Wednesday, March 9, 2016

From Strong Towns — How to transform an urban highway into a walkable boulevard

From the beginning of urbanized America, streets functioned to provide mobility in many ways: People walked to work, trolley, horse-drawn then powered moved workers from factories and offices to home. Trains played a role in commutes. Bicycles incited a pedal power mobility craze for a while.
Then the automobile came along. By the 1950s, roads became the sole domain of automobiles. The automotive industry even created the term “jay walking” and launched a campaign to demonize people on foot. Sidewalks shrunk and beautifully landscaped medians were torn out to create more lanes for automobiles. Read more: The Case Against Urban Corridors that act like High-Speed Highways — Strong Towns

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 12, 2016 at 1:37 PM

    I fail to see how this could be accomplished on Nicol Street in Nanaimo, B. C. Canada. There is heavy truck traffic into the downtown, and those goods are needed by all the stores there. Traffic could only be re-routed onto residential neighbourhoods, and that is not going to be feasible or desirable. - Madeline A. Bruce

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  2. Frank MurphyMarch 12, 2016 at 2:11 PM

    I guess it's somewhat counter-intuitive but cities that reclaiming urban highways are finding the result is social, civic and commercial revitalization.

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