From Congress for the New Urbanism — The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl

A federal report revealed that US traffic deaths have risen 9 percent over the last year and have totaled 19,100 in the first six months of 2016. More than 2.2 million people have been seriously injured in that time. The economic cost is estimated annually at $410 billion, or 2.3 percent of gross domestic product. The human cost is harder to calculate. They are the most frequent reason for fatality of children 5 and up and young adults. Much of the blame has been placed, predictably, on distracted and drunk driving and rising vehicle miles traveled. The “elephant in the living room,” the factor that nobody wants to talk about, is sprawl and the infrastructure of sprawl. The roads built to support sprawl, designed to modern safety standards, are contributors to the majority of US traffic deaths and injuries.

From @NewUrbanism — Roads built to support sprawl designed to modern standards are contributors to the majority... https://t.co/u9f9M0QWTc

— TheSidewalkBallet (@1sidewalkballet) August 29, 2016

Read more: The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl | CNU

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From Slow Streets — Elements that Make Pedestrian Streets Work

We currently dedicate an excessive amount of our street public space for the movement and storage of automobiles. We can bring dignity to our streets where people live, work and play by reclaiming it for people. It has been shown that cities are significantly quieter when there are lower traffic volumes, or even when the vehicle traveling speeds slow down to a human speed (40-30kph). There are also fewer automobile related injuries and fatalities. It can also make us happier since we can spend more time outside and meet more of our neighbours.

So how can we reclaim some of this space? Pedestrian streets offer one way to do this, but it has been demonstrated that pedestrian streets in North America have failed in the past (see Buffalo’s Main Street, Ottawa’s Sparks Street, and other examples). But many cities feature widely-visited, vibrant pedestrian streets in different city scales, climates and cultures throughout Europe including Northbrook St. in Newbury, UK (pop. 31,331 in 2011), Calle San Jacinto in Seville, Spain (pop. 702,355 in 2012), Exhibition Road in London, UK (pop. 8.3 million in 2013). They also exist in various sizes either as a short section of one street or a network of car-free streets such as in Delft, Netherlands or the Stroget in Copenhagen. This article explores several of these successful pedestrian streets and breaks down several of the elements that make them work. Read more: Critical Elements to Make Pedestrian Streets Work | SLOW STREETS

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From @BrentToderian — 4 classic #roaddiets in one 2-minute video via @JeffSpeckAICP

"4 classic #roaddiets in one 2-minute video" via @JeffSpeckAICP. https://t.co/R5xwmvEq7N What do you think, Tweeps? pic.twitter.com/xP0hqLpnDC

— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) August 20, 2015

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From @JeffSpeckAICP — Street too wide? what you need to know, in 30 seconds.

Street too wide?: what you need to know, in 30 seconds. https://t.co/AJ7pn7FWhp @paulgoldberger @bcitiestowns @MikeLydon @DPZandCo

— Jeff Speck (@JeffSpeckAICP) August 20, 2015

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From Price Tags — Cheap and stealthy way to reduce road capacity in North Van

This is a great Road Diet technique that allows traffic engineers the ability to test the new intersection configuration and tweak the design prior to any major construction commitment. Its also a cheap and stealthy way to reduce road capacity without the anger and suspicion of motorists. Read more: The Daily Scot: Road Diet in North Van | Price Tags

We're not going to build our way out of congestion. Cities nationwide are standing up to the faulty logic of freeways http://t.co/DDgBBf5SFX

— Janette Sadik-Khan (@JSadikKhan) June 9, 2015

Unanimous vote: all downtown Toronto residential streets max speed 30 Kph

So proud #Toronto Downtown Councillors unanimous vote MAX speed 30 Kph ALL residential streets http://t.co/v0pcrV3Cja pic.twitter.com/UzlonUPc2i

— Gil Penalosa (@Penalosa_G) June 23, 2015

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Tragic irony—our wide streets allow us to quickly respond to collisions caused by our wide streets @StrongTowns

A tragic irony: Our wide streets allow us to quickly respond to the collisions caused by our wide streets.

Posted by Strong Towns on Thursday, April 23, 2015

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Cities are designed to accommodate cars. How do we redesign them to benefit people? @CBCTheNational

Post by Nanaimo Commons.

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#CBCCities Tweets

Cities are designed to accommodate cars. Is this dangerous? Check out these scary statistics.

Post by CBC News: The National.

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From Smart Growth America — A national epidemic of pedestrian deaths

A national epidemic 
of pedestrian deaths

We’re walking more often, for fun and to get to places in our neighborhood. We turn to WalkScore when figuring out where to live and our most walkable places often are among the most economically vibrant in the country. Hundreds of cities have adopted Complete Streets policies to ensure walking is in the forefront of our decisions regarding street design. Public health officials from the Office of the Surgeon General to the local doctor’s office are encouraging us to get out for a walk for physical activity and to combat chronic disease.

But we are still dealing with a legacy of roadways that fail to account for the safety of people on foot. In the decade from 2003 through 2012, more than 47,000 people died while walking on our streets. That is 16 times the number of people who died in natural disasters during in the same ten years, but without the corresponding level of urgency.

In 2012, pedestrians accounted for nearly 15 percent of all traffic deaths, up 6 percent from 2011 and representing a five-year high.  Read more: A national epidemic of pedestrian deaths | Smart Growth America

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From StrongTowns.org — Just another pedestrian killed

CHARLES MAROHN I’m fed up with people being killed because my profession contains a bunch of dogmatic idiots. I’m sure the response of some will be: But Chuck, the driver was drunk, this isn’t the engineer’s fault. Ridiculous. If I had a $100 for every time I heard an engineer recommend some stupid tree removal or curve widening because “some drunk is going to come through here and get killed” I would be fully funding Strong Towns with the interest off my latent wealth. We consider the drunk when it suits our purposes -- the free flow of traffic -- and ignore them when it doesn't. That's the sign of a broken moral compass.

The right thing to do here is pretty obvious: SLOW DOWN THE CARS! When you enter into an urban environment, the expectation must be that travel speeds are very slow (I think a 20 mph design speed is too fast – 15 mph would be the top in my opinion) because we need to FORGIVE the common mistakes of humans, both in their cars and out. In a complex urban environment, the only way to do that is to slow down the speed of travel. We must lower the cost of a mistake. Read more: JUST ANOTHER PEDESTRIAN KILLED

Just another pedestrian killed. When will the traffic engineering profession own these tragedies? http://t.co/DduHSRrquS
— Charles Marohn (@clmarohn) December 3, 2014

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NYC lowered speed limit to 25. Other cities should do it too.

Post by Project for Public Spaces.

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Paris to limit speeds to 30 km/hr over entire city. — HT @walksf

Post by Nanaimo Commons.

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