May 10, 2015
Urban streets for people
Vox - Steve Dombek is an activist with an unusual cause. He wants US cities in general — and San Francisco in particular — to adopt narrower streets, along the lines of what you'll often see in cities that were built before the 19th century.
His point is that doing so could open up lots of space for the creation of much-needed additional housing in places like San Francisco, where thriving local economies are being strangled by an inability for more people to be able to move to the city. Narrower streets could create tons of new housing
Right now, the public right of way on a typical San Francisco residential street like McAllister is 68 feet and 9 inches, enough room for 30 feet worth of pedestrian space and then almost 40 additional feet dedicated to automobiles.
.. In the revised version of the street, you can still drive a car, but you'll have to do it slowly in a space that's shared respectfully with pedestrians rather than optimized for high-speed cruising. And there's no space dedicated to parking. That's not to say that nobody can park a vehicle. But to do so you're going to have to pay for parking in the private market, the same as someone looking for a place to sleep is going to have to pay for space.
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2 comments:
That's so idiotic that even refutation would be a waste of time.
I now cycle much less often than I'd prefer because I live in a city most of whose streets are the same narrow width they were in 1800, so narrow that they're nearly all designated one-way. It's not a benefit.
All these schemes to get people out of their cars and build new houses in spaces currently already in use may sound noble, but making it harder to get around for people with mobility issues, like seniors and disabled people, make all these schemes sound like an ableist wet dream.
In a city remodeled as this article describes, my elderly mother would be trapped in her home. Not to mention getting a fire truck to a burning house, or an ambulance to someone with a life threatening medical emergency, would be and interesting, but tragic, adventure every time 911 was called.
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