‘The Line’ will be a city in a straight line- with no cars and no streets.
Sustainable Urban Planning seems to be on everyone’s minds, as Saudi Arabia plans to make a whole city in a straight line, and other cities, such as Paris, plan to build a 15-minute city.
Is this the future of sustainable living? Let’s discuss.
What will it look like?
A 170km long city, built along a core train track, meant to house 1 million people.
The train track will take 20 minutes to cover the length of the city.
No one will live more than a 5 minute walk from thel services and shops they need.
The city will have 3 layers: Spine, Service and Pedestrian:
What is the aim?
According to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman, the project will preserve 95% of nature, with 0 cars, 0 streets and 0 carbon emission.
The city will be powered by clean energy, and will use AI to harness smart city capabilities, intended to halt Saudi Arabia’s economic reliance on oil exports.
When?
It will be a part of Neom, Saudi Arabia's fully automated $500 billion region that will span Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. The project is supposed to start in the first quarter of 2021.
But, why not a circular city?
While a circular city might not fit the geographic location chosen for The Line, it seems to be more efficient, because:
Maximum distance will be less by a fraction of pi
People can be 0 minutes closer to the other end, rather than 20 minutes
Trains can run in a single direction
Any other problem?
170kms for 1 million people, taking an average of six-person household in Saudi Arabia, comes down to just over a 100 centimetres per family.
While The Line has received criticism for being too ambitious to be logically implemented, and also as an empty promise to attract international investments into Saudi Arabia, it is worthwhile to appreciate the innovative approach to sustainable living which seems to be the best way forward to ensure co-existence of technology and nature.
Would you like to live in such a city?
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