On Street Level: Random Thoughts on our Urban World

I’ve heard several different definitions of what a meag city is.  Wikipedia (not always the most useful tool) defines mega cities as the following:

A megacity is usually defined as a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people

However, i’m more familiar with mega cities being defined as a conglomeration of several metropolitan areas where there is no distinct rural areas between any of the metropolitan areas.  A well known and more recent example is the Boston-New York City-Philadelphia-Washington D.C. corridor.  Essentially, one could drive from Boston to Washing ton D.C. and be within some form of urban area the entire time.  This seems to be an ever increasing reality of our world turning more and more urban each day.  In fact in the United States and Canada alone, several mega city regions exist including:

• Los Angeles and the Inland Empire (Riverside, San Bernandino)
• The San Francisco Bay Area
• The Boston-New York City-Philadelphia-Washington D.C. corridor
• The Greater Toronto area
• The Orlando-Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area

So what does this mean in terms of urban planning and design.  Urban planning may soon need to exist on a much greater scale.  Public transit will need to be expanded in certain regions and what’s best for many, many communities may need to be considered at one time.