What If Transportation Design Centered Individuals, Not Automobiles?
It sounds easy – and for some cities, it’s taking place now.
It’s an apparent however troublesome reality in transportation design: Automobiles and people don’t share the identical wants. In reality, after we design cities for vehicles, we’re actively making them extra hostile for the planet, in addition to for individuals who stroll, roll, and in any other case have to get round with out driving. This hostility results in damaging outcomes within the areas of local weather and public well being. Sadly, within the final fifty years, city designers have largely prioritized the wants of vehicles — assume extensive roads and infinite parking heaps — over the wants of individuals. Our cities and cities have modified to replicate a car-centered method that’s costing us our well being and wellness. However in some forward-thinking areas of the US, transportation planners and elected officers are utilizing well being, not freeway utilization, to measure success.
For City Design 4 Well being, a global consulting group which, success is measured in well being outcomes, not shortened commute instances. UD4H “makes a speciality of measuring the place-based relationships between land growth, transportation, and exercise and journey conduct patterns,” in accordance with their mission assertion. Its founder, Dr. Larry Frank, has been doing the work for many years. He joined America Walks for a December 2022 webinar to speak in regards to the potentialities when cities concentrate on folks and locations, not parking.
Watch the Full Webinar Right here:
Utilizing well being outcomes — like diabetes charges, incidences of respiratory illness, and coronary heart illness — as the important thing metrics, slightly than conventional, car-centered benchmarks, officers in Nevada, New York, and California have helped their residents get wholesome and reconnect with their communities. As Dr. Frank demonstrated, altering streets to make them extra walkable additionally creates areas for folks to assemble and cuts down on the sorts of actions that result in elevated carbon output.
“Well being and local weather change are two sides of the identical coin in the case of the constructed surroundings,” stated Dr. Frank. Further road timber, extra watershed-friendly constructing supplies, denser housing, and fewer giant parking heaps may also help minimize by city warmth bubbles whereas encouraging folks to stroll and bike extra.
Taking Again the Streets
Additionally becoming a member of the webinar had been Alex Kone of The Genesee Transportation Council in Rochester NY, Deb Reardon of the Regional Transportation Fee in Southern Nevada, and Kim Anderson from the San Joaquin Council of Governments in California. Collectively, they’ve analyzed the intersections of well being, transportation, and land use plans throughout their areas.
Do these sorts of interventions actually work wherever in America? Completely, says Reardon, who spoke in regards to the particular challenges in Southern Nevada.
“Numerous what we’re coping with is suburban-style growth, with decrease densities and auto-oriented road networks,” she acknowledged, explaining that “these situations…imply lots of our residents and guests are driving.”
If a spot like Southern Nevada can undertake the form of radical road redesign required to heart strolling, biking, rolling, taking transit, and different non-car types of transportation, nearly wherever else can, as effectively. They only want is the political will to make use of the well being of the neighborhood and the planet, slightly than the need to drive and park, to make it occur.
As all the time, you possibly can watch all of America Walks’ webinars on our YouTube channel. Discover all of them right here.