Urban Zugzwang: Why Cities Must Prioritize People Over Cars
What Is a city? Edward Glaeser captures the essence of urban life in The Triumph of the City:
“Cities are the absence of physical space between people and companies. They are proximity, density, closeness. They enable us to work and play together, and their success depends on the demand for physical connection.”
Cities thrive not because of what separates us, but because of how close we are. Their very design hinges on the idea that being close to action, close to other people, is a feature, not a bug.
In chess, there’s a concept known as zugzwang, which occurs when any move a player makes will worsen their position. It typically happens in the endgame when few pieces remain on the board. By definition, the options are limited, and they’re all bad.
The concept of zugzwang is antithetical to the core spirit of city life. While a city should offer numerous options and opportunities, zugzwang represents a state of limited, unfavorable choices.
A thriving city is about options, about mobility, and closeness. It’s a dynamic middle game with numerous creative possibilities, not an endgame where every move is detrimental.
Yet, the latter is the situation car-centric cities put their citizens in.
Citizens of a car-centric city are in a constant state of zugzwang. They can take a car, and suffer the delays of congested roads and the immense costs of car ownership. They can take underfunded transit, facing long waits and transfers that balloon travel time. They can bike, risking the dangers of reckless drivers who, in a moment of distraction, are capable of ending their lives.
Just as a skilled chess player aims to create favorable positions with multiple good options, we must strive to design cities that offer us a wealth of positive choices. We must transform our cities to give us more and better options. We should maneuver our urban chess pieces so that, when it’s our turn to move, we’re lit up with excitement over the creative possibilities — we can take the bus to this art show, the train to that new restaurant, or our bike to the park.
Our transportation options should open up the endless possibilities of city life to us, not close them off. We must take our cities back from the cars clogging up our options, and putting us in zugzwang.
By keeping people, not cars, at the heart of our cities, we can continue to build places that embody the best of human connection and ingenuity, that allows our creativity and spirit thrive, as if we’re playing the best chess of our lives.
