In a recent interview with CEOs for Cities, Richard Florida talks about how the velocity of cities, or the speed of which people move, do business etc., is crucial to success of cities? The argument goes that any additional 5 minutes spent commuting is essentially a loss in productivity. The message seems to be: Internalise lost time and gain productivity.
While I am sure that there is a financial gain in looking at speeding up processes and optimising processes for efficiency – it is also interesting that a study on Pace of Life showed that side effects of a higher pace of life also had side effects of “people in fast-moving cities are less likely to help others and have higher rates of coronary heart disease”.
However, there are other considerations to take into account. Studies show that there is a correlation between the length of commute and quality of life and it looks like this “waste time” is not only a waste in terms of lost productivity but also impacts on people’s quality of life.
Personally, I think there might be other criteria than speed and velocity that are crucial to cities – let me know what you think?
See the full interview with Richard Florida elaborating on this theory on the CEOs for cities YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mernwfTTW3E