NYTimes Opinion: Better Ways to Get Around Town

Lots here for US cities large and small. Lessons worth learning from London, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

“Some old-school traffic engineers in America will tell you that many of the Dutch ideas are unsafe. What they mean is that they make streets unsafe for fast driving.”

Opinion

There Are Better Ways to Get Around Town

By John Massengale May 15, 2018

“Some old-school traffic engineers in America will tell you that many of the Dutch ideas are unsafe. What they mean is that they make streets unsafe for fast driving. In 2016, the Netherlands had 33 traffic deaths for every million people. America had 118 traffic deaths per million. “

Top: Photo by John Massengale; Bottom: Rendering by Gabrielle Stroik Johnson; Design by Massengale & Co LLC

1. When drivers slow down to 20 m.p.h. or below, they are less likely to hit people and much less likely to seriously injure or kill people if they do hit them.

2. The best way to slow cars down is to throw away all the techniques that traffic engineers developed to make traffic flow quickly.

3. When you throw out all the detritus of traffic engineering, it becomes much easier to make beautiful places where people want to walk. Bike riding becomes more pleasant and safer as well.

Read more…

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/opinion/there-are-better-ways-to-get-around-town.html

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