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This is certainly an interesting planning issue, but I think there are both pros and cons of blocking traffic on some streets (provided pedestrians and bicyclists are allowed through).

In areas with travel options (like downtown Silver Spring), restricting total vehicle capacity is likely to cut down on vehicle use, both by requiring longer vehicle trips and increasing congestion on other streets. This is especially true where measures are taken to encourage walking and biking on the streets without traffic, and as mentioned in the post, that's the strategy behind Berkeley's famous bicycle boulevards. The nearly traffic-free boulevards help make Berkeley's connected grid a great place to walk and bike, but a lousy place to drive because the barriers result in circuitous routes, congestion, and driver confusion.

Also, as Ralph notes, for better or worse densifying the suburbs is often requires cutting a deal with surrounding single family neighborhoods in which residents don't fight development as long as they're promised it will have minimal impact on their suburban neighborhoods. Restricting, reducing, and calming traffic is often part of that bargain and can thereby help gain political support for development.

On the other hand, there are often negative consequences for transit because it usually runs on the arterials that become more congested when other streets are blocked. Having protections in place, like bus lanes, is important to solve this problem, but they aren't usually implemented together with the street blockades.

And finally, there are some serious equity issues with allowing residents of less-trafficked streets and who have enough political power (and are therefore likely to be higher-income) push all the traffic to the arterials, where lower-income people are likely to reside. And these TOD-adjacent residents then get to enjoy all of the property value boost that being next to a dense, walkable, transit-rich area provides without any of the impacts. That's a pretty good deal!

So where do I stand overall? Probably in favor of a larger-scale plan that includes some blockades to create bike boulevards, traffic calming district-wide, and protected transit infrastructure. Admittedly, that's a lot to ask.

by RichardatCourthouse on Aug 1, 2012 2:28 pm • link • report