Urban Life

The span of history of the New Diasporia actually ranges just over a century. Most of the great social trends originate from before that period. By the time of Fr. Borland Barnes and Joesph Gutierrez a Unified Catholic Church was already in existence. The Great Compromise was in place. In many ways the first wave of the New Diasporia was made up of people who had problems with both those facts of history. Only more slowly did the Church and society follow in successive waves.
The just of those facts means that throughout all extra solar space human civilization is barely a century old. For almost all of that time travel was limited to conventional road and air vehicles. Even in the farthest reaches of the Wilds civilization, or what passes for it, is just a generation or two old. In the oldest and most primitive places perhaps as many as six generations have passed since the invention of the B/G engine.
This tends to mean that on any particular world history is not too deep. On Earth it is not unusual to see structures several hundred years old. It is even possible to see man made structures thousands of years old. This is not the case on other worlds.
Because of the pace of technological development and the speed of transport cities tend to be smaller than the old Earth cities. Most terrestrial cities are old. They formed at transportation hubs, which is why so many cities were founded where rivers meet each other, or meet the sea. In the age of rail cities were founded at rail heads and junctions. Even in the pre-industrial age cities sometimes were built at places where gold, silver and iron could be found. Only in the age of the automobile did population centers swell over the land, tied together by concrete and asphalt ribbons.
In the Highland cities, towns and villages, founded before the mid-twenty third century, it is common to have roads and highways connecting buildings and other population centers. On many worlds these artifacts of an earlier age are abandoned and unused. At least by human traffic. Interior roads are still sometimes used to transport goods using autonomous robot vehicles. On others settled during the last seventy years often commercial transmat portals are still in use, connecting roads or monorails over vast distances. Some settled recently have no roads at all, with all transportation via transmat portal.
A matrix may be used to help determine the probable mixture of transportation technologies. Many of the other cultural and social characteristics of the world can be inferred from the combination of when the world was founded and what is it's present Tech Level.

Present Technology Level	A	B	C	D
Founding Year
2320
2310
2300					Nanotech
2290
2280
2270
2260					Transmat
2250
2240
2230					Hyperdrill
2220
2210					B/G Engine

Any Highland world founded after 2300 A.D. and founded at TLA will lack roads. Transmat portals will provide the primary transportation technology. Cities will be small and widely dispersed, perhaps even over several continents. A city, village or town is really more a designation of jurisdiction than of geographical area, since the shopping district can be in one place, the residential district in another place and facilities for space traffic somewhere else. Cities are differentiated from villages in that a village will have shopping, residential areas, churches and perhaps even a monastery all within walking distance, with transmat portals primarily used to travel to other places. Such population centers are not primarily vehicle friendly (since vehicles are seldom if ever used) and walkways and pathways are laid out with aesthetic and architectural considerations in mind rather than vehicular. If transportation is need to areas not served by transmat transport capsules will be used.These worlds are represented by the dark blue area of the graph.

Any world founded before 2300 A.D. but after 2260 A.D. and founded at TL A or B will have some form of road network. If they are still TL B they will have a mixture of commercial transmat portals and vehicle lines. Transmat assisted monorail and roadways allow trans continental and trans world travel using public trains or private road vehicles. Air travel will be relegated to orbital or extra-planetary transport. If they have advanced to TL A it is likely they will have abandoned roads. Streets will be relegated to older, economically depressed areas. New villages and towns will resemble those seen on worlds in the dark blue area of the graph. These worlds are in the medium blue area of the graph.

Any world founded before 2260 A.D. after 2210 A.D. will have as extensive a road network as would be required without transmat technology. Any population center which pre-dates the mid twenty-third century will have extensive road or rail or public transportation systems. If the world has advanced to TL B some of these systems, especially those between population centers will have been replaced with commercial transmat portals. If they have advanced to TL A whole population centers with their road systems may have been abandon in favor of more advanced, nanotech produced, villages and cities supported by transmat technology. Those areas not abandoned may be occupied by the economically disadvantaged or they may have been upgraded, with their street re-purposed as tracks or walkway or built upon as newly reclaimed land.

Worlds still at tech levels below B will still use their roads and public transportation systems. Gravity assisted ground vehicles and transport capsules will make up the majority of transport. Newer materials might be used for roads, and it is possible that planned communities could exist which separate vehicles from pedestrians. With lots of land and relatively few people the overcrowding existing in many areas of Earth is seen less, at least in the Highlands.

Outside the Highlands a much greater variety of technology mix and social and cultural geography is possible.