Why the developing world needs wider streets

The Works in Progress print edition will be shipping soon. Subscribe this week to receive Issue 21 as soon as it ships. You’ll get six full-color editions sent bimonthly, plus subscriber-only invitations to our events. Cities enable cooper­ation. They allow people to specialize, to hire and be hired, to learn from one another, to build things together that none could build alone. Economists refer to the productivity gains that arise from human proximity as agglomeration effects. The agglomeration effects of cities arise from two things: the physical proximity of buildings to one another, and the intra-city transport system that allows people to move swiftly between them. Buildings without transport are as useless as transport without buildings: the benefits of agglomeration depend on access, on the ability of people and goods to move efficiently across urban space. This is where cities in poor countries often falter. As they expand, land is claimed and built upon in small increments, e

The Works in Progress print edition will be shipping soon. Subscribe this week to receive Issue 21 as soon as it ships. You’ll get six full-color editions sent bimonthly, plus subscriber-only invitations to our events. Cities enable cooper­ation. They allow people to specialize, to hire and be hired, to learn from one another, to build things together that none could build alone. Economists refer to the productivity gains that arise from human proximity as agglomeration effects. The agglomeration effects of cities arise from two things: the physical proximity of buildings to one another, and t