In 2010 I was interviewed by DWELL Magazine about the future for parks and public spaces. I was delighted to be interviewed along with Janette Sadik-Khan from NYC and Richard Haag from Seattle.
http://www.dwell.com/future/article/green-between-lines
At that time, I said “…designing green spaces to walk to and through is key to maintaining physical activity and medical and mental health. We need to stop thinking of nature as places in our parks and legibly spill those ecological components into our city streets and spaces to create usable walkable park environments in everyday places.”
And sure enough, just five years later, Gladys We of SFU passed on this article written by Alissa Walker describing the potential greening of forty blocks of Broadway in New York City, creating a living green spine on one of the major arteries of that city. In 2010 Janette Sadik-Khan, the former commissioner of transportation for New York City saw the transformation of streets into the “living rooms” of New York City. She was right.
This “green line” concept is an idea of Perkins Eastman architects to make the 40 blocks from Central Park to Union Square into a car-free public space. This green link would give more park space, link Manhattan’s pedestrian plazas, infiltrate water in bioswales and provide a place for water runoff. Such a link would also equitably distribute access to green space to lower income city areas. The article notes that when streets in Times Square were closed for pedestrian conversion, vehicular congestion improved-and of course Broadway could become a bikeway haven. Could such a plan be feasible? And could we incorporate these ideas into making “green lines” in Vancouver? Is this the future of our present greenway and bikeway system, in a densifying city that will be short of park space?
The full article is here.
http://gizmodo.com/a-totally-feasible-plan-to-turn-manhattans-busiest-stre-1747951630
Sandy James
A great idea for our Broadway after the subway is completed!
And by improving walking and cycling access to the stations, ridership and thus revenue would increase making the business case even better.
The artist’s rendering you include shows the park extending across an intersecting street. This may be a feature that will not be included in the final product. But it would be great if these malls were, in fact, continuous, rather than like Ottawa’s now-elderly Sparks Street, which is six one-block malls, rather than one six-block mall.
I suppose the best way to accomplish a continuous park is to have the intersecting roads pass under or over the park, or locate the park in an area where there are no major cross streets (i.e. waterfront or parallel to rail lines), or a combination of grade separation and road closure.
PS – in Vancouver, Robson Square is elevated over Smithe St. and passes under Robson St. in order to create a continuous park, but the change in elevation of the park (and the number of stairs) seems to deter heavy use.
While a linear park or pedestrian street replacing a secondary traffic route is intriguing, I believe the cost of grade separation at crossings will be too prohibitive to justify only a pedestrian route. It’s better to leave the crossings open but apply much higher pedestrian and bike traffic control criteria over the intersections. There are all kinds of interesting crossing markings, signals and pavement treatments out there to make them unique and highly visible.
The illustration indicates a very strong orientation to green space. However, I predict the maintenance issues will kill the lawn and ground covers during the first winter (you know, they kinda turn to mush), and this needs to be addressed. I suggest in Vancouver you save the large green surfaces for open parks and apply a pedestrian-only street narrative and design program to the street. This means hard paving softened occasionally with raised planters containing trees and spilling ground covers, not expanses of lawn.
We can learn much from Copenhagen, and not just about bikes. For example, the Stroget …..
http://goingtocopenhagen.com/siteimg/gallery/shopping/stroget2-1024×613.jpg
Another aspect is to examine the street grid too.
Robson or Davie Streets have very long blocks west of Burrard, so they automatically provide a long promenade between intersections.
Robson or Davie Streets east of Burrard have short blocks plus alleys – a poor choice for pedestrianization (east of Burrard you’d be better with a north-south street given the change in street grid).
A great idea ANYWHERE in Vancouver .. say Robson Street to start with .. perhaps even a block .. or 3 or 20 all the way from BC Place to Stanley Park .. or Davie, or Denman, or Browadway or 4th Ave or Main or Commercial or S-Granville from 4th to 16hth .. anywhere .. PLEASE .. where is the vision in “Vision” Vancouver .. or dare I say NPA .. to even discuss it ?
Take a look at UBC’s Wesbrook Village, for example, which is south of 16th past Wesbrook Mall where every second street is a green street ! Doable certainly in vancouver, in most residential neighborhoods. Would you not rather live on a green street with no cars than one with cars ?
The Concord Lands have a number of “mews” built into the plan (between Marinaside and Pacific Blvd, the closed-up Beatty St. through Waterworks, south of the Roundhouse and also through the Beach neighbourhood). Those are essentially pedestrian streets (but not commercial retail streets).
Came across this 1960 plan for pedestrianization of Vancouver streets.
Remember that Woodwards and Hastings Street were very much the retail “high street” of the day before it devolved, and there was a plan for a Civic Precinct around Victory Square.
http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/figure-15-circulation-pattern-for-pedestrians
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Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.