When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And when you’re a traffic engineer, it seems, everything looks like a highway.
If traffic engineers did not control the design of so many of our public spaces, this might not be a problem. But they do—and that’s especially true here in the U.S. Even when traffic engineers have the best intentions, too many simply lack the tools to make successful places. In the typical American city, asking a traffic engineer to design a walkable street is like asking a hammer to insert a screw. Read more: The Case for Copying More in Street Design - CityLab
The Case for Copying More in Street Design - CityLab
After counting pedestrians on hundreds of blocks (sampled for different densities, districts, and Walk Scores), a group of researchers found that active uses (i.e., well-trafficked buildings or busy parks, schools, and cafes), street furniture or items (from benches to fire hydrants to ATM machines), and first-floor windows (measured by window-to-facade ratio) all had statistically positive relationships to the number of pedestrians.
But are these findings applicable elsewhere? There’s so much that sets New York apart from other American cities: its density, its walkability, its spread of urban versus suburban development, among others. What about smaller towns? What are the design traits that most encourage pedestrian activity on these streets? Read more: New Study Shows Urban Design Matters When It Comes to Pedestrian Activity in Salt Lake City - CityLab
It’s as if as soon as there is activity in an urban setting, local government springs into action to regulate it. Cities and towns are well-known for imposing all kinds of of rules and codes, a great maze to be navigated both in the creation of buildings and their occupation and operation. On a proportional basis, the tight control exceeds anything decreed at the state or federal level. So it was with great interest to learn of an initiative in one of the regulatory regime’s most guilty parties, San Francisco, to loosen up a little bit. And the rebellion, to its great credit, began in the Planning Department. More: CityLab —
The Tragic Comedy of Small Business Permitting
