From the expansive porch addition fronting the massive former post office which is now a hotel and dominates Drottningtorget, the central square in Gothenburg, Sweden, one can observe what place-making — the buzz-word of urbanization in the USA — really requires. Here there are three anchor hotels and two other hotels in sight. Here the city tram lines, local and inter-city bus lines, and both inter-city and out-of-country train lines come together. Packs of people depart one mode of transportation and traverse the plaza to connect with another.
By contrast, in my USA community, the bus station of one city has been rebuilt just four miles from a bus and train depot just rebuilt in the adjacent town, which also has a separate airport commuter bus stop two miles away. The inter-city and state train line here miss-connects with one in another town by thirty miles. Each independent effort discourages use of itself and the other transportation systems.
In my community, as in others in the USA (the Detroit metropolitan area, for example), people reject regionalization, seeing only what they must give up. If they would lose their self-interest they would gain much more, both for themselves and others.
JER
ALL OVER THE MAP 