The Re-railed Metropolis - Rail Station Megaprojects & Urban Restructuring in Europe and the United States

申请人未来两年的主要目标是成功编写一部关于火车站大型项目和以铁路为基础的城市改造的专著。相关研究建议比较调查最近在大型全球化大都市地区发展新的高速铁路枢纽的举措。总体目标是提高我们对新高速客运铁路枢纽对其周边地铁地区的预期和可能影响以及相关决策过程的跨大西洋理解。正如三年前在最初的研究计划中已经指出的那样，当代城市学术的一个关键目标是在全球化资本主义和“网络社会”出现的当前条件下，发展对城市化复杂动态的更复杂的理解，这种情况被称为后工业、后现代、后福特主义，或者更贬义地说，新自由主义的城市重组。在20世纪下半叶，我们目睹了一个复杂的相互作用过程，即去区域化和再区域化，决定性地改变了城市的空间结构、角色、功能和监管环境。与此同时，关于“好”或“可持续”城市形态的新规范愿景和话语正在出现。现代主义城市主义与功能隔离、以汽车为导向的城市愿景紧密相连，而21世纪新兴的后现代城市主义则与多节点、多中心城市区域的愿景紧密相连，这些区域以充满活力、吸引人、适合步行的核心为特色，商业、住宅和休闲用途不是分开的，而是混合在一起。交通规划者、人类住区专家和许多政治决策者之间正在形成一种新的共识，即为了在未来实现可持续、高效和成功，城市及其周边地区的结构应围绕坚实、高容量的交通网络，交通和土地利用规划应更好地结合起来。即使是汽车占主导地位的北美，“汽车城终结”的概念现在也在稳步发展。过度依赖私家车和有偏见的道路基础设施投资最终对城市住区的环境和社会可持续性产生了压倒性的负面影响，这一观念现在几乎得到了规划者和政治家的普遍认可。大规模机动化导致了交通拥堵和其他负面外部性，而对汽车的依赖现在因能源价格的上涨而进一步注定要失败，而且人们认识到，与汽车相关的尾气排放的增加将进一步加剧最近全球气候的变化。

The applicant’s main objective for the next two years is the successful compilation of a major book‐length monograph on rail station mega‐projects and rail‐based urban restructuring. The related study proposes to comparatively investigate recent initiatives towards the development of new highspeed rail hubs in large, globalizing metropolitan regions. The overall aim is to improve our transatlantic understanding of the anticipated and likely effects of new high‐speed passenger railway hubs on their surrounding metro regions and of related decision‐making processes. As already noted in the original research proposal three years ago, a key aim of contemporary urban scholarship is the development of a more sophisticated understanding of the complex dynamics of urbanization under present conditions of a globalized capitalism and the emergence of a "Network Society", variously referred to as postindustrial, postmodern, post‐Fordist, or also, more derogatively, neoliberal urban restructuring. In the second half of the 20th century, we have witnessed a complex interplay of simultaneous processes of de‐ and reterritorialization decisively altering cities’ spatial configurations, roles, functions and regulatory environments. At the same time, new normative visions and discourses on "good" or "sustainable" urban forms are emerging. Whereas modernist urbanism was strongly tied to a vision of a functionally segregated, car‐oriented city, the emerging postmodern urbanism of the 21st century is strongly linked to a vision of multi‐nodal, polycentric urban regions featuring vibrant, attractive, walkable cores where commercial, residential and leisure uses are not separated but mixed. A new consensus is emerging among transport planners, human settlements experts and many political decision‐makers that in order to be sustainable, efficient and successful in the future, cities and their surrounding regions should to be structured around solid, high capacity transit networks and that transport and land use planning should be better integrated. Even car‐dominated North America, the notion of the "end of the automobile city" is now steadily gaining momentum. The notion that an over‐reliance on private automobiles and biased investments in road‐based infrastructures ultimately had overwhelmingly negative consequences for the environmental and social sustainability of urban settlements is now almost universally acknowledged by planners and politicians. Mass motorization led to congestion and other negative externalities, and car dependency is now further doomed by rising energy prices and the realization that recent changes in the global climate will be further exacerbated by increasing automobile‐related tailpipe emissions.