The Saudi city “Line” project is not effective in terms of transport accessibility. In this respect informs Vienna Complexity Science Center (CSH).
Liniya is a city under construction in northwest Saudi Arabia. It will look like two skyscrapers 500 meters high and 170 kilometers wide. Between these two walls, located 200 meters apart, there will be a living space: apartments, offices, schools, shops, squares and green parks. It will be possible to move around the city with high-speed trains.
Urbanist Rafael Prieto-Curiel begins his critique by citing the fact that the city will be home to nine million people, more than any other city in Saudi Arabia. That equates to a population density of 265,000 people per square kilometer—ten times that of Manhattan and four times the interior of Manila.
“The line is the most inefficient form of the city. There’s a reason humanity has 50,000 cities, and they’re all round to some degree,” he emphasizes.
If we randomly pick two people from the “line”, then on average they will be 57 kilometers apart from each other. In Johannesburg, which is 50 times larger, two random people are just 33 kilometers apart. Assuming a comfortable walking distance of one kilometer, only 1.2% of the population will be within walking distance of each other. This makes people dependent on public transport.
The high-speed rail system is planned to become the basis of public transportation. For everyone to be within walking distance of a station, there must be at least 86 stations. As a result, trains will spend significant time at stations and will not be able to achieve high travel speeds between any two points. Accordingly, the average journey will take 60 minutes and it will take even longer for at least 47% of the population to arrive at work. Gain is limited due to the need to transfer even on additional express lines. As a result, people will travel longer than other major cities such as Seoul, where 25 million people commute to work in less than 50 minutes.
If the “line” were turned into a circle with a radius of 3.3 kilometers, the distance between any two people would be only 2.9 kilometers, and 24% of the population would be within walking distance of each other. People will be able to walk almost anywhere and the high-speed train will become unnecessary.
Earlier to create An ancient Roman amphora with poems by the ancient poet Virgil was found in Cordoba.