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Resilience of East European Cities

The first impression of an East European city such as Poznan or Krakow in Poland, Chişinâu in Moldova, or Sofia in Bulgaria is that of old crumbling public transport systems and unrenovated housing stock in Soviet stilo-style packing. Indeed, the majority of inhabitant strife for higher material well-being, in particular within the service industry (e.g. education and public health) which pays rather low salaries and is decoupled from gains in the rent economy.

Nonetheless, East European cities maybe considerably ahead in crucial aspects to their Western counterparts. Their public transport system is comprehensive, and public ridership consistently high. In Sofia, the 1.3 million people large capital of Bulgaria, distances within the city center are walkable, and access to peripherical parts of the city is mostly guaranteed by low cost tramways and busses.

As a side effect of a high modal share of public transport and walkable distances, the inner part of the city is full of people, making public space enjoyable and relaxing. Indeed, as Jane Jacobs put it:

“Under the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city. It is a complex order. Its essence is intricacy of sidewalk use, bringing with it a constant succession of eyes. This order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance – not to a simple-minded precision dance with everyone kicking up at the same time, twirling in unison and bowing off en masse, but to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole.”

Jane Jacobs (The Death and Life of Great American Cities)

These East European compact cities with old, sometimes slow, public transport, came out of the Soviet era – and though of course are results of a planned economy, their form is also rooted in a lack of resources to build a car dependent infrastructure. The built environment reacts slowly to external forces, and the historical circumstances induce a path dependency of the land-use transport interaction. As a collateral, GHG emissions of urban transport is relatively low. Furthermore, future oil price rises, as for example anticipated by the IEA, may cause little effect on the urban functioning of these cities. As such, East European cities may be more ‘resilient’ then more car-dependent (and richer) West European cities.

Surely, it is social romanticsm to indulge on existing infrastructures. To stay with transport, bicycle networks are not (yet) existing or very purely implemented, a relatively small number of cars, coming from more distant suburbs swamp the city and cause safety issues for non-motorized transport (NMT), and noise and air pollution. Parking management, though formally in place, lacks enforcement, and wild parking causes considerable congestion and inconvenience for pedestrians who walk on sidewalks that sometimes more resemble adventure parks.

Even considering these considerable draw-backs, the overall perspective is differentiated. While East European cities surely can improve on NMT infrastructures, modern public transport stock, and car regulation, it is West European cities that are more vulnerable to external shocks, and can learn to some degree from Eastern transport land-use models.

Posted by Felix Creutzig on November 3, 2010 5:06 PM | Permalink