Engineers to Pedestrians: No ‘Walk’ Signs for You!
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The traffic engineering profession says intersections with no "Walk" signal are a-okay. Even as pedestrian deaths soar.
Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Quality of Life
Study: High-Traffic Arterial Roads Reduce Quality of Life, Even Blocks Away
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Seminal research by Donald Appleyard in the 1970s found the volume of traffic on a street affects quality of life for residents in profound and unexpected ways. For example, the amount of social contact people had with their neighbors was curtailed for those who lived on high traffic streets compared with those living on quieter streets. People even defined their “home […]
The Defense Department’s Embrace of Livability Will Save Money — and Lives
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On Tuesday, we wrote about the Defense Department’s new rules for the design of their bases and installations. These rules make smart growth the law of the land on hundreds of vast military installations in the U.S. and abroad. There’s more to the story: In this post we examine how a smart growth development model […]
Do You Have Car-Free Streets? A New Resource for North American Ciclovias
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Pop quiz: Where was the first ciclovia? I bet you said Bogotá. But, surprisingly, you’d be wrong. Sure, the Colombian city is widely credited with popularizing the concept of ciclovias, which temporarily close streets to cars to liberate the roads for people. For several hours every Sunday, more than a million citizens in Bogotá take […]
Mounting Transportation and Housing Costs Devour Household Budgets
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On Monday we wrote that Americans can’t afford a transportation bill that locks households into the expenses of car dependence. Yesterday the Center for Neighborhood Technology hammered the point home, releasing new data showing how communities are getting less and less affordable nationwide. Only 28 percent of American communities meet CNT’s definition of “affordable,” which accounts for […]
With Help From a Republican Governor, Michigan Moves Toward Livability
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Though he was swept into office in the same class as Scott Walker, John Kasich and Rick Scott, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has set himself apart in a couple of important ways. While his Republican contemporaries were eschewing money for high-speed rail, Snyder welcomed the funds. Just last week, his state received an additional badly […]