Senior Sequence

News clippings related to mobility, sustainability, and quality of life

News clippings related to mobility, sustainability, and quality of life

In motion

Closing On Broadway: Two Lanes

New York Times, July 11, 2008

In a surprising reshaping of the urban landscape, the city is creating a public esplanade along a portion of one of its most prominent streets, Broadway in Midtown, setting aside the east side of the roadway for a bicycle lane and a pedestrian walkway with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled planters. The esplanade, which the city is calling Broadway Boulevard, will run from 42nd Street to Herald Square. Scheduled to open in mid-August, it will change that section of Broadway from a four-lane to a two-lane street. Other recent initiatives from the Transportation Department include banning cars on Park Avenue on three Saturdays in August and exploring a bicycle-sharing program.

The new esplanade "will transform all of Broadway, visually and mentally" Ms. Randall said. "People will start thinking of the street differently. They'll start thinking of it as a destination where you can watch the world go by." … "Broadway is not famous because there are a gazillion cars going through it," she said. "We're trying to have the public space match the name."… Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said that the esplanade, which was designed with the help of Jan Gehl, a well-known urban designer based in Copenhagen who has been hired as a consultant by the city, was part of a larger program to turn underused street space into public plazas in each of the city's 59 community board districts.

LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/nyregion/11broadway.html

Background

The Qualities of Great Streets

Streets account for as much as a third of the land in a city, and historically, they served as public spaces for social and economic exchanges. The great cities of the world, both large and small, are known for their great streets- -whether grand boulevards or narrow, winding streets. They function as an urban bloodstream, pumping life through the city and connecting the most important destinations. The Project for Public Spaces has identified ten qualities that contribute to the success of great streets.

LINK: http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/great_streets/qualities_of_a_great_street

Growing reams of research show that communities with conveniently walkable streets and less dependence on autos for all their transportation needs see a host of other benefits.

LINK: http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/great_streets/the_benefits_of_community_building_through_transportation

Highways Don't Pay for Themselves

Planetizen, 9 July 2008

How often does one hear that transit is somehow a less respectable form of transportation than driving because of the "massive subsidies" transit receives? Well, a new study by Texas DOT says that highways don't pay for themselves either.

A new study completed by the Texas Department of Transportation shows that no highway in Texas has paid for itself in terms of the increased funds the state receives through tolls or gas taxes. In some cases, a road without tolls would need a gas tax of over $2 to "pay for itself."

This study provides support for transportation reform advocates nationwide whether they be pushing congestion pricing locally or AMTRAK nationally. If no transportation project, be it highway, transit or something else, can be said to "pay for itself;" then the arguments of car culture advocates and libertarians who argue against alternative transportation on the basis that it is only viable because of a government subsidy loses what little credibility it has left.

LINK: http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/07/09/study-highways-dont-pay-for-themselves

Fast Facts

Urban transit can provide more capacity in a 100-foot right-of-way than a six-lane freeway, which requires a 300- foot right-of-way.

Source: American Public Transit Association

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MoveNews #13 was edited by Carolyn Chase and published by Move San Diego, Inc. as a service to our members. You may subscribe or unsubscribe, or send article suggestions by sending an email to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). NOTE: if there is no link provided to an item, then there is no additional content on that item. All links were current as of the date of publication.

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