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I completely agree. It's sad that we've let cars completely take over in detriment of quality of life. I worked on this set of visualizations on traffic in the

by stephth 15y ago

I completely agree. It's sad that we've let cars completely take over in detriment of quality of life. I worked on this set of visualizations on traffic in the center of Madrid a few years ago: http://trsp.net/cow http://trsp.net/cow I found the numbers stunning. Some avenues had an average of 100k vehicles driving through daily. I've since moved to San Francisco, and find that traffic in US cities is less painful, the cities' grids and sidewalks are better prepared. But still, it's ridiculous how much freedom cars are given. A few months ago traffic in Valencia St, one of the nicest streets in the Mission, was cut off, and it was bliss to take a walk there, even though the street was super crowded. At least some streets should always be traffic free, I dont think it's that much effort to ask, and the benefits in quality of living are tremendous.

_delirium 15y ago
The main opposition to pedestrian streets in the U.S. tends to be from merchants. Their view is that cars driving by is good advertising. Even if the cars don't actually stop, when they drive by a store daily, they're reminded it's there and might eventually visit, while if the traffic gets routed in a different way, fewer eyeballs will see the stores daily (and instead they'll see different stores). State Street in Chicago was pedestrianized from 1979-1996, for example, but merchant pressure eventually caused it to be reopened to traffic.
- ekoontz 15y ago
  It depends a lot on the circumstances. Here's a recent situation where the decision to make some streets in Chinatown pedestrian-only and removing parking on others (if only for a day) was supported and well-received by merchants: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2012/01/24/chinatown-businesses-thrive-during-a-week-without-car-parking/ http://sf.streetsblog.org/2012/01/24/chinatown-businesses-th...

by stephth 15y ago

_delirium 15y ago

The main opposition to pedestrian streets in the U.S. tends to be from merchants. Their view is that cars driving by is good advertising. Even if the cars don't actually stop, when they drive by a store daily, they're reminded it's there and might eventually visit, while if the traffic gets routed in a different way, fewer eyeballs will see the stores daily (and instead they'll see different stores). State Street in Chicago was pedestrianized from 1979-1996, for example, but merchant pressure eventually caused it to be reopened to traffic.

ekoontz 15y ago
It depends a lot on the circumstances. Here's a recent situation where the decision to make some streets in Chinatown pedestrian-only and removing parking on others (if only for a day) was supported and well-received by merchants: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2012/01/24/chinatown-businesses-thrive-during-a-week-without-car-parking/ http://sf.streetsblog.org/2012/01/24/chinatown-businesses-th...