used for reasons other than driving or transport.
From the publication:
"One should be able to play everywhere, easily, loosely, and not forced into a 'playground' or 'park'. The failure of an urban environment can be measured in direct proportion to the number of 'playgrounds.'
Notwithstanding research which suggests that parks and playgrounds are highly valued by children (Homel and Burns, 1986, 109), perhaps this argument is not as absurd as it seems. It helps us to realise that the way we have been seeing 'children's spaces' is "culturally constructed". This quote is highlighting the possibility that parks and playgrounds are among the few places left for children in our cities. It is saying that a truly child friendly city should be one big playground. Cities in the developed world can hardly be described in such terms, mainly because of the way in which streets are seen as barriers for children, rather than as a useful resource for play.No doubt circumstances are changing ever-more rapidly, with the automobile as the main culprit. Car dependency creates more dangerous streets, leading to more parental supervision for child safety, more formal/supervised play, less freedom and independence for children, and ultimately less ability for spontaneity and creativity in children. All of which can play a major role in the development, socialization, and sense of community for children.
This is where Living Streets come in. The publication reviews "traffic calming" in countries that have had success in reclaiming the streets as social space - not surprising that the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark are mentioned here. Munich is highlighted:
One European city which is developing a reputation for being a "playful city" is Munich. Since the early 1970s, the combined efforts of play organisations and city authorities has led to Munich evolving as a model playful city. The key aspect of the approach taken is the realisation that children need time and space for open, non structured play, and that such play is a crucial part of a child's positive development (Zacharias and Zacharias, 1993). It is argued that playing should be allowed and possible in all the everyday environments of the city, rather than simply in specific playgrounds. There should be a "playable city" where the entire environment is conducive to children's play. In many parts of Munich, the streets are seen as appropriate places for children to play (Moore, 1993).
To support the ability of children to play in the streets, a number of "verkehrsberuhigter Bereich" have been developed. Many of these are similar to woonerven, and they have a special sign that says: "children can play in this street". Cars must travel very slowly (5 -7 km/h) and they can only park in marked areas. Knecht (1995, pers. comm.) has recently conducted a project in Munich called "Play in the streets and yards". His observations were that children do in fact play in such verkehrsberuhigter Bereich where they cover a large area, as in an area of Munich called Moosach. In one street in Knecht's study, Hirschstrasse, children painted a mini golf course with chalk on the street. They made 20 stations with wooden material and toys and other material. A huge number of children from the neighbourhood streets (also verkehrsberihigt) come to Hirschstrasse to join the game. Children also play tennis, roller skate, play ball games and so on. One of the most important findings of Knecht's study was that if there are a lot of children playing in the street, the car drivers proceed very slowly. Sometimes they even turn around and look for another route. Thus, children have been able to successfully reclaim the street!While I feel relief to know that my inclination is actually backed up by research, it's disheartening to see the place I knew as a playground growing up disappear. But progress is being made with like Living Streets and traffic calming. Such strategies can be thought of as a piece to the puzzle or possibly even a catalyst to transform streets away from exclusive automobile use and back to communities that actually bring value and life to the veins of a city. The authors of the research couldn't sum it up better:
Making provision for children's play throughout a city's public spaces, including its residential streets, will not only be of great benefit for children, it will create a physical and social environment of superior quality for all the city's residents. If we can encourage more people to use residential streets for walking, cycling, social interaction and playing, then cities will become more sociable, more livable places for all city residents. Cities will once again become places which facilitate exchanges between people of all ages.
Sources:
http://www.ecoplan.org/children/general/tranter.htm
http://www.ncsu.edu/www/ncsu/design/sod5/phd/resources/Streets_as_Playgrounds.pdf
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Is Perpetual Densification to Eliminate the Suburbs the Answer?
A Planetizen article published in 2011 uses the case study of Athens to explore a "city without suburbs."
Athens, Greece started eradicating its suburbs in the 1970s and continued this densification goal through the 80s. There were four main reasons for this push: 1) confined land space, 2) a capitalistic political system, 3) developer lobbying, and 4) increasing population pressure. In 1981 the municipality peaked at a population of 885,000 with a density of approximately 60,000 people per square mile. Although its population has been on the decline since the 2000s, it remains one of the most dense urban areas in the developed world.
As the city's compactness and so-called walkability in the suburbs grew, car ownership did not decrease, and positive impacts for modes of walking, cycling, and transit were not reported. Between 1990 and 2000, public transit actually fell while private transport increased. To paraphrase the conclusion from the Planetizen article: "Athens exemplifies every single urbanist approach, yet fails to deliver anticipated results. Elements in the Athenian version of natural urbanism have produced unwelcome outcomes; the pinnacle of urbanisn that achieved the eradication of suburbs came at substantial quality of life and environmental costs.
"Dysfunctional cases in any discipline trigger insights by demanding explanation.
Athens is a case of dysfunctional urbanism and offers a true laboratory for testing assumptions, principles, and theories toward a more robust model of an urbane city."
I will take it upon myself to address the last part of this article. The first and most important question is: was there a plan from the beginning? What was it? Was it simply to answer the demand for population increase, or were there additional, more comprehensive goals? At least from this article's information, the 4 reasons mentioned above seem to answer that question. The article points out that Athens ranks lowest on a quality of life ranking for Western European cities; it's filled with noise, traffic, and pollution. Traffic fatalities also rank among the highest comparatively. These are indications that the city may not have incorporated plans to manage the consequences of an increasing population.
My conclusion: Athens is not the case of dysfunctional urbanism, it's the case of dysfunctional planning, or lack thereof. The city's goal was to eradicate the suburbs and increase density - this was achieved. So it did succeed, if only in this way. It seems to me that quality of life was pushed under the rug in the attempt to attract and fit more people. Yet a place can immediately loose its appeal as social and environmental issues are sacrificed. Shelter alone won't cut it; people need connection and community as well. Athens may exemplify a few elements of urbanism very well, so while those can be used as a lesson, the case study as a whole can be used to see interconnectivity at work. And because of this dense web of connections, we will never get a complete story of the past, nor will we be able to predict the future. But we sure can plan with intention, holistic goals, and measurable targets towards better living situations and healthier lives for people in our cities and on this planet.
Food for thought: "If you build it, they will come" ...
Sources
Planetizen
newgeography
Athens, Greece started eradicating its suburbs in the 1970s and continued this densification goal through the 80s. There were four main reasons for this push: 1) confined land space, 2) a capitalistic political system, 3) developer lobbying, and 4) increasing population pressure. In 1981 the municipality peaked at a population of 885,000 with a density of approximately 60,000 people per square mile. Although its population has been on the decline since the 2000s, it remains one of the most dense urban areas in the developed world.
As the city's compactness and so-called walkability in the suburbs grew, car ownership did not decrease, and positive impacts for modes of walking, cycling, and transit were not reported. Between 1990 and 2000, public transit actually fell while private transport increased. To paraphrase the conclusion from the Planetizen article: "Athens exemplifies every single urbanist approach, yet fails to deliver anticipated results. Elements in the Athenian version of natural urbanism have produced unwelcome outcomes; the pinnacle of urbanisn that achieved the eradication of suburbs came at substantial quality of life and environmental costs.
"Dysfunctional cases in any discipline trigger insights by demanding explanation.
Athens is a case of dysfunctional urbanism and offers a true laboratory for testing assumptions, principles, and theories toward a more robust model of an urbane city."
I will take it upon myself to address the last part of this article. The first and most important question is: was there a plan from the beginning? What was it? Was it simply to answer the demand for population increase, or were there additional, more comprehensive goals? At least from this article's information, the 4 reasons mentioned above seem to answer that question. The article points out that Athens ranks lowest on a quality of life ranking for Western European cities; it's filled with noise, traffic, and pollution. Traffic fatalities also rank among the highest comparatively. These are indications that the city may not have incorporated plans to manage the consequences of an increasing population.
My conclusion: Athens is not the case of dysfunctional urbanism, it's the case of dysfunctional planning, or lack thereof. The city's goal was to eradicate the suburbs and increase density - this was achieved. So it did succeed, if only in this way. It seems to me that quality of life was pushed under the rug in the attempt to attract and fit more people. Yet a place can immediately loose its appeal as social and environmental issues are sacrificed. Shelter alone won't cut it; people need connection and community as well. Athens may exemplify a few elements of urbanism very well, so while those can be used as a lesson, the case study as a whole can be used to see interconnectivity at work. And because of this dense web of connections, we will never get a complete story of the past, nor will we be able to predict the future. But we sure can plan with intention, holistic goals, and measurable targets towards better living situations and healthier lives for people in our cities and on this planet.
Food for thought: "If you build it, they will come" ...
Sources
Planetizen
newgeography
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Quality of Living Rankings for Cities
Mercer Quality of Living Survey 2014 - Top 5 and Bottom 5 Cities
North America
Europe
Interestingly enough, (based on this survey) I currently live in the highest ranked American city, San Francisco (coming in at 5th for North America, 27th overall), and have lived and spent extensive time in the 4th ranked city overall, Munich, Germany. I'm shocked that Copenhagen, Denmark did not make this survey's cut for top 5 European cities, although it is ranked #9 on the overall list for 2015.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
The Pursuit of Happiness
In an attempt to find a topic of conversation for today from the long list of websites I've bookmarked, a series of events lead me to an unusual article that is personally intriguing, but even more so, exceptionally relevant for this blog.
An article from Boundless (an award-winning ministry of Focus on the Family) entitled "The Happiness Trap" focuses on the relationship between parenting and happiness, but I think the whole article gets at something broader and quite possibly more important when it comes to happiness. The article is by itself interesting, but I will dissect it below according to how it fits in with this blog as well as my interests.
What does the word "happiness" mean? How do we describe it? Is it an accurate word to use to describe the emotional state of an individuals' emotional state or life, or even a country or society's state of being? This is what I'm getting at: everyone is "happy" sometimes, and "sad" sometimes. So in the grand scheme of things, happiness and the state of being happy doesn't really say anything about how someone is living; furthermore, the virtue and good fortune in our lives.
Eudaimonia is the Greek word that is sometimes translated into the English word "happiness," but there is more to this word. The Greek word refers to an objective state of being: "a combination of living well (virtue) and doing well (good fortune)." The English word "happy", is very much subjective and short-term feeling, precisely what makes it challenging to define, but also nearly impossible to be able to describe an individual's life or an entire society as this. If you could chose, what would you want for society; a short term emotion of joy or long-term virtue, good fortune, and quality living.
I believe that quality living (meaning virtue, as well as good fortune) directly impacts and leads to the maximum amount of what we know as "happiness"; maximum amounts of feelings of "joy." This can ultimately enable us to be generally happy people, allowing us to spread this feeling to others and have positive interactions and effects on people. But it starts with a life of quality.
On a different but related note, one of the most backwards notions of the American culture and society is the recurring theme that money and abundance creates happiness. People can acknowledge that this is myth, yet the culture we live in unfortunately makes the pursuit of wealth and abundance on the individual scale sometimes hard to escape. The infamous words from the U.S. Declaration of Independence "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" have truly lost their meaning, or through the years have been misconstrued to the average American. Do we really have the maximum "freedom" to "pursue" a "happy" state of mind?
Happiness is not something that can be pursued. Living well and doing well is. We must help create a society that promotes the state of living virtuous and well in order to create actions of doing well in commitment to a collective betterment of all people. Then, and only then will we have a society that we can call "happy."
Check out this Opinion Article from the New York Times about "Loving People, Not Pleasure" and the association between money and happiness.
An article from Boundless (an award-winning ministry of Focus on the Family) entitled "The Happiness Trap" focuses on the relationship between parenting and happiness, but I think the whole article gets at something broader and quite possibly more important when it comes to happiness. The article is by itself interesting, but I will dissect it below according to how it fits in with this blog as well as my interests.
What does the word "happiness" mean? How do we describe it? Is it an accurate word to use to describe the emotional state of an individuals' emotional state or life, or even a country or society's state of being? This is what I'm getting at: everyone is "happy" sometimes, and "sad" sometimes. So in the grand scheme of things, happiness and the state of being happy doesn't really say anything about how someone is living; furthermore, the virtue and good fortune in our lives.
Eudaimonia is the Greek word that is sometimes translated into the English word "happiness," but there is more to this word. The Greek word refers to an objective state of being: "a combination of living well (virtue) and doing well (good fortune)." The English word "happy", is very much subjective and short-term feeling, precisely what makes it challenging to define, but also nearly impossible to be able to describe an individual's life or an entire society as this. If you could chose, what would you want for society; a short term emotion of joy or long-term virtue, good fortune, and quality living.
I believe that quality living (meaning virtue, as well as good fortune) directly impacts and leads to the maximum amount of what we know as "happiness"; maximum amounts of feelings of "joy." This can ultimately enable us to be generally happy people, allowing us to spread this feeling to others and have positive interactions and effects on people. But it starts with a life of quality.
On a different but related note, one of the most backwards notions of the American culture and society is the recurring theme that money and abundance creates happiness. People can acknowledge that this is myth, yet the culture we live in unfortunately makes the pursuit of wealth and abundance on the individual scale sometimes hard to escape. The infamous words from the U.S. Declaration of Independence "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" have truly lost their meaning, or through the years have been misconstrued to the average American. Do we really have the maximum "freedom" to "pursue" a "happy" state of mind?
Happiness is not something that can be pursued. Living well and doing well is. We must help create a society that promotes the state of living virtuous and well in order to create actions of doing well in commitment to a collective betterment of all people. Then, and only then will we have a society that we can call "happy."
__________________
"What's true of the western tradition is also true of the eastern tradition: In the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna tells the warrior Arjuna that happiness lies not in some subjective state, much less seeking after our own satisfaction, but rather from a whole-hearted pursuit of goodness and harmony (sattva) and practice of spiritual disciplines (yoga)."
Eudaimonia defined by Google: (also known as Eudaemonism) a Greek word, which refers to a state of having a good indwelling spirit or being in a contented state of being healthy, happy and prosperous. In moral philosophy, eudaimonia is used to refer to the right actions as those that result in the well-being of an individual.
Check out this Opinion Article from the New York Times about "Loving People, Not Pleasure" and the association between money and happiness.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Good Transit and Well Being
The journal Transportation published relevant and interesting research done by professor Jason Cao from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The article "The association between light rail transit and satisfactions with travel and life: evidence from Twin Cities" was published March 2013. The research looks at the light rail line that runs from downtown Minneapolis to the airport and Mall of America. The Hiawatha Light Rail/METRO Blue Line opened in 2004 and has been followed up by the METRO Green Line running from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul via University Avenue that opened up last June 2014.
CityLab did an article based on Cao's study entitled "Living Near Good Transit May Make You Happier".
Cao wanted to find out if the new transit line was contributing to the well-being of nearby residents. A survey was sent out to 4 communities with varying access to transit. The findings: "People in the Hiawatha corridor had higher ratings on questions related to the quality of their lives compared to people in the other four corridors." Cao's idea is that no matter the reason, more life satisfactions comes from a higher level of mobility that the light rail provides.
In conclusion, these publications back up a claim that I have always have felt to be true. Since experiencing my first round of a great public transit system in Germany in 2001, and the second round in Copenhagen in 2012, and then most recently this past fall, once again in Munich, Germany, it has always seemed that a quality transit system somehow just makes life better. I felt it personally, but I also felt it among the communities I was living in. It's almost impossible to describe unless you've felt it for yourself, but it seems right that accessibility, equity, mobility, etc., all improve around good transit, and that in turn puts people more at ease in some way. Once you really stop to think about it, it makes sense. I may have sounded crazy to have come out and said this on my own, and since I'm not currently conducting any official research, I was thrilled to have found CityLab's and Cao's publications that prove that quality transit can help influence a high quality of life.
Original Jason Cao study (access to full article is not available)
Access and Outcomes: Transportation, Location, and Subjective Well-Being - Eric Andrew Morris UCLA Dissertation
CityLab did an article based on Cao's study entitled "Living Near Good Transit May Make You Happier".
Cao wanted to find out if the new transit line was contributing to the well-being of nearby residents. A survey was sent out to 4 communities with varying access to transit. The findings: "People in the Hiawatha corridor had higher ratings on questions related to the quality of their lives compared to people in the other four corridors." Cao's idea is that no matter the reason, more life satisfactions comes from a higher level of mobility that the light rail provides.
In conclusion, these publications back up a claim that I have always have felt to be true. Since experiencing my first round of a great public transit system in Germany in 2001, and the second round in Copenhagen in 2012, and then most recently this past fall, once again in Munich, Germany, it has always seemed that a quality transit system somehow just makes life better. I felt it personally, but I also felt it among the communities I was living in. It's almost impossible to describe unless you've felt it for yourself, but it seems right that accessibility, equity, mobility, etc., all improve around good transit, and that in turn puts people more at ease in some way. Once you really stop to think about it, it makes sense. I may have sounded crazy to have come out and said this on my own, and since I'm not currently conducting any official research, I was thrilled to have found CityLab's and Cao's publications that prove that quality transit can help influence a high quality of life.
 |
| The METRO Green Line generated at least $2.5 billion worth of economic development within half a mile of the new transit system |
Original Jason Cao study (access to full article is not available)
Access and Outcomes: Transportation, Location, and Subjective Well-Being - Eric Andrew Morris UCLA Dissertation
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