Infrastructure and Urban Development: A Tale of Two Cities

Few would contest that infrastructure has been key to the evolution of the world’s great cities, or that maintaining public infrastructure is key to a city’s continued growth and vitality. That infrastructure can take a variety of forms – clean water supply, water removal, telecom and energy, social infrastructure (such as parks and schools) and of course transportation.

While all of these forms of infrastructure are necessary for a successful city, transportation has played a particularly seminal role in the development of western cities over the last hundred years. Public transit opened up parts of cities like London and New York that had hitherto been considered remote backwaters, prompting real estate development and strengthening the ability of the city to cater for people of diverse economic backgrounds and levels.

Throughout much of the 20th century, both London and New York took privately-founded transit operations into public control and built complex and extensive underground transit networks that move millions of people each year. These were complemented by relatively efficient roadway and bridge networks that together allowed people to move freely and quickly across all parts of the city.

However in the last several decades, the fate of the two cities - with respect to the continued evolution of their transportation networks – have been dramatically different. London has continued to expand and strengthen both its tube system and the roads and bridges that support the capital, with new tube lines, light rail systems, major new heavy rail connectors, new motorways and new bridges. New York has failed to replace several of its most decrepit bridges, is struggling to find funds to maintain what it has, and is only now undertaking construction to complete only part of a new subway line originally envisioned in the 1920’s.

This session will explore the factors that have led to this disparity, and pose some questions as to lessons that can be learned in comparing and contrasting these two cities.

Kate Ascher is the Milstein Professor of Urban Development, as well as a Principal at Happold Consulting in NYC.