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What Snow Tells Us About Creating Better Public Spaces
- lemonberry 13y agoThis is neat. It reminds me of being on college campuses where students have created new paths through grass bypassing sidewalks and paved paths. I always thought the worn paths should be incorporated into the "official" infrastructure somehow.
- analog31 13y agoAccording to legend, this was done at Wayne State University in Detroit.
- saeranv 13y agoRem Koolhaas' design for the IIT Campus Center in Chicago takes this idea and uses it as a basis for generating the floorplan: "...OMA carried out a study to map the “desire lines” of student foot traffic across the campus. These intersecting diagonal paths are maintained inside the Campus Center itself..." - from the project description Check out the third image here: http://www.oma.eu/projects/2003/iit-mccormick-tribune-campus-center http://www.oma.eu/projects/2003/iit-mccormick-tribune-campus... One of my favorite buildings!
- jevinskie 13y agoIt is a remarkably easy to navigate for how unique it is. Really a treat for the eyes! Crown Hall is also very beautiful: http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/1273704810-crownhall2.jpg http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/12...
- benched 13y ago"new PAths through grAss byPAssing sidewalks and Paved PAths" You might consider writing rap.
- jay-anderson 13y agoApparently these are called 'desire paths' or 'desire lines' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path). I've heard this story as well. From this conversation (http://ask.metafilter.com/62599/Where-the-sidewalk-ends http://ask.metafilter.com/62599/Where-the-sidewalk-ends) it appears that people have heard that this technique was used on quite a few college campuses. (I wonder how many are actually true.)
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoAfter a building project at Rice University was completed some time ago, they waited more than a year to complete the sidewalks. Prior experience had taught them that the students would walk the most efficient routes, beating a path where the sidewalks actually belonged.
- smileysteve 13y agocheck out what the swedes are doing with this. these are called Desires
- ohwp 13y agoI think this is what Christopher Alexander did at the Eishin Campus. The first year they didn't pave. Only after a clear route was created by the students they paved that route.
- pedrocr 13y agoAren't the paths just the places where the plow passed? Cars may very well use the rest of the road if it was plowed too, no?
- saraid216 13y agoThere's at least one where cars were very clearly using space that wasn't plowed for U-turns. Text search for "Rita's".
- heydenberk 13y agoThe supposition is that if enough car traffic or parking would eventually remove the snow on its own, which is accurate in my experience.
- saraid216 13y agoWhen did roads become the only meaningful public space we have?
- malandrew 13y agoSuch a depressing question. I reckon the book "The high cost of free parking" goes into detail on this question.
- saraid216 13y agoWalkable City and Happy City are also both fairly good books. Walkable City is better in terms of suggesting actual changes, but Speck's tone is unrelentingly unconstructive. Happy City is better on tone (passing a low bar there), but the meat of the book is in the title and probably better captured by Enrique Peñalosa's TED talk.
- heydenberk 13y agoSeveral of these photos depict actual park space. See the second photo, for instance.
- saraid216 13y agoI'm not sure what you mean. The first photo is a triangular island of snow; the second photo is an intersection with a lot for sale in the background; the third photo is a different triangular island; the fourth photo is another triangular island. I scrolled through all the photos and saw nothing except the trails left behind by cars making their way through snow across road intersections. Where is the park space?
- maxerickson 13y ago4 and 5 show some open space and later, by Gino's steak house a park is discussed (and sort of shows). Looking at a map doesn't show a massive amount of parks, but there are several block sized spaces within about 1/2 mile.
- analog31 13y agoAs a bike commuter, I look at those areas marked in green as places where I can escape to if I get cut off, or where I can let a car overtake me. In fact, the narrowing of roadways due to piled up snow is one of the main dangers of winter cycling.
- protomyth 13y agoYep, one of the problems with winter driving is the "nowhere to ditch" if it all goes bad. Taking away the area a car or bike use to maneuver can be very dangerous. Bikes are really penalized for having no wiggle room.
- heydenberk 13y agoI'm a bike commuter and I commute on these streets. I don't think this is as much of an issue in Philadelphia as it is elsewhere. The roads are all small, one-way streets with stop signs at every block. Cars are rarely going fast enough that they need to overtake a bike before they reach the next intersection where they can pass more easily. Less anecdotally, New York has been making these changes with many intersections and finds the roads are safer for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
- revelation 13y agoAnecdotally, the number of car drivers that have the miniscule intelligence required to foresee that overtaking me would yield zero benefit at extreme risk is 0.
- pyre 13y agoThe extreme risk to them is zero. If they run you over their insurance goes up, and they can complain to their friends about how some "hipster, commie, hippie biker" was in the wrong for even being on the road. I know someone that was run over by someone that ran a red light. Her arm was broken, and the lady in the car was in the wrong. The lady that hit her had the gall to call her up later and complain to her that her auto insurance rates had gone up. No shit! You run a red light and hit someone, what do you expect?
- protomyth 13y agoIt seems like quite a few of these photos have snow with tire tracks in them. Also, people drive quite differently under these conditions and in a constrained, slower manner. It would be foolish to say that area isn't being used by cars unless you are trying to keep traffic slowed to a crawl.
- notatoad 13y agoi think that's exactly the point. They refer to their suggestions as "traffic calming" measures.
- protomyth 13y agoSo "traffic calming" = congestion, frustration, and dangerous driving for bikes and cars. Not a great idea in my book to spend more money (and have a higher continued upkeep cost) to make the roads more dangerous and less useful. I suppose if they put an island there then they understand the snow is going to get piled on it and then expand into the rest of the road, right?
- adestefan 13y agoWhere I live they recently installed some new intersections that are now sharp corners and they're now really dangerous for everyone. You need to go so slow to make the turns that nearly everyday I see accidents that are narrowly avoided. They don't "calm traffic" instead they just make it congested which means it's dangerous for people in cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
- sentenza 13y agoHave you ever seen a big European intersections? Planning one with the well-being of pedestrians in mind causes zero problems for vehicles, see [1]. [1] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stra%C3%9Fenkreuzung_001.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stra%C3%9Fenkreuzung_...
- protomyth 13y ago
- mcrider 13y agoI wish driving and owning a car started to become discouraged the same way sin taxes and bylaws are discouraging cigarette smoking. Sitting outside on a bench in Honolulu yesterday, I looked around and saw that half of what I was seeing were roads and cars. This space that could be so beautiful (it's Hawaii after all) was overwhelmingly just about being a transportation network. I love the feeling of driving a car, but I think the cost is too high -- So much financial and mental stress (not to mention so much death -- A classmate from high school was killed in a crash just last week) is caused by these things and they bisect our physical spaces making so much of our world uninhabitable and depressing. I realize people need transportation but I had hoped the rising cost of oil would cause a paradigm shift in how we commute, and that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.
- heydenberk 13y agoWe could start be simply encouraging it less — spending less public money on roads, having more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly laws (and enforcement), and creating zoning codes that require less parking for development projects would all go a long way.
- VLM 13y agoIf you've heard the overused phrase "the internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" the obvious analogy is intentional destruction of infrastructure results in lower population, lower population density, lower property values... I don't know the specifics of the linked article, but stereotypically some outsider comes in, says "you have some nice profitable land here, and I have a plan to fix that...". If you'd like to experience anti-car infrastructure, we have plenty of semi-abandoned residential in the poorest parts of the inner city, and some vacant abandoned commercial space in the bad parts of town with limited parking. Of course the restaurant right off the interstate is doing booming business although there's always someone with a plan to "fix" that for them. "We need more customers... I know, we'll make it impossible for anyone outside walking distance to get here, that'll fix everything..." What we need is more money spent on roads and parking. Done the right way, of course. Nothing wrong with wide roads, wide sidewalks, strips of parks and trees and green spaces. Just remember where the bread is buttered, pedestrians = homeless panhandler but car = customer.
- sosuke 13y agoAs a driver I see the areas being sectioned off as stress inducing. I haven't lived in a city very long but I see a lot of short sighted ideas in this post. Parking is a concern, a place without parking is inaccessible to people from other areas. Plenty of the examples make turning impossible even for small sedans, let alone full sized vehicles. A fun concept that hits a bit too close to home for me right now. City planning like this has kept me from exploring my own downtown area.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- henrikschroder 13y ago>City planning like this has kept me from exploring my own downtown area. Have you tried walking there instead?
- stbtrax 13y agoParking is a huge subsidy for people that drive. It's basically giving away public land to motorists, land that could be used for much better purposes. If you're living in a city and parking is a major concern, perhaps the suburbs are more suited for you. More stress inducing than having to drive in narrow areas, is having to walk around in cities with motorists constantly on their phones, almost running you down in the street, and not facing any repercussions[1] I wish there were more car-free areas in the US like in a lot of metro areas in Europe. 1. http://cironline.org/reports/bay-area-drivers-who-kill-pedestrians-rarely-face-punishment-analysis-finds-4420 http://cironline.org/reports/bay-area-drivers-who-kill-pedes...
- lifeformed 13y agoAnd that's why I only shovel 2 straight lines on my driveway.
- moron4hire 13y agoSome of us don't want to make our entire life centered around an urban area. I have friends from South Philly who've never been outside of Philadelphia. For all the people here with their vitriol towards cars, that sort of provincial attitude is just as disgusting to me. New Yorkers are the worst about it. They can't imagine there is anything worthwhile that is not in their city. I've been freelancing from home for 2 years now and the thing I miss the most is driving. I loved driving. Getting out, doing things, seeing different things, rather than going to the same, old places all the time just because they were in walking distance. Getting to places 10 miles away on time without having to leave an hour before hand. It was great.
- burkemw3 13y agoWhat happens if I take photos of a sidewalk after a snow storm, note the areas that are covered with snow, and argue that the unused space should be used for additional car lanes or parking?
- mankypro 13y agoIt's clear that in the author's world everybody drives a Prius. I guess Amazon and Google shopping drones will deliver everything in his utopia. No need for trucks to be able to navigate the streets. Hey! I'd like to see a plow on a Nissan Leaf!