Link to the full article https://thediplomat.com/2022/08/how-phn ... ury-glory/
August 12, 2022
Once regarded as the “jewel of Asia,” Cambodia’s capital has since become a byword for sprawl and shambolic planning.
The Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh was once considered the Jewel of Asia. “I hope, one day, my city will look like this,” Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, reportedly told his host, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, as he cruised along the capital’s elegant boulevards in a Mercedes convertible during his visit to Cambodia in April 1967.
Gazing at a map of Phnom Penh from the 1960s, one cannot ignore the order and the alignment that characterizes the street networks in the central part of the city. A series of almost-identical city blocks are hugged by networks of small streets that run parallel between the boulevards and the main streets, creating an order and a strong connectivity of roads, and a good flow of traffic. The city’s highly organized numbered street system and defined hierarchy of urban spaces were designed to integrate the rural areas with the urban as the boulevards and the main roads stretched toward the outskirts.
The design not only focused on highly-planned street networks but also took careful consideration of other vital urban amenities, including public parks, greenery, and supporting infrastructure. The streets were equipped with broad sidewalks, and lined with trees and candelabra streetlights. Networks of roads featured full-fledged systems of water supply, drainage, infrastructure, and electricity network.
Modern-day Phnom Penh is playing witness to a rate of urbanization that can be best described as relentless. Urban sprawl and haphazard development along the city’s edges stretch out in all directions. Uncountable numbers of condos, villas and housing projects are expanding the suburbs and exurbs to accommodate more and more people migrating to the city in search of better opportunities.
Rural farmlands are being transformed into commercial and housing projects. Lakes and wetlands with ecological and hydrological importance are being filled to meet the growing demand for land.
But, while these other topics have been well-explored, an element of this sprawl that is particularly troubling, and largely ignored, is the planning – or lack thereof – of the new city streets.
The likely cause is that these streets were built as an afterthought. Real estate developers who buy land in these areas have a myopic focus on building housing and commercial spaces, and only consider the logic of the road placement after. The result is that road systems in these areas exist purely to serve the accessibility of these individual real estate projects, for obvious profit-based reasons. This piecemeal mode of urban development results in a lack of broader public-facing road connectivity and coordination throughout the edges of the city.
It would be incorrect to say that Phnom Penh currently has no master plan for the city. At the end of 2015, in collaboration with development partners, City Hall issued Phnom Penh Land Use Master Plan 2035, providing broad strategic directions for the capital.
There is some ambiguity regarding whether private developers consult the master plan before planning to build a project. The overall lack of enforcement and unclear construction and real estate development policies lead the city’s urban development into a devastating combination of illegal construction sites and implementation loopholes as the capital continues to progress into an urban mess. The lack of enforcement and coordination in urban planning have clearly taken a huge toll on the city’s street networks, the planning of which falls among the city’s least-prioritized tasks.
How Phnom Penh Can Recapture Its Mid-Century Glory
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How Phnom Penh Can Recapture Its Mid-Century Glory
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“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”
― Charles Bukowski
― Charles Bukowski
The Pearl of Asia, incompetent TheDiplomat numbnuts!
Meum est propositum in taberna mori,
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
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The article only addresses street planning, it barely mentions other issues like pavements clogged with parked cars and stalls or the lack of green spaces.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
Car ownership is aspirational and is low compared to the population on PP. Imagine in 10 or 20 years when middle class families have increased plus car ownership.
Congestion will only get worse.
Congestion will only get worse.
pew, pew, pew, pew!
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Making the infrastructure car focused is what the United States has done and it has made it impossible to walk anywhere, lots of land is wasted on highways, and the cities are full of American style suburbs that waste water on lawns and stuff. I feel like it is very silly to encourage car ownership. If anything I think cars should be banned and instead people can just use public transport like China or DPR Korea. They could also copy The Netherlands and use bikes to prevent the environment becoming hellish like some other countries.
Only white women, Mormons, and penniless English teachers ride bicycles in Phnom Penh.CharmingOwl wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 amThey could also copy The Netherlands and use bikes to prevent the environment becoming hellish like some other countries.
Five years ago maybe.fapsara wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:44 amOnly white women, Mormons, and penniless English teachers ride bicycles in Phnom Penh.CharmingOwl wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 amThey could also copy The Netherlands and use bikes to prevent the environment becoming hellish like some other countries.
Pop over the bridge to the gas station in Chroy Changvar at 5am and you’ll see 100+ middle/upper class locals riding bicycles “for fun”.
Not cheap Giants either. $6k Orbea’s are popular as are CF Cannondales.
It’s a different world.
pew, pew, pew, pew!
Do they wear lycra?YaTingPom wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 7:23 amFive years ago maybe.fapsara wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:44 amOnly white women, Mormons, and penniless English teachers ride bicycles in Phnom Penh.CharmingOwl wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 amThey could also copy The Netherlands and use bikes to prevent the environment becoming hellish like some other countries.
Pop over the bridge to the gas station in Chroy Changvar at 5am and you’ll see 100+ middle/upper class locals riding bicycles “for fun”.
Not cheap Giants either. $6k Orbea’s are popular as are CF Cannondales.
It’s a different world.
Unfortunately, yes.fapsara wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 8:43 amDo they wear lycra?YaTingPom wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 7:23 amFive years ago maybe.fapsara wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:44 amOnly white women, Mormons, and penniless English teachers ride bicycles in Phnom Penh.CharmingOwl wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 amThey could also copy The Netherlands and use bikes to prevent the environment becoming hellish like some other countries.
Pop over the bridge to the gas station in Chroy Changvar at 5am and you’ll see 100+ middle/upper class locals riding bicycles “for fun”.
Not cheap Giants either. $6k Orbea’s are popular as are CF Cannondales.
It’s a different world.
pew, pew, pew, pew!
YaTingPom wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 10:08 amUnfortunately, yes.fapsara wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 8:43 amDo they wear lycra?YaTingPom wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 7:23 amFive years ago maybe.fapsara wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:44 amOnly white women, Mormons, and penniless English teachers ride bicycles in Phnom Penh.CharmingOwl wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 amThey could also copy The Netherlands and use bikes to prevent the environment becoming hellish like some other countries.
Pop over the bridge to the gas station in Chroy Changvar at 5am and you’ll see 100+ middle/upper class locals riding bicycles “for fun”.
Not cheap Giants either. $6k Orbea’s are popular as are CF Cannondales.
It’s a different world.
Bumped into a guy today on the Arey Ksat ferry who paid $K12 for a beautiful mountain bike.
I'm guessing you don't have that much just lying around.
Today's Cambodian leisure cyclists are rich fucks. Learn how to use Google.
Never been to Cambodia It seems.CharmingOwl wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 amMaking the infrastructure car focused is what the United States has done and it has made it impossible to walk anywhere, lots of land is wasted on highways, and the cities are full of American style suburbs that waste water on lawns and stuff. I feel like it is very silly to encourage car ownership. If anything I think cars should be banned and instead people can just use public transport like China or DPR Korea. They could also copy The Netherlands and use bikes to prevent the environment becoming hellish like some other countries.
"Lawns" <snort>
Do you mean $12K?boopydoopy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:22 pmBumped into a guy today on the Arey Ksat ferry who paid $K12 for a beautiful mountain bike.
I'm guessing you don't have that much just lying around.
Today's Cambodian leisure cyclists are rich fucks. Learn how to use Google.
K12 means kindergarten through 12th grade, a journey that you probably didn't complete.
You probably wasted too much time "bumping into" dudes at the bike racks.
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It took me a few tries to figure out what they meant, but I was more charitably going to assume it was the writing convention in some unfamiliar country and ask where they were from…fapsara wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 8:16 pmDo you mean $12K?boopydoopy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:22 pmBumped into a guy today on the Arey Ksat ferry who paid $K12 for a beautiful mountain bike.
I'm guessing you don't have that much just lying around.
Today's Cambodian leisure cyclists are rich fucks. Learn how to use Google.
K12 means kindergarten through 12th grade, a journey that you probably didn't complete.
You probably wasted too much time "bumping into" dudes at the bike racks.
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