Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
mex_city.jpg


Syndicated columnist Neal Peirce asks whether our planet will be able to absorb the population "mega-surge" currently underway in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

From Common Dreams:

The problem is that the global population base has increased so radically that even seemingly modest birthrates can have momentous consequences. Joel Cohen (head of the Laboratory of Populations at the Rockefeller University and Columbia University) calculates that if we do add 2.5 billion people by 2050, and virtually all the increase, as expected, goes into poor countries' cities, then the world will have to build one city of one million people every week for the next 43 years. "Is this," he asks, "feasible -- physically, environmentally, financially, socially?"

One sort of shudders at the answer. But there is a first step: get a handle on growth of the world's cities. Without that, how can city leaders estimate the peripheral areas they'll have to urbanize, or, alternatively how much they'll have to "infill" their current territory with higher density development?

The bottom line is clear: the developing world's cities -- and the developed world's cities still expanding significantly -- must plan early, much more carefully, or expect to be overwhelmed by a virtual growth tsunami.

Good planning, for example, can recycle underused urban land, or schedule better use of expansion areas, to achieve much greater people-carrying capacity. Good planning can avoid some of the worst modern traffic jams, put public transit first, make walking and biking convenient, and preserve pockets of "green" critical to humans' physical and emotional health.

Photo: Mexico City, by dantebusquets/Flickr

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Monday’s Headlines Challenge Stereotypes

Do traffic engineers only care about moving cars? One says no, writing in Planetizen about his support for Vision Zero.

September 8, 2025

Friday’s Headlines Trust the Science

Who do you believe, 85 climate experts, or five people hand-picked by the Trump administration?

September 5, 2025

New York City Will Further Rein In Delivery Apps

A soon-to-pass bill would require safety equipment, plus a safety course.

September 5, 2025

Friday Video: How Public Transportation Fails ‘Fat’ People

Take a deep dive on the importance of size-inclusive transit, and what activists in Brussels are doing to get it.

September 5, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: Wonders of the South Bay

VTA's Sam Sargent on the past, present and future of transit in the South Bay.

September 4, 2025
See all posts