It sets the form of our cities and town, dictating the scale of streets, the relationship between buildings, the need for vast parking areas, and the speed at which we experience our environment. Somewhere along the continuum from convenience to congestion, the auto dominates what were once diverse streets shared by pedestrians, bikers, shoppers, trolleys, and cars. The auto has come to dominate the public realm, extending the private world from garage door to parking lot. The immediate implications of sustainability are a vastly reduced energy budget for cities, and a smaller, more compact urban pattern interspersed with productive areas to collect energy, grow crops for food, fiber and energy, and recycle wastes. A sustainable community exacts less of its environment in terms of land, water, resources and fuel, and uses what it extracts as efficiently as possible.
Sustainable communities work to live within physical and biological limits.
Sustainable communities are not necessarily autonomous or self-sufficient. Sustainable Communities , page x. Environmentally sound communities need parks, regional greenbelts, and high-quality open space, but they also need density and streetlife. The Next American Metropolis , page 44. In any event, the concept of truly market-driven development is mythical because even the simplest of changes in today's culture is highly regulated and legislated.