The Key to Slowing Traffic is Street Design, Not Speed Limits
‘streets constitute the vast majority of public space in a city’. Visit some parts of the world, and you’ll routinely see streets as places for play, conversation, chess, dominoes, singing and dancing, sleeping. Enrique Peñalosa, a former mayor of Bogotá, believes that children playing in the street are actually an ‘indicator species’ for the well-
... See moreRob Hopkins • From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want
Before other auto promoters, Charles Hayes saw that industry leaders had to reshape the traffic safety debate. As president of the Chicago Motor Club, Hayes warned his friends that bad publicity over traffic casualties could soon lead to “legislation that will hedge the operation of automobiles with almost unbearable restrictions.” The solution was... See more
Peter Norton • When Cities Treated Cars as Dangerous Intruders
The lesson we learn from these places is that walking down a narrow, shop-lined street in icy Boston or sweltering Savannah is a vastly superior experience to walking down an arterial between parking lots and car dealerships on San Diego’s best day. Get the design right and people will walk in almost any climate.
Jeff Speck • Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
By 1930, in the city street, motorists had all of the benefits of the free market (virtually unrestricted access to street capacity), but they had few of its costs (they did not pay a market price for the street capacity they used). Individuals took advantage of this as soon as they could, but the cost to the whole was paid in the resulting ineffic
... See morePeter D. Norton • Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (Inside Technology)
