A new book articulates a debate in the ‘complete streets’ movement – particularly relevant to Vancouver as the redesign of Cornwall/Point Grey Road progresses.
Philip Langdon, in Better! Cities & Towns, reviews Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns here.
The intent … is to ensure that people of all sorts—including motorists, transit users, cyclists, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities—are properly served by the country’s streets and roads. Massengale and Dover praise this as a policy goal, and applaud the fact that hundreds of municipalities have adopted Complete Street regulations.
But too often, according to the authors, the built result is a “formulaic, seemingly ubiquitous use of yellow pedestrian crossings, red bus lanes, green bicycle tracks, ugly bumpouts, and uglier white plastic sticks.”
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… some of the streets that have been outfitted with dedicated bike lanes look harsh and cluttered. The highway-scale markings on many redesigned streets “are psychologically uncomfortable for anyone on foot,” Massengale and Dover assert. …
Many features introduced by transportation departments reflect an engineering mindset; they lack the subtle and humane touch we ought to be striving for. Why? Partly because specialists with narrow outlooks are still too much in charge. As Massengale and Dover see it, there is a heavy-handed attempt to “move vehicles (now including bicycles) through the city,” to the detriment of the experience of being in the city.
The authors find similar flaws in modern roundabouts, a traffic device that has proliferated in the past 20 years. “Today we have suburban-style traffic-calming techniques that don’t work for the creation or restoration of walkable places being used in towns and cities,” Massengale and Dover warn. Aggressive striping, “splitter islands” at the entrance to the circle, signs big enough to be readable at 55 mph, and an absence of trees combine to make pedestrians nervous about such roundabouts.
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