The City
The Soft City Plan
A plan for a city that moves fast below the street so that life at street level can stay slow.
- Plan
- The Soft City Plan
- In one line
- Fast below, slow at street level
- Applies to
- The Grand Peninsula
- Green land
- About 30% of the peninsula, about 990 square kilometres, is parks, lawns and protected land
- Street speed limit
- 40 kilometres per hour on ground-level streets in the centre
- The exception
- The sunken expressway, 100 kilometres per hour
- Responsible
- Union Government of Peninsula; Department of Transport and Department of Education carry out parts of it
The idea
A city can be fast, or it can be pleasant to live in. The Soft City Plan is how the Grand Peninsula tries to be both. Speed is put where it does the least harm: underground, or on lines above the street. The street itself is kept for people.
Fast below
Most long journeys in the Grand Peninsula are made on the metro, the Metropolitan Rails and the other lines that run below or above the street. They are planned to be fast, frequent and to reach where people need to go, so that nobody has to depend on a car to move across the city.
Road traffic that has to move quickly uses a sunken expressway, below street level and open to the sky, where the limit is 100 kilometres per hour. It is the only road in the centre with a limit that high.
Slow at street level
At street level the aim is the opposite: slow, quiet and green. Streets are planned for walking first, and the default speed limit on ground-level streets in the centre is 40 kilometres per hour. Trees, parks and open lawns are protected, including in the centre, where land is scarce and every plot is contested. Central Park, in front of City Hall, is open to everyone. In all, about 30% of the Grand Peninsula, some 990 square kilometres, is parks, lawns and protected green land.
A shorter working day
A slower city also needs a shorter day. The standard working day in the Grand Peninsula runs from nine to four.
Public holidays are for everyone. Christmas is the largest, and the whole city stops. Services that have to stay open take their holiday a month later, so that nobody is made to work through it.
Schools
The same idea applies to schools. Education is not meant to be a race. A student who follows lessons carefully should be able to answer most of an examination. Read about education in the Grand Peninsula.