Comments on: What it Takes

By: michael

michael — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:13:52 +0000

Of course, if you replace the parked cars with bicycles, this oft cited point becomes moot…

By: espalier

espalier — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:52:54 +0000

Removing curbside parking can be a disaster for pedestrians and walkability. Cars parked in the street along sidewalks not only help to slow down vehicular traffic, they are also a significant buffer between moving cars and pedestrians. As an example, try walking down 23rd Ave in the Central District during rush hour. It feels dangerous and it is dangerous because you have cars zooming by, literally feet away from you. Contrast that experience with a walk down Broadway or any street downtown that has street parking. It feels much safer because of that physical barrier created by the row of cars separating the sidewalk from the street.

By: quilsone

quilsone — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:33:00 +0000

One thing I’ve never understood is the American emphasis on bike lanes integrated with car lanes (as in, half a car lane to the right reserved for bikes), versus the European emphasis on building bicycle lanes separated from traffic (a full car-lane for two-direction bicycle traffic, separated from the car lanes by a curb or small divider). It seems like this method uses just as much space, but it feels so much safer to ride a bike when the cars are walled off from you.

I feel certain that building bike lanes in this manner would go very far in encouraging more people to bike, and to bike more. Are there reasons that you don’t see this type of arrangement here?

By: Matt the Engineer

Matt the Engineer — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:19:34 +0000

Street parking seems like a terrible waste of space to me – even if nobody biked or rode transit. We take what could be perfectly good driving lanes and park in them? Almost everywhere throughout the city? Why stop there – there’s at least 3 more lanes you can park on in most downtown streets. Or maybe go for all 4 and make the whole place a parking lot.

For car-head cities: remove street parking, and magically see traffic dissolve and new garage construction blossom – including nice parking-under-building designs. Maybe even require parking-under-building designs in areas that you want easily accessable by car.

In non-car-head cities: do the same thing! Except make these new lanes into transit or bike lanes.