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What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

citylab.com

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Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#121

Post by woolvalley »

thomasahle wrote: post #70
ashton314 wrote: post #55

I lived in Germany for two years without a car. The public transportation there was amazing—I learned to appreciate how little I needed a car, provided the infrastructure was good enough/I had a bike. In many cities there's a "Fußgängerzone": pedestrian-only areas; these were mostly found in the city center where the streets and shops are too dense to allow much traffic. I remember specifically in Frankfurt am Main a…

This was tried some places in the US in the part. Unfortunately most times they failed. Unable to attract enough people, they felt even less alive than the streets and entered a cycle a of death. However there are some signs of a rebirth: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275887405_American_...

I would call them malls in america ;p

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#122

Post by ajmurmann »

lmm wrote: post #110
ip26 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, we can go back and forth with datapoints forever. The London Underground uses subterranean pedestrian tunnels, though personally I've only walked the one at Heathrow, at night. As it's the main way between terminals I expect it sees lots of foot traffic during the day.

Most of those pedestrian tunnels are pretty unpleasant; everyone I know regards them as a necessary evil at best. Tunnels are inherently not human-friendly spaces (limited natural light) so I don't think you'll find any real success stories for pedestrian tunnels; better to put the cars in tunnels if you must go that route.

There is of course also the option of a bridge/elevated walkway system that seems to be working really well in Hong Kong. At least I loved it.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#123

Post by Wowfunhappy »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #106
darkerside wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't been to Times Square in a while, but I have to assume that's a good example of a busy pedestrian zone in America.

Times square is basically just a tourist trap and not representative of a commercial zone that serves the local residential population. Locals are only there because of the transit access.

Native NYC'er here, I absolutely go to Times Square. For starters, it's where most of the largest broadway shows are!

In terms of shopping, the stores are all chains, so nothing is "unique" per se. However, getting to Times Square is super convenient because it's a transit hub.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#124

Post by ndnxhs »

justtopost wrote: post #58
ndnxhs wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have never been on a street that would support a hockey game. Such a street would not allow you to drive on it. There were hardly any kids outside in my suburb and then the council built a small dirt jumps park and the day it opens there is a swarm of 40 - 50 people using it. People won't use something until it exists for them to use it.

I grew up playing hockey in the street, but please, presume more about me.

I grew up playing hockey on the school team and I would never even try playing on the street. Angry bogans would get road rage if someone got in their way and everyone I know is 10km+ away.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#125

Post by wenc »

reaperducer wrote: post #60
kingo55 wrote: post #23

I live in St Kilda, Australia and our council recently changed one of our iconic streets to almost exclusively be for pedestrians and trams. Businesses protested for months about potential lost business, however as a resident I feel so much safer walking down the street. It feels like foot traffic has increased there, too. It's such an improvement. I also like to think tunnels to apartment buildings could help us tak…

our council recently changed one of our iconic streets to almost exclusively be for pedestrians and trams. For whatever it's worth, Chicago tried both of these things, and they didn't work out. The main shopping drag, State Street, was pedestrianized in 1979. You can see it for a few seconds in the film National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation . It didn't work. It was re-opened to traffic in 1996, and is now far more vi…

I think the right conditions have to exist for pedestrianization (don't ask me what they are -- I have an intuition about them but can't really articulate them). Lincoln Square for instance would a great candidate for pedestrianization -- lots of nice little shops in a high density location.

As for the Pedway, one of problems is like most underground walkways, navigation is difficult. There's no official map that tells you what destinations you can reach and how to reach them. You can't navigate with Google Maps, and signage is poor to non-existent. Also, most areas of the Pedway are quiet, secluded and feel unsafe. My sense is that the Pedway was designed for hyperlocalized usage (moving from one building to the next) and not as a network of passages.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#126

Post by ocschwar »

reificator wrote: post #54
pasta wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternative to underground is 'at the back'. For example you can have a car free shopping street where cars can only park at the back sides of the shops.

Which quickly becomes the front for businesses advertising to passersby.

Not with Boston's Quincy Market. The stores face two pedestrian streets. The back sides are for cars, and they're just utilitarian alleys.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#127

Post by ocschwar »

leetcrew wrote: post #36
clairity wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm on board with putting express roads and parking underground (even though the costs are high) and making the extra space available for humans, pets and lower speed transport like bikes and scooters. i'd also advocate making licensing for vehicles much harder and increasing the enforcement and punishment of distracted driving.

how do you increase the enforcement of distracted driving?

Bollards. Trees. High curbs. Feel free to drive like an idiot and send an auto shop worker's child to college.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#128

Post by CPLX »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #106
darkerside wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't been to Times Square in a while, but I have to assume that's a good example of a busy pedestrian zone in America.

Times square is basically just a tourist trap and not representative of a commercial zone that serves the local residential population. Locals are only there because of the transit access.

> Locals are only there because of the transit access.

Plus the fact that there are probably 150,000+ jobs within a three block radius.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#129

Post by thaumasiotes »

benc666 wrote: post #108
smallnamespace wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And of course 'footganger' almost makes sense in English — 'gang' in the sense of a passage is preserved in 'gangplank', and modern 'gang' has the related sense of 'group of people who go together'.

In Afrikaans - spoken in ZA (south africa) - that is pretty much the actual word :) "voetganger" "voet" - foot/feet "ganger" - someone who moves along using the former noun The Latin Root is what connects many European languages.

English "foot" (and the equivalent Germanic words) are cognate with the Latin word "pes" (= foot), but do not descend from it. It's not a Latin root.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#130

Post by tudelo »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #77
tudelo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 mph... yeah. About that. People in the US don't really go the speed limit even in a 25mph zone so I don't know how well that will work. The only time I see people generally going the speed limit is in areas with speed tracking cameras.

> People in the US don't really go the speed limit even in a 25mph zone so I don't know how well that will work. If you just change the signs, obviously it would fail miserably. You need to change the actual design of the street to match the ideal. There are lots of ways to do this, just google "road diet".

The only way I could see this happening is with really damaging speed bumps every car length.
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