Yule Heibel's Library tagged traffic →  View Popular, Search in Google

"Appleyard published his compelling research in 1981 in a book called Livable Streets. Sadly, he died the next year — struck by a speeding car in Athens, Greece — and perhaps that is why he is not better known, even among urbanists. But his findings, which have recently been replicated in the United Kingdom, should be part of any discussion about the erosion of social ties in modern society.

Appleyard did his research in San Francisco in 1969, looking at three categories of streets: light traffic (2,000 vehicles per day), medium traffic (8,000 vehicles), and heavy traffic (16,000). What he found was that residents of lightly trafficked streets had two more neighborhood friends and twice as many acquaintances as those on the heavily trafficked streets.

Residents who were interviewed by Appleyard also talked about what they saw as their home territory. On the heavily trafficked street, respondents indicated that their apartment, or perhaps their building, qualified as “home.” On the light-traffic streets, people often saw the whole block as home. They also included much more detail when asked to draw pictures of their streets."

atlantic_cities donald_appleyard traffic cars automobile socialtheory urbanism

On retooling old expressways in urban cores:
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The hearings and the public process on these three interventions have revealed a cultural clash: old vs. young, bicyclists vs. solo drivers, yuppies vs. townies, and so on. The fight is in the trenches, in long discussions and blog posts on traffic counts, state modeling and projections, and the methodology of license plate surveys. Everyone's voice must be heard, a legacy of the exclusion of citizens in the original construction of the roadways, but seemingly a guarantee of paralysis when it comes to repairing the damage they have caused.
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anthony_flint atlantic_cities transportation highways traffic

Amen.
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We now know what they didn't in Eisenhower's day: it's possible to remove highways from city centers without ruining either the city or the highway. In fact, both can emerge stronger than before, as they did when Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco was replaced with an inviting waterfront boulevard. Many other cities now hope to duplicate that success. Earlier this fall the Urban Land Institute released a list of ten urban highways whose days are numbered. Many of these usual suspects have appeared on similar lists released by the Congress for the New Urbanism over the past few years. Moving east to west across the country, here's a look at ten roads that may not be cutting through cities much longer, as well as some of the plans that might replace them.
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highway_system cities urban_renewal infrastructure traffic atlantic_cities

The comments on this article are excellent (critical). Have to agree with the ones that criticize central planning. If zone 1 and 3 were connected directly (skipping zone 2), I bet it would be the same story as with building more and bigger roads...
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The researchers' algorithms indicate when the network of roads and subway lines between two regions cannot support the number of people traveling between those regions. By pointing out underlying problems, the system shows urban planners where to focus their attention, Zheng says.

In some cases, Zheng says, the busy regions aren't really the ones that are flawed. For example, it may be that people from region 1 are going through region 2 on their way to region 3, in which case it may be better to connect region 1 and 3 directly, rather than trying to widen highways in region 2.
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planning urban_planning traffic congestion mit_techreview

Excellent post by Ephemeral New York on "Three ways of looking at Delancey Street," that is, 1919, 1975, and today. One of the commenters puts it best when he writes that the 2 modern pictures show "sewers for cars." (h/t @davewiner)

nyc delancey_street ephemeral_new_york traffic automobile cars urban_design

Fascinating read about how the concept of "forgiving highways" (forged in the 1960s), and why it needs rethinking in built-up areas, and how the Dutch are leading the way.
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Forgiving Highways is a concept that designs roads to “forgive” mistakes made on the road. It seeks to smoothly redirect the vehicles that leave roads, and allow wide enough clear zones to bring vehicles to controlled stops if and when they leave the roads. Breakaway supports, burying the end of guardrail, clearing the roadside of unneeded obstacles, and flattening and rounding slopes and ditch sections became standard design as part of the concept.

The idea that Forgiving Highways (wider and straighter) would reduce crashes on non-freeways took root during the 1966 National Highway Safety hearings.
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Obviously, "forgiving highways" works well in a non-urban context, but in an urban context, arterials built with those guidelines provide a false sense of security for drivers, and leave pedestrians and cyclists (anyone "weaker") in the lurch.

I'm particularly interested in this entry right now, because it seems to me that the City of Victoria's Engineering Department is stuck in a "forgiving highway" mindset as it tries to convince us that the city's Johnson Street Bridge needs to be replaced.

project_for_public_spaces roads transportation holland traffic traffic_safety