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The shared space forces motorists to slow down. They have to use their brains and interpret a free flowing situation, rather than just zooming by.

As for my first statement, look at the history. Most 1950's and '60s "urban renewal" projects clear-cut a section of city. It was the replaced with a freeway, some modernist building with an empty wind-swept plaza, some towering modernist apartment building and plenty of parking. SW DC is the best example in our region. It is no coincidence that the place is dead at all times, even during the workday. When you build for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic.

I put lots of thought into the issue. I walk around our region. I see what works and what doesn't. I ask why I like to walk some places and why I fear for my safety in others. I fear crossing large intersections between two multi-lane suburban arterials that always have car traffic going in every which direction and is too fast. There is never enough time to get across before the left turning vehicles come at you.

My thinking involves looking at the behavior and interactions of real people, rather than how they look in drawings and models. I also look at what has worked and hasn't. Modernist planning hasn't. It has left us with dead cities, excessive automobile related pollution, more traffic deaths per capita than anywhere else in the world, more pedestrian fatalities than anywhere else in the industrialized world, and one heck of a gasoline bill payable to the middle east.

I put effort into thinking about solutions. That's why they are never as simple as "if we put in lots and lots of free parking then everything will be wonderful" or, "if we just widen all the roads there will never be traffic jams!" or, "everyone will be safer if we just keep everything separate." It's time that we acknowledge what we see with our own lyin' eyes rather than keeping on doing what we've been doing for the past 60 years and pretending that all is wonderful.

by Cavan on Nov 26, 2008 1:02 pm • link • report