OK, I don’t mean to freak anybody out, but I think that Paul Krugman is stalking me. Either that or we just think alike and have the same experiences.

Acckkk! There he is!

Just look at his latest op-ed piece in the NYT. (thanks Scott!) It’s like he’s read my posts about transportation and travel to Berlin over the past week and summed it up in a better-written, little package!

Here’s the scariest part…

“To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.

And in the face of rising oil prices, which have left many Americans stranded in suburbia — utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas — it’s starting to look as if Berlin had the better idea.

Changing the geography of American metropolitan areas will be hard. For one thing, houses last a lot longer than cars. Long after today’s S.U.V.’s have become antique collectors’ items, millions of people will still be living in subdivisions built when gas was $1.50 or less a gallon.

Infrastructure is another problem. Public transit, in particular, faces a chicken-and-egg problem: it’s hard to justify transit systems unless there’s sufficient population density, yet it’s hard to persuade people to live in denser neighborhoods unless they come with the advantage of transit access.”

Weirdness.

OK but seriously…since I live in one place and just visited the other, let me belabor Krugman’s comparison for a moment. Not only does Berlin have an enviable public transportation system and bike network as I mentioned previously, but as Krugman states, cars are generally smaller. Now we’re not talking about a city of smart cars and mopeds…we’re talking about lots of VW Golfs/3 series BMWs and not many SUVs.

Also, while Berlin is more compact than Atlanta, it has hardly any skyscrapers. Most buildings are shorter than 8 stories and small, street-level retail is abundant and strongly supported. This is an important example that a high-density city doesn’t have to look like midtown Manhattan, Midtown or the often-cited Buckhead. It can be 8 story commercial/residential and easily support smaller, street-level retail. Sound familiar?

Decatur’s plans are based on Berlin’s ideals. Now we just need the rest of Atlanta to follow suit.

It seems like things around Decatur have been relatively peaceful this past week from what I can gather from thousands of miles away. But I just wanted to check in and share a few thoughts, generated by firsthand observations here in Berlin, along with an article Cherie was good enough to send along.

The article talks about the countless U.S. cities that are voting to demolish their archaic and poorly planned highways. The one in Oklahoma City, highlighted in the article, will be turned into a park while other cities look to open up the waterfront property that many highways overtook because of the flat terrain. (Seriously, I don’t understand any of the motivations behind urban development in the U.S. mid-20th century.)

As for observations from Berlin…they all deal with public transportation. And though none are unexpected, they still are worth mentioning.

First, bikes are everywhere. On nearly all Berlin streets, bikers have their own dedicated lanes, sometimes in the street, but more often as a part of the sidewalk, indicated by a different color brick. Also, bikers always follow the rules of the road (unlike Atlanta bikers that pretend that traffic lights and signs don’t apply to them)

Second, trains and buses are ultra-efficient and always on time. Even the bus stops tell you when the next bus will arrive with electronic signs

I’d be a fool to think that we’re not a long way off from this in the U.S., especially in a city like Atlanta. But cities like Berlin show us that $8 gas creates an entirely different urban dynamic.