Urban Regions : Ecology and Planning Beyond the City

Social patterns 71

Figure 3.3Residential developments relative to highway and informal walking

paths. The highway and shallow ponds isolate and affect neighborhoods.

Single-family homes on left are accessed by curved local streets and dead-end

cul-de-sacs. Multi-unit housing at bottom has a small central common area and

several informal walking paths radiating outward. Denver, USA. Photo courtesy of

US Federal Highway Administration.

toprovide flexibility to those traveling, and to reduce clogged routes (Handy
1992, 2005,Warren1998,Benfieldet al.1999,Warner2001,Formanet al.2003,
Ozawa2004). If it takes half a day to drive across a megacity such as Sao Paulo,
one may use an alternative transportation mode or simply not take the trip. A
second approach, traffic calming, provides a set of techniques to slow traffic and
improve the safety and quality of life within neighborhoods.