Welcome to the second round of “In Summary”, a roundup of links from the past month relating to sustainable, people-oriented planning news around the world.
The news dominating October’s planning headlines was San Francisco unanimously approving a plan to make busy busy Market Street free of private vehicles. While a win for SF’s citizens and a step in the right direction for U.S. planners (cough cough, see blog post “5 U.S. cities that should go car-free”), I don’t see the Market Street plan as going far enough in turning the street into a people-oriented public space — and I’m not alone. If the goal of the project is to look like New York City’s similarly revamped 14th Street (see image right) or Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall, the updated streets… leave much to be desired. By eliminating personal vehicles while retaining public transit, delivery vehicles, and taxis on these streets, yes the streets become quieter, safer, cleaner, and more pleasant, but not quiet, safe, clean, and pleasant enough. Imagine if anything with a motor was prohibited from the street, imagine if, apart from bike lanes and sidewalks, hardscapes became softscapes, imagine if children could run and bike and play and be crazy in the street with zero worry, imagine if what was once a busy street for cars was now crammed with casual outdoor cafes and playgrounds and food carts and buskers and people and life; now that’s a street I’d like to see realized.
Quick note: recently I’ve subscribed to Streetsblog.org’s morning round-up email and couldn’t be more impressed with their focus on better streets and improved public transit for everyone, especially urban citizens across the U.S.
October 2019 urban planning, in summary:
It’s not just San Francisco: Other cities across the U.S. and Canada are dipping their toe into the pool of people-friendlier streets, including Washington, DC, and Toronto. The cat’s out of the bag, as citizens everywhere make the case for people-oriented streets. [A decade in the making, car-free Market Street faces final approval, 10/2/2019; One of D.C.’s busiest streets will be turned into a car-free experiment Saturday, 10/4/2019; This New Toronto Project Could Make Yonge The First Car-Free Street In The City, 10/11/2019; The Case for a Car Free Harvard Square, 10/22/2019]
Growing up in a walkable neighborhood = children with higher economic mobility. Food for thought, especially for those of us with little people. [Kids Raised in Walkable Cities Earn More Money As Adults, 10/24/2019]
If you find the 1970s U.S. oil crisis intriguing, this is the read for you. [The Twilight of Autopia, 10/2019]
Recently, down one of my Google rabbit holes, I was surprised to learn the tiny country of Monaco is number two in the world for vehicle ownership per capita, with 899 vehicles per 1,000 people (interestingly, San Marino is number one with 1,263 per 1,000, Wikipedia), begging the question, is a 20% reduction in the next ten years enough? [How Monaco plans to reduce vehicle traffic by 20% by 2030, 10/7/2019]
Imagine the suburbs without cars, it’s almost an oxymoron. But a startup group believes it’s a totally achievable goal. [How self-driving shuttles could enable car-free living in the suburbs, 10/11/2019]
If this story doesn’t make you think twice about how global warming will impact our cities, I give up. “In a life-threatening emergency, we have first responders. But with the planet getting hotter and storms getting stronger and planned outages and massive fires and terrible floods the new normal, people and communities are largely expected to be their own second responders, their own mitigation team, their own cavalry. This was true in the Bay Area as the lights went out, [when] the richest region of the richest country on earth went dark.” [Alone in the Dark in the Bay Area, 10/12/2019]
And if the above story didn’t give you the heebie geebies, new research shows “rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought”, debilitating great cities like Bangkok, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai, Alexandria, and Basra. [Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows, 10/29/2019]
Speaking of cities and climate change, scientists are predicting the “top destinations for Americans abandoning parts of the country due to climate change.” Surrounded by an abundance of freshwater, Duluth, MN, is one of them. [Future cool: Minnesota city ponders new boom as a climate migrant destination, 10/16/2019]
Air pollution is the greatest human health risk today, four times as big of a threat as road injuries and slightly riskier than smoking. The biggest way to reduce this health threat is to re-orient our streets to people. But improving human health is just one benefit of making our urban spaces car-free. [The surprising benefits of taking cars off our city streets, 10/28/2019]
Some city councilors are just heartless: Council agrees to build controversial car park at former Ancoats retail park despite children’s protest, 10/17/2019.
Mayors of London and New York City want to pay drivers to get rid of their cars… and replace them with electric ones. And apart from reducing pollution that’s supposed to solve urban problems by….? [Drivers could get paid £2,000 by getting rid of their car today – how to claim, 10/25/2019; Schumer pushes for all-electric vehicle future by 2040, 10/25/2019]
Forget the beaches, if traveling Indonesia, be sure to visit Jakarta on Sunday for their weekly car-free day: “I just love how it turns one of the busiest cities in Southeast Asia into a laid back city from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. I liked that it gives micro and small entrepreneurs an opportunity to market their products. It is also good to note that in a sense, this initiative promotes a healthier lifestyle to those living in this bustling city.” [Lumawag: Car-free day in Jakarta, 10/22/2019]
If cars are the new tobacco, then noise is the new secondhand smoke in our communities. The European Union has already acted on noise pollution in their cities, citing harmful effects on health caused by prolonged exposure, but in the U.S. there has been no federal regulation on noise since the 1970s. Some cities are fed up with leaf blowers and the like. [Ssssh: As cities surge, some seek a new aim – peace and quiet, 10/18/2019]
Are car-free zones the future of our cities? Vox thinks so, and I want with all my heart to agree with them. [10/28/2019]
Many Indian urban planners feel free parking is at odds with good urban planning while others feel parking is a public good and government should provide it. Who is right? Associate professor Rutul Joshi makes an excellent point: “As incomes increase, so do number of vehicles. We cannot go on considering parking as an assured and free service. We have to start putting a price tag on it. The job of the government is to provide quality public transit and not free parking.” [Hyderabad: Free parking concerns for motorists and government, 10/22/2019]