More Cities Banning Cars

[theowne]

Tokyo could effectively get rid of cars. Their highly efficient and excellent transit system (apart from congestion) has some great possibilities.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Robert Moses Would Have a Coronary If He Were to See Our (NYC) Streets Now

From New York Magazine article:

New York’s streets are getting new ownership. Lane by lane, curb cut by parking space, in steps so scattered and incremental that they hardly get noticed, people on foot are wresting control of the asphalt from those behind the wheel. Even on a chill winter day, you can take a sandwich and a book and sit in a sunlit patch on Broadway between Times and Herald Squares—not at a curb café but in a lane that once belonged to cars. A strip has been painted tan, flanked by planters, and sprinkled with metal chairs and tables. On one side of this oasis, cyclists speed down their own green lane. Vans and trucks park on the other side of the planters, barricading the new plaza from moving cars. Having lunch in the middle of Broadway can be disconcerting, but it sends a signal of pedestrian pride.

For decades, it was almost inconceivable that any American city would requisition turf from motorized vehicles and turn it over to people who would use it for such low-speed, inefficient activities as strolling or sitting around. Robert Moses, who didn’t drive, nevertheless believed that the well-made street should speed the car. That long-unchallenged assumption has found an opponent in Commissioner of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan, who last year hired Jan Gehl, the Danish guru of pedestrianism, to help transform traffic arteries into more-textured public places.

In the twenty months since Sadik-Khan took office, she has swiftly refashioned miles of streets, using inexpensive materials and commando operations. The commissioner often commutes by bicycle, and she made sure her two-wheeled people got their very own slice of Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, delimited by the curb on one side and a landscaped median on the other. Where the avenue widens at 14th Street, a low-tech armory of heavy planters, paint, and metal chairs has secured a pleasant haven in the middle of southbound traffic. Two blocks farther downtown is Gansevoort Plaza, where blocks of salvaged granite arranged into funky seating and a phalanx of spherical, nippled bollards protect a new pedestrian habitat. Across town at Madison Square, another loiterer’s haven has sprouted at an intersection that once was clogged with traffic.

Behind such tinkering with blacktop and hardware is an attempt to change the way people see and use their city. Sadik-Kahn has been called a “guerrilla bureaucrat,†and her experiments do have a revolutionary cast. On Saturday mornings last summer, vehicles started to vanish from various streets—without being replaced by tired fairs. First, in local actions taken under the city’s approving eye, parts of Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights and Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg became temporarily pedestrian. Then, for three Saturdays in August, a seven-mile stretch of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge up Park Avenue to 72nd Street was transformed into a motor-free allée. Children played in the street, a brass ensemble oompahed, adults scooted along on their kids’ Razors, and Pomeranians promenaded down the center lane.

Public space comes in a range of shades. In the sixties, its cultivation was effectively delegated to private developers, who were permitted to put up bigger office buildings if they provided sidewalk-level oases where workers could eat their lunch. In the eighties and nineties, New York began to rejuvenate its parks, restoring enclaves that offer a cushion from noise and congestion. Now the Department of Transportation has realized that its jurisdiction covers the basic unit of urban life: the street. There, lifestyles intersect and city dwellers co-exist with people different from themselves. It’s where we learn toleration, where leisure shares space with urgency, commerce with activism, baby carriages with handcarts. When it is narrowed by garbage or overwhelmed by traffic, then the street reverts to its most primitive use: as a corridor. But a truly public place allows people to move at many different paces, or not to move at all.

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

Two things I think need to be addressed in this whole car banning thread.

1. Commercial and industrial traffic. Transit provides (or could provide) an alternative to personal driving. But what of commercial deliveries and the like. Everything you have travelled by truck at somepoint in its journey from manufacturer to retailer to you.

2. The novelty factor. While pedestrianized roads appeal during the summer and as temporary set-ups, what would the usage be during January? What would the usage be when the novelty of standing in the middle of Yonge wears off. Having lived in Vancouver, I can attest to the botched job they did with Granville in the 70's and I would hate to see a similar hatchet job here.

I'm neither for or against at this point. But before this thread really drifts into cars vs. people territory, there are some valid issues that need to be examined.

 

[isittimetomoveagain?]

I really like the idea, but as Earl said, there has to be merit and value behind it.

Would traffic be reduced? Would people just get fed up with traffic and take transit if it was there and well thought out? I dont know... but I wouldnt mind a lot more green space... even if it sits bare in the winter!

 

[TKTKTK]

Since I'm an incorrigible driver, I would prefer to see streets that are more pedestrianized, and yet still open to vehicle traffic. The example that comes to mind is Barcelona; in the old parts of town the alleys are nice and tight and are a pleasure to walk down - but also a pleasure to drive down if you're lucky enough to own a car You putter along, just a little faster than walking pace, bumbling over cobblestones and snaking your way along. <3 <3 <3

 

[Hipster Duck]

There are some "streets" like that in Toronto, but they're not generally recognized as anything above alleyways. Croft street, between College and Ulster is an example, as is a lot of stuff in Brockton.

 

[adma]

And, substitute "speed humps" for "cobblestones", for better or worse...

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

Nothing like a quiet ride over the speed bumps to put you in mind of Barcelona.......

 

[W. K. Lis]

And, substitute "speed humps" for "cobblestones", for better or worse...

At one time, Toronto used cobblestones inside their streetcar tracks. Most drivers would then try to avoid riding on the tracks to avoid the noise and bouncing of their tires.

We should consider either returning to cobblestones or using rubble strips on the concrete in the streetcar tracks.

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

To play the pedant, they were "setts" and I presume you meant rumble strips.

I'd wager one reason they moved to concrete between the tracks is that granite setts are very expensive, and labour intensive to install. That said, they last forever if they are properly maintained.

 

[nfitz]

We should consider either returning to cobblestones or using rubble strips on the concrete in the streetcar tracks.

Why? With one lane full of parked cars, most of the cars have to drive on the tracks. Why would you want to make their drive so rough? What about replacement buses?

 

[W. K. Lis]

Why? With one lane full of parked cars, most of the cars have to drive on the tracks. Why would you want to make their drive so rough? What about replacement buses?

Exactly. If driving their cars would become rougher, then they would avoid driving on those roads. They could even end up on the streetcars as passengers.

 

[Hipster Duck]

^no, they would probably be driving down the cobblestone road, anyway, making a lot of noise and ruining their suspensions.

 

[TKTKTK]

Exactly. If driving their cars would become rougher, then they would avoid driving on those roads. They could even end up on the streetcars as passengers.

The most commonly sold cars here (ie: Toyota driving appliances) already have soft enough suspensions that things like rough roads and cobblestones are nearly meaningless.

My car would hate it though but I guess it would be an excuse to get something softer as a daily driver, and keep my car for fun weekends. I would LOVE some old rusty/dented pick-up that I could abuse daily. My commute is pretty short, so it wouldn't have to be fuel efficient (might even be nice to have some fire breathing old V8).

 

[lordmandeep]

true Toyota cars are very smooth like the old Oldsmobile/Buick/Cadillac cars.


I can just drive right over speed bumps and its like nothing. Very different from driving the Chevy Malibu where I had to always slow down.