A

2.29. Would you like to live in a megapolis? Why? Read the text and fill in

the chart after it.

t present almost the majority of the people in the United States live in a few major urbanized regions, or megapolises, each extending for hundreds of miles and some containing over 50 million people. The growth of these extended urbanized stretches formed by the coalescing of metropolitan areas has been one of the most signi­ficant demographic developments of the second half of the 20^th century.

Megapolis has evolved from a series of ever-enlarging urban forms whose growth correlated with changing economic, techno­logical, and cultural conditions and the rapidly increasing living in urban areas. This unprecedented and uncontrolled increase in the magnitude of the urban areas has created problems of great complexity.

The first major urban surge coincided with the industrial revolution around the middle of the last century. The urban pat­tern that evolved was the industrial city with its smoking fac­tories in and around the central core of the city and with the workers living in crowded conditions within walking distance of the factory. The major industrial cities were usually located along waterways; the cities were small in area but relatively dense in population. As industry grew and internal transporta­tion improved with the introduction of horse-drawn omnibuses, and later cable cars and electric street cars, workers could live farther away from their factories — thus cities increased in both area and population.

A second stage of urban development came with the esta­blishment of railroad commuter service in the latter part of the 19^th century. It now became possible for people to build homes in the rural area outside congested industrial cities and still be able to commute readily to their places of employment in the central city.

The advent of the automobile at first only broadened the urban pattern established by the railroads. But as the automobile- and good high ways became ubiquitous, the surge to the suburbs was greatly increased. Urban sprawl spread in area and increa­sed in complexity.

The result has been the creation of sizable metropolitan areas comprised of the central city and its suburban area. In recent decades in the more urbanized parts of the United States, the tentacles of the rapidly growing suburban fringe of one metro­politan area have often merged with the also rapidly growing suburban fringe of one or more other metropolitan areas resul­ting in an almost solid urban sprawl stretching for many dozens or even hundreds of miles. This phenomenon of inter-metropolitan coalescence is developing at an accelerated rate and has become the most recent and largest type of urban form, the megapolis, and one which is becoming increasingly important economically, socially and politically.

Economic conditions

Urban form

Location

Size

Population density

Transport facilities

a

2.30. A) Study the typical problems of large cities at present. Are any of

these problems to be found in your town or a town you know

well? Could you suggest any solution to these problems?

b) Is life in town more dangerous than life in the country? Read the

list of advantages and disadvantages to living in towns or in the

countryside. Do you agree with these opinions? Discuss your answers

with a partner and then with class.

)

problem	effect	cause
traffic jams	traffic is very slow commuters get very stressed	too much traffic especially during rush hours
slums	housing is in bad condition	poverty – people don’t have money to spend on housing
vandalism	pointless destruction of property	poverty, lack of hope
overcrowding	difficult living conditions	too many people living in one place
pollution	deterioration in health	traffic and industrial production
crime	people get constantly stressed	poverty, inequality, etc.

b) People who prefer the countryside to big towns, often say this:

Towns: The countryside:

are noisy is quiet and peaceful

are dirty and polluted is clean

are stressful is calm and relaxing

are crowded (=full of people) has lots of open space

are dangerous is safe

People who prefer big towns to the countryside have a different point of view:

In towns: In the countryside:

there are plenty of things to do there’s nothing to do

it’s exciting it’s boring

there’s a wide range of shops there are only a few shops

there’s a lot of night-life, e.g. bars, there’s no night-life

cinemas, discos