Chapter 351 - 256: The Vibrant and Dynamic Deepwater City

Chapter 351: Chapter 256: The Vibrant and Dynamic Deepwater City

"The industrial zone... oh, right, yes, the industrial zone." The elderly planner wiped the sweat from his brow. He really didn’t know much about industrial matters. When he first started his career, industry wasn’t nearly as important.

"I placed the industrial zone on the city’s outskirts, in a downwind location. Industry inevitably worsens air quality, so it must be kept far from the main urban area. That’s why I situated it in the port district—it allows for centralized management and convenient resource transportation."

The old man looked a little nervous. Even though he had been in this line of work for forty years, he had never received such a strange request: to plan for the present based on predictions for a hundred years in the future.

Furthermore, among both the planned future residents and the construction crews that had already arrived, there were very few Humans.

’If I don’t design this city well, are these old bones of mine going to meet their end right here?’

"You don’t need to be nervous," Zog said. "Right now, we’re just having everyone present their plans for discussion. It’s fine if it’s not a perfect fit."

Zog tried to lighten the atmosphere. After arriving here, the Human members of the team all seemed to have fallen into a state of severe paranoia.

"I think your design is quite good, but it doesn’t solve the vehicle problem. What if we combine nine adjacent neighborhoods into one large district? We could prohibit vehicle traffic in the center to preserve it as a pedestrian space. Then, we could widen the roads on the district’s perimeter and establish expressways connecting the major functional zones. That might alleviate the issue."

Zog himself was quite fond of the grid design. It broke the city into smaller neighborhoods, preserving space for people to live.

At least it wouldn’t result in a single residential block full of super-high-rises, crammed with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people.

Returning from work each day, you’d take one look at where you lived and feel like this was all your life would ever amount to.

For a long time, planning cities around vehicle traffic was the mainstream approach. However, as cities developed, people discovered that living in such a structure wasn’t very comfortable.

"Oh, is that so? I originally thought cars would be used similarly to horse-drawn carriages."

The old man couldn’t quite comprehend the future filled with cars that Zog described. Even horse-drawn carriages hadn’t reached that level of prevalence yet; how could a more expensive machine fill every street?

"Um, may I ask," the other planner inquired, "if cars really become that important, how common will they be? For example, how many people per vehicle on average?"

"Uh, in the next few decades, it should reach about one vehicle per dozen or so people. In over a hundred years, I’m afraid it will be one car per household on average. By then, keeping a horse will likely be much more expensive than buying a car," Zog replied after thinking for a moment.

The second planner did a quick calculation in his notebook and said, "Although I find it hard to believe in a future where every household has a car..."

"One car per household *on average*," Zog corrected.

As everyone knows, the concept of ’average’ can be very misleading, making it sound as if everyone is more or less the same.

But most of the time, the ’average’ is quite a bit better than the ’majority’.

"Alright, on average. With that kind of vehicle density, forgive my bluntness, but no matter how wide you make the roads, the city will be extremely congested."

Zog nodded. He knew this.

Traffic jams? Every big city has them. When it gets bad, walking is faster than driving.

"That’s why I also planned for public transportation. I mentioned it in the plans I gave you. There will be railways running through the city that stop at fixed stations, as well as public buses with a higher density of stops than the railway."

Zog found the subway model on the sand table.

On the network formed by several subway lines, a number of model trains moved in an orderly fashion.

It was a proper subway model, not just a character figurine with a car shell on its head running around.

"You can also transfer at interchange stations, and passengers will be charged based on the number of stops they’ve traveled."

How to solve the problem of traffic congestion?

The best way is to get people to stop driving by providing more, and more convenient, alternative modes of transport.

"I really like the concept of public transportation," the planner said, "but I think the methods could be more diverse."

As he spoke, he took out a model that resembled a ship, but it had no sails. Instead, it had wings mounted on both sides that looked very much like Dragon wings, with Magic clinging to them.

"Is this an... airship?"

"Yes. My brother and I designed it. It references the way Dragons fly—using Magic Power to assist in flapping and moving air to achieve flight."

"Wait a minute," Zog said, suddenly curious. "Isn’t your specialty urban planning?"

"A hobby," the planner shrugged. "I’ve loved inventing things since I was a child. As for building cities, that’s just a job." His tone was filled with a deep resentment for his work.

"Does a physical prototype of this airship exist? Or is it still in the blueprint stage?"

"There’s no physical prototype yet, but my brother and I are very confident we can build it. We just need a little funding, not much. It will have a range of fifty kilometers per flight and carry at least two hundred passengers—the perfect public transport vehicle."

The planner pitched his design with great effort.

Zog couldn’t help but give him a second look. "Was your main reason for applying to this job actually to get funding for your invention?"

"Uh, well, a person can have more than one goal for doing something," the planner said, scratching his head awkwardly.

"I’m funding this project!"

Zog declared with a wave of his great claw.

"But you’ll have to move your laboratory here."

Zog wouldn’t pass up any opportunity to increase the population of Deepwater City.

"Of course!" the young planner-slash-inventor nodded excitedly. "I have another idea that could also improve transportation: a short-range Teleportation Gate. Compared to a traditional Teleportation Spell, its range is very short—the projected limit is no more than five kilometers—but its Magic Power consumption within that five-kilometer range is only one-tenth that of the Teleportation Technique."