21st Century Cities: Contradictions between Agglomeration Economies and Transportation Technologies
Urban policy in the 21st century is a field that must deal with an interesting dichotomy. There is a strong understanding of the economic and social forces that have historically led to the formation of cities, their growth, and their differences; yet industrial technologies have allowed modern cities to reach never before seen levels of size and complexity. Agglomeration economics, a topic covered during the Applied Economics course on Urban and Transportation Policy, is a one of the most attractive explanations for the reason human-beings see a benefit in establishing and living in cities. This concept explains that human beings conglomerated in cities a result of the mutual benefits they derived from settling together in large numbers where they could share resources, expertise, labour power, and enable higher degrees of specialization and variety in skill-sets. The combination of this sharing and collaboration creates a community that is stronger and more prosperous than the sum of its parts, thereby cementing the expanding role of cities in the development of human civilization.
Another fundamental principle in the economics of cities is that in order for citizens of cities to participate in and benefit from the agglomeration economy a city is based on, they need to be able to access different parts of the city in a reasonable amount of time. Individuals in cities have historically travelled around thirty minutes from home to work, and since walking was the main form of transportation for most of human history, historical cities were rarely more than two-miles in diameter. This changed with the development of industrial transportation technologies like railways, streetcars, and personal vehicles. These technologies allowed for an expansion in the distance citizens could travel in 30 minutes, thereby increasing the size of cities. These technologies emerged alongside the development of additional industrial technologies and transforming economic modes of production that raised the potential prosperity cities could provide and attracted more and more people to satisfy growing demands for labour power and more varieties of specialized skill sets.
Transportation technologies are a key foundation that underpin the potential for our cities to maximize the benefits of agglomeration economies, but the shift away from a mode of transportation that defined our cities for over 2000 years (walking) to more advanced technologies has brought about a range of novel issues. Railway, subway, and streetcar lines allowed for a significant growth in the size and population of modern cities, but they are set along certain rights-of-way that often create spatial inequalities where neighbourhoods closer to stations are more costly than those further away. Infrastructure devoted to transporting personal vehicles has further expanded the size of our cities; but with increasingly apparent ecological, economic, and social costs. These technologies have simultaneously allowed for our cities to reach new levels of size, productivity, and quality of life; however, they have also created a new issue in the history of cities. The ability to access different parts of the city — in about 30 minutes — underpins the viability of the agglomeration economy a city is based on. However, the sheer size of modern cities coupled with unequal access to public transit and the cost of personal vehicle use has made it impossible for many citizens of cities today to travel to different areas of the city in around 30 minutes for whatever reason. Overcoming this contradiction should be a major focus of urban policy-makers in the 21st century, as ensuring citizens’ ability to access different areas of cities is fundamental to securing the highest potential benefit from a city’s agglomeration economy.
