The United States as well as Washington leads the world in sprawling development. In the early to mid 1900’s Washington’s population boomed significantly as it built it up to over 1 million then to over 2 million people. As the population built up, the metropolitan area grew even faster. The National Interstate and Defense Highway System Act of 1956 launched highway building across the country with the goal of travel between cities, which resulted in more paved roads in between cities. Also because o

Santiago has a clash of groups between the SECTRA who believe in public transportation and the MOP who promote highway projects. The problem occurs that the MOP has all the money and is spending it on highway projects. When the national government wanted to build a major highway running through many people’s houses they created a group called the Ciudad Viva, or Living City. In the process of fighting against the highway they also began to fight for alternatives such as improved public transportation, and better facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians. Also the Ciclistas Furiosos formed a group, which would take to the streets the first Tuesday of every month to dramatize means of personal transport. Ciudad Viva is like Washinton’s Coalition for Smart Growth. They point out that only 20 percent of the people in Santiago can afford to commute by car so it would benefit the government to shift some of the space used by cars to the express of public busways. Yet the citizen activism has produced limited results, although it has increased the speed the traffic flow with the added bus lanes. The activist groups claim that they will continue to work on helping to stop sprawl and help the environment.

During the Industrial Revolution as factories were built to take advantage of nearby mines and ironworks, the first railway was built in 1945 in Prague, Czech Republic. The city grew in both population and land area to about 1 million people by World War II. Prague remained relatively small and compact while Washington and Santiago were booming, because of the communist rule during the time. After the communist rule was lifted, foreign investors rushed to Prague’s newly free markets because of its educated workforce. It entered the industrial nations club, and as a prospective member it is receiving aid to improve long-distance transportation links. Its short distance urban transport is declining and most of the money that is received by the city goes to outlying locations not easily reached by public transport. They have begun to build large supermarkets in urban areas, in 1997 they had 1 and in 2000 they have 53. They are not doing anything for the development in central Prague as more than 1,000 hectares of abandoned industrial sites or brownfields now exist as holes in the fabric of central Prague.

Some topics in this essay:
Santiago Prague, Washington Santiago, System Act, Gallery Metro, Chile Washington, Washington DC, Prague Czech’s, Czech Republic, Smart Growth, Efficiency Act, public transportation, abandoned industrial sites, air quality, washington santiago, ciudad viva, czech republic, people live, existing schools, washington dc, prague czech republic, help environment, personal examples,