Reading Aerotropolis, I find myself generally irritated by a lot of the conclusions drawn, but generally agree that we do need to plan better for our airports and see them less as monsters at the edge of town and more as vital parts of our economy. We should plan for them, not fight them.
The book, like so many discussions about urban planning these days, starts by talking about New Songdo, a new city built on top of what used to be vital migratory bird habitat just south of Incheon (Seoul's sea port). It's part of a development called the Incheon Free Economic Zone or IFEZ.
IFEZ is several things. Foremost it is the filling in of ocean betwen two islands to make one big island for one very big airport for a country filled with mountains and expensive real estate. The airport is now one of the most important in the world and a vital link between North America and Southeast Asia. The other two parts of the IFEZ plan, Cheongna and New Songdo, are business parks built to feed off the airport. The IFEZ is meant to be an international space semi-independent of the rest of the country filled with an international population that could live anywhere but chooses Incheon for the proximity to the airport.
Having been to Songdo (which white people always mispronounce), I would never want to live there. It has been designed for a wealthy car-owning crowd, and I found myself constantly jaywalking across the vast empty roads and walking through hedges for lack of a path. Apparently it is also too expensive for any of the service workers that it relys on. The waiters and janitors must commute in from other areas.
A super airport was needed because the old airport, Gimpo International, was at a bursting point where it needed to be overhauled and greatly expanded, or replaced. With the creation of the new airport, the old one became a relief airport dealing mostly in domestic flights. Across the country, dozens of smaller airports that used to have some international flights, died. Now one big airport serves most of the country and a small satellite airport takes care of everything else.
The two airports serve the same population and often share passengers. Despite their great distance from each other and from the bulk of the population in Seoul, they manage to stay connected through a vast fleet of express buses and one very fast express train.
AREX is an express subway line between Seoul Station and the two airports.
Nearly every passenger train in South Korea goes through Seoul Station including local commuter lines and intercity high-speed rail (KTX). The whole country is connected to Seoul Station, and Seoul Station is connected to both airports. It isn't unreasonable for a business man in Busan to take a local bus to Busan Station, take the KTX to Seoul Station to AREX to Incheon, to Chicago. It's a seamless and comfortable journey,
There's also a lot to look at along the way,
AREX has 38 miles of tracks between Incheon Airport and Seoul Station. There are about ten stations along the route and the trains go about 100 mph, but the important thing is that they are getting faster every year. The route is set, and there's nothing to do now but upgrade and upgrade. That and build more express trains to connect Songdo and other areas...
So here are a few thoughts related to the Aerotropolis idea. Comment if you think any are invalid.
Premise 1) Airports create businesses that rely on fast access to flights
Premise 2) Airports often get boxed in by these businesses and neighborhoods that are built around them
Premise 3) Condemning and demolishing those neighborhoods in order to expand makes for nasty political fights
-------------------------------------------
Conclusion 1) Successful airports often choke themselves
Premise 4) If an airport can't expand, a new airport is often created elsewhere
Premise 5) Rival airports can either compliment or compete (Seoul or Bangkok for examples)
Premise 6) When airports compete, one succeeds and the other becomes a brownfield
Premise 7) Brownfields are a problem
Premise 8) Successful airports often choke themselves
--------------------------------------------
Conclusion 2) Airports that work together grow together and have a higher shared capacity
Premise 9) Successful airports often choke themselves with greenfield development
Premise 10) Urban centers need greyfield development
--------------------------------------------
Conclusion 3) Directing airport business to established urban centers could keep airports from getting boxed in.
Premise 11) Airports should work together
Premise 12) In order to work together, airports need to be very well connected to each other
Premise 13) Economic growth around airports should be directed towards the urban core
Premise 14) Economic growth around airports depends upon fast connections to the airport
--------------------------------------------
Conclusion 4) Airports and Urban Cores need very fast connections.
It is interesting to note that the MetroLink in St. Louis travels 38 miles between Lambert Airport Main and Shiloh-Scott, about the same distance the AREX travels between Seoul Station and Incheon Airport. The difference is that AREX has fewer stops and faster trains because it is an express line, and MetroLink is a light rail commuter mover.
The Shanghai Maglev goes about 20 miles between two stations: the airport and the city. It does this in under eight minutes (top speed of 311 mph). If a comparable system were built in St. Louis with three stations, perhaps it'd be less than ten minutes from downtown to either airport. Perhaps it'd be less than twenty minutes to go between the two airports for connecting flights or Amtrak.
Consider that the future of the St. Louis economy may well be decided by the China Hub project. Just as the IFEZ has opened up space for international companies to set up shop in Korea (instead of Beijing or Tokyo), the China Hub would open up our airports for Chinese cargo airlines to set up shop in St. Louis (instead of Chicago or Memphis). Incheon connects North America to Southeast Asia. St. Louis would connect China to Brazil. We want to be the North American entrepot for two continents, a happy taxcollecting neocolony.
When our airports grow how will we grow?
More than a few St. Louis urbanists have suggested that the China Hub deal will create a large tax base around the airports (outside the city limits) and all the city is going to get is a whole lot of big trucks going back and forth destroying roads and running over bicyclists. We'd also get lots of warehouses in North City along the I-70 truckway. It doesn't have to be that way.
What if it was faster and cheaper to take a train from downtown to Lambert than to drive from a house in Hazelwood and find a parking spot at the airport? The business that comes with a successful airport would grow in the city rather than like a noose around the airport.
What if cargo moved along a similar express line between the Northside distribution center and the two airports? Lots of trucks would be taken off the highways and local roads. Big trucks could go to the airports and small trucks to the Northside (my dream anyway).
What if passengers suffering a multi-hour layover at either airport could spend their time at a cafe downtown while they wait? With a fast enough train, it could be quite sensible.
I'd like to plant the idea now that we should think about setting aside a right-of-way between our two airports for a future express train. Maybe the median of I-70 is a good candidate for most of its route. Maybe space could magically be found along the Wabash alignment. Regardless, we should have the plan on the books now for some future time when we're overrun with Chinese tourists. We need an express train for passengers, and many express trains for cargo. It's something we have to be talking about if we want to avoid Truckmageddon.
