How Can Cities Move More People Without Wider Streets? Hint: Not With Cars

How can cities make more efficient use of street space, so more people can get where they want to go?

This graphic from the new NACTO Transit Street Design Guide provides a great visual answer. (Hat tip to Sandy Johnston for plucking it out.) It shows how the capacity of a single lane of traffic varies according to the mode of travel it's designed for.

Dedicating street space to transit, cycling, or walking is almost always a tenacious fight, opposed by people who insist that streets are for cars. But unless cities make room for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders, there's no room for them to grow beyond a certain point.

NACTO writes:

Of course, it usually takes more than changing a single street to fully realize these benefits. A bike lane won't reach its potential if it's not part of a cohesive network of safe streets for biking, and a transit lane won't be useful to many people if it doesn't connect them to walkable destinations.

But this graphic is a useful tool to communicate how sidewalks, bike lanes, and transitways are essential for growing cities looking to move more people on their streets without the costs and dangers inherent in widening roads.