Richard Risemberg rickrise@earthlink.net [CARFREE_CITIES]
2015-03-21 04:42:57 UTC
When the inner-city highways sever the grid due to their inherent prioritization of speed and throughput they cut many city linkages rendering many city streets fairly useless. On the other hand, where the highways do connect at exits, they tend to overwhelm these streets. The result is a system of streets that are either invaded or abandoned. The irony is that we treat the invaded streets as the bigger problem because more people are on them and suffering through those delays.
Furthermore, the effort to move lots of cars undermines both the ability to move lots of people as well as the demand for place, to even go there in the first place. Places invaded by cars are loud, polluted, and unsafe. Guess what, pedestrians donât like it. Pedestrians populate businesses, not cars. Prioritize cars, you lose pedestrians and thus business.
If we want to talk capacity, itâs important to know that Champs Elysees vehicular traffic counts are 80k per day. Meanwhile it moves 500,000 pedestrians per day. Las Ramblas only has one vehicular travel lane in each direction, but it manages to move 250,000 pedestrians per day.
Full article:Furthermore, the effort to move lots of cars undermines both the ability to move lots of people as well as the demand for place, to even go there in the first place. Places invaded by cars are loud, polluted, and unsafe. Guess what, pedestrians donât like it. Pedestrians populate businesses, not cars. Prioritize cars, you lose pedestrians and thus business.
If we want to talk capacity, itâs important to know that Champs Elysees vehicular traffic counts are 80k per day. Meanwhile it moves 500,000 pedestrians per day. Las Ramblas only has one vehicular travel lane in each direction, but it manages to move 250,000 pedestrians per day.
http://streetsmart.dmagazine.com/2015/03/19/the-accommodation-of-the-grid/
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Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com