Posted Aug 6, 2021, 7:29 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Toronto
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Vehicles Are Still Firmly in Control of City Streets
Vehicles Are Still Firmly in Control of City Streets
August 4, 2021
By Jake Blumgart
Read More: https://www.governing.com/community/...f-city-streets
Quote:
Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities and bike riding continues to grow. Yet urban streets are still designed and used like highways. Change is happening, but at a very slow pace, says urban expert Jeff Speck.
- In Boston they just did a poll where they asked “even though it means less space on the streets for cars, do you want to keep the parklets we’ve put in during COVID?” Eighty-one percent said keep the parklets. They asked about keeping the bike lanes and 79 percent said keep the bike lanes. This is a randomized poll, they’re not stopping cyclists on the street. That’s where public opinion is, but that’s not necessarily what the leaders are hearing whenever the question comes up about keeping or eliminating an individual parklet or bike lane. --- Intellectually, and in terms of platforms you see among progressive politicians, there has been a lot of ground gained since 2012. But it’s still super hard to get these things done, as we’re seeing now with the reversion of some of these COVID-19 amenities back to the way they were before. Typically, a minority of people who speak loudly are pretty effective in overruling majority public opinion in favor of more walkable places.
- The incredible, surprising effectiveness of telework means a lot of trips just aren’t happening at all. As people come back to transit, but also continue to take advantage of Zoom, you’re going to see an equilibrium emerge which hopefully means fewer car trips than before. Most cities are smart enough not to increase their vehicular throughput, but I do hear discussions about how post-COVID congestion means we need to get rid of temporary open streets and parklets. --- Let’s not forget the incredible money machine that is powered by road building. Most state DOTs are public officials who are either currently in the road-building business or taking the revolving door in and out of the road-building business. You put the wolves in charge of the henhouse in terms of having anyone in place who’s going to put a brake on road building. There’s very powerful economic reasons why roadway expansion is still seen as a solution to congestion even though it never works.
- Developers are often confused about how little parking they could provide and find in retrospect that they’ve provided too much in their projects. Cities that are truly serious about meeting their climate goals would not just remove parking minimums, they would put maximums in place. Typically, when a developer who doesn’t want to provide a ton of parking chooses to provide a ton of parking, it’s because the neighbors insist on it. They’re confident that if new people come to live in the building and can’t park in the building, they will park on the street and take the on-street spaces that the current residents enjoy. In many cities, developers then construct buildings with a lot of parking, residents bring cars, and they still park on the street. Alternatively, other buildings have been built in the same city by progressive developers with no parking. And guess what? The residents who come to live in those buildings self-select folks with no cars.
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