Vasilyeva S.L., assistant professor.
2nd course, 3rd term
Topic “Problems of Modern Cities”
The text is taken and adapted from/commuter_town
Commuter town
A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforcecommute out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns. Commuter towns belong to the metropolitan area of a city, and a ring of commuter towns around an urban area is known as a commuter belt.
A commuter town may also be known as a bedroom community or "bedroom suburb" (Canada and U.S. usage), a dormitory town (UK Commonwealth and Ireland usage), or less commonly a dormitory village (UK Commonwealth and Ireland). These terms suggest that residents sleep in these neighborhoods, but mostly work elsewhere; they further suggest that these communities have little commercial or industrial activity beyond a small amount of retail, oriented toward serving the residents.
Distinction between suburbs and commuter towns
Suburbsand commuter towns are often the same place, but sometimes not. As with college town, resort town, and mill town, the term "commuter town" describes the place's predominant economic function. A suburb in contrast is a community of lesser size, density, political power and/or commerce than a nearby community. Economic function may change, for example when improved transport brings commuters to industrial suburbs or railway towns in search of suburban living. Some suburbs, for example Teterboro, New Jersey and Emeryville, California, remain industrial when they become surrounded by commuter towns. Many commuters work in such industrial suburbs, but few reside, hence they are not commuter towns.
As a general rule, suburbs are developed in areas adjacent to main employmentcentres, such as a town or a city, but may or may not have many jobs locally, whereas bedroom communities have few local businesses and most residents who have jobs commute to employment centers some distance away. Commuter towns may be in rural or semi-rural areas, with a ring of green space separating them from the larger city or town. Where urban sprawl and conurbation have erased clear lines among towns and cities in large metropolitan areas, this is not the case.
Commuter towns can arise for a number of different reasons. Sometimesa town loses its main source of employment, leaving its residents to seek work elsewhere. In other cases, a pleasant small town over time attracts more residents but not large businesses to employ them, requiring them to commute to employment centers. Another cause, particularly relevant in the American South and West, is the rapid growth of once-small cities. Owing largely to the earlier creation of the Interstate Highway System; the greatest growth was seen by the sprawling metropolitan areas of these cities. As a result many small cities were absorbed into the suburbs of these larger cities.
Often, however, commuter towns form when workers in a region cannot afford to live where they work and must seek residency in another town with a lower cost of living.
In certain major European cites, such as London and Berlin, commuter towns were founded in response to bomb damage in World War II. Residents were relocated to semi-rural areas within a 50-mile (80km) radius, firstly because much inner city housing had been destroyed, and secondly in order to stimulate development away from cities as the industrial infrastructure shifted from rail to road. Around London, several towns – such as Stevenage, Basildon, and Crawley – were built for this purpose by the Commission for New Towns.
Exurbs
The expression exurb (for "extra-urban") was coined by Auguste Comte Spectorsky in his 1955 book The Exurbanites to describe the ring of prosperous communities beyond the suburbs that are commuter towns for an urban area. Most exurbs serve as commuter towns, but most commuter towns are not exurban.
Exurbs are not unique to the United States. They are also found in other land-rich developed countries, notably Canada and Australia. Reasons for exurban growth vary. In the 1970s, rampant crime and urban decay inU.S. cities was the primary 'push force', whereas exurban growth has continued in the 2000s even as most U.S. cities experience plummeting crime and urban revitalization. However, house prices have skyrocketed, so middle-class people who want a large yard or farm are pushed beyond suburban counties.
Exurbs vary in wealth and education level. Exurban areas typically have much higher college education levels than closer-in suburbs, and have average incomes much higher than nearby rural counties. Depending on local circumstances, some exurbs have higher poverty levels than suburbs nearer the city.
Some environmentalists, architects, and urban planners consider exurbs to be manifestations of poor or distorted planning. Extremely low densities – often featuring large lots and large homes – create heavy car dependency. This also makes the construction of municipal infrastructure and deployment of services unusually costly and inefficient. Such communities typically include big box stores, fast food chains, and large shopping malls, but lack amenities such as parks and cultural institutions. Nevertheless, relatively cheap land, cheap fuel, and low taxes fuel rapid economic and population growth in many exurbs. Many Middle class families with children are attracted to low costs, ample private space, and the lower crime rates compared with more intensively developed areas.
Rural area
Rural areas (referred to as "the countryside") are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low population density.
About 91 percent of the rural population now earn salaried incomes, often in urban areas. The 10 percent who still produce resources generate 20 percent of the world’s coal, copper, and oil; 10 percent of its wheat, 20 percent of its meat, and 50 percent of its corn. The efficiency of these farms is due in large part to the commercialization of the farming industry, and not single family operations.[1]