Project: Design a Livable Street
- Posted by: GOOD
- on April 7, 2009 at 12:07 am
America’s streets leave a lot to be desired. As Carly Clark and Aaron Naparstek write in the latest issue of GOOD, “For the most part, [traffic engineers] viewed the city from behind a windshield and saw the street as a problem to be solved for automobiles. The result is the America city that most of us know today: sprawling, traffic-choked, hostile to pedestrians and cyclists, dependent on a vast, never-ending flow of cheap oil, and deeply unsustainable.”
We can make our streets better, though, and the first step is imagining the solutions. That’s the point of the Project at hand. We’d like you to design improvements to a street in your area.
UPDATE (5/18/09): The winners have been announced! See Aaron and Carly’s selections and comments here.
UPDATE (5/11/09): Given the number of submissions, we’re giving Aaron a little more time. We’ll be back with an announcement of the winner on May 18th. Apologies for the delay.
UPDATE (5/4/09): The Project is closed to submissions now. We’ll be back on Monday, May 11, with Aaron’s verdict. In the meantime, check out the makeovers below. Thanks to all the participants!
the OBJECTIVE
To imagine improvements to our struggling streets.
the ASSIGNMENT
Take a photo of a street or intersection you know and hate, and then use Photoshop or any other image editing techniques at your disposal to make the changes you’d like to see implemented.
the REQUIREMENTS
Send your BEFORE and AFTER images to projects[at]goodmagazine[dot]com. Aaron Naparstek, the editor of Streetsblog, will judge the submissions. We’ll send a GOOD T-shirt and a free subscription (or gift subscription) to the winner. We’ll take submissions now through May 1.
RESEARCH and INSPIRATION
Check out the example from Carly and Aaron: an overhaul of the the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue and West 76th Street in Manhattan.
Also check out livablestreets.com and streetsblog.org.
SUBMISSIONS
From Shaun Smakal:
From Andrew Pedron:
From Gregory Heller:
From Jonathan Chen:
From Steve Price:
From John Dutton, Teo Beocina and David Milner:
From Takuma Ono:
From Paola Jaramillo:
From Juli Kaufmann:
From Arielle Clark:
From Aaron Nelson:
From Christopher Parker:
From Maggie Leighly:
From Torti Gallas and partners:
From Josh Wood:
From Jose Menendez:
From Pilar Pastor:
From Andrew Hernandez and Jackie Munoz:
From Godoylab:
From Eva Chacon:
From Chris Malloy:
DISCUSSION: 41 Comments
This is such a great idea!I really hate that cities prioritize cars over pedestrians—why are objects that make inefficient use of space and energy and have negative consequences to the environment given priority?
Question: is this contest/project for streets in America only or are participants from other parts of the world also welcome?
Negative consequences to the environment = more expenses, at least in the eyes of traffic engineers who love to make our cities such a bore. Community-oriented design of our cities and towns should be the future; that way cities can be designed for the citizens and not just for the engineers’ satisfaction.
Yeah it’s pretty and all. I guess I wouldn’t mind it, me being a guy who was raised in NYC his whole life. But this ideology you’ve presented, while well packaged, just created a much huger issue. It’s the first thing I’ve noticed as I’ve been coming up with redesigns to submit to city hall myself; You just got rid of all the parking spots on that street. Not sure where your based out of, or if you drive(I’ve given up driving due to this issue), Parking is the biggest issue in our city, with certain times, special zones, alternate parking, this is what cause more traffic then anything. Double parking, triple parking, holding up traffic waiting for that guy/girl to pull out. Should we evict more families in the name of eminent domain and turn their apartment buildings into parking garages? Please don’t think I’m bad mouthing the project, i’m 100% in favor of it, but these is a pretty fix to improve traffic flow, but eventually these vehicles have to come to a halt.
Also, to add to my comment about (anonymous NYC guy), please research Park Avenue from when it was conceived. Archived photos will show you exactly why it was called “Park” Avenue, it truly was beautiful… but utility and function took precedent in our fast paced society. I want Park Avenue back in all it’s glory…but I know all deliveries to my favorite eateries and such will suffer as a result, not to mention traffic backup for public transportation.
I so want to do this action The Netherlands, too! Is there any way I can start this here, too?
If you want to change your cities then you should look at what happened and is happening in Bogota, Colombia. A mayor overhaul that is still taking place made this horrible city into a modern, pedestrian oriented city, not to mention a more beatifull one with better busines and better public transportation. The mayor who did it is Enrrique Peñalosa and he has studied for years how to change streets to make citys better places to live.
To the guy who brought up parking…Parking is only an issue if people are driving. Making driving more difficult (less convenient, slower, more expensive to park in designated garages) will force people to walk, use transit, or bike. I grew up in New York City, never had a car, so parking was never an issue. Millions of New Yorkers live this way. Most of the drivers are from outside the City, so designing streets for their benefit rather than for city residents do not make sense.
Your retort to the parking flaw I pointed out, was for millions of drivers to give up their lifestyles so we can design the city for people who are non-residents.I bike, I take the 7 line in and switch to where I have to go, but that’s me and a few other million. Yet there are more than 8 million families on Manhattan island alone, most of which have to commute to NJ, CT, the other boroughs other then Manhattan, driving is most effective for them.Or lets think about the delivery truck that needs to pull over to drop off the beans and flour for that place you hop off your bike and grab your morning cup of coffee and a bagel.. should he pull up on the sidewalk, take up one of the two lanes, or go two avenues over and park in a parking garage and heave the 40lb bags of flour on his back? You don’t design a city for the tourists, you feed your own family before you take in strays.
”most of which have to commute to NJ, CT, the other boroughs other then Manhattan”. Are you joking?! No way Manhattan could handle these > 4 millions traveling by car. Besides, as somebody who lives in the city and works in the burbs (Westchester), commuting there by public transport and bicycle is very well possible (and judging from Metro-North reverse commute traffic also increasingly done …)
when is the submission deadline?
Manhattan handles tremendous traffic for it’s size. ”The GW is considered one of the world’s busiest bridges in terms of
vehicle traffic; In 2004, the bridge carried 108,404,000 vehicles, with
current AADT estimates of nearly 300,000 vehicles daily” That is ONE way off the island by car. Do you want the statistics for the rest? Next time do some research before you try to make someone feel dumb.Lincoln Tunnel – “The tunnel carries about 120,000 vehicles per day, making it one of the busiest vehicular tunnels in the world. “These are 2004 statistics, mind you. More people are driving today. People coming in for a shift, need to park. People coming home from their outside NYC(let’s say Westchester) shift, need a place to park.And yes, you can get to your job via public transportation, that’s great for you, kudos, I applaud. Public transit doesn’t get into every nook and cranny, and bikes are not well suited for the distance either unless you exercise frequently enough and wake up early enough. Let us NOT forget that the MTA, regardless of how much they hike it up in June, they’re still firing 1,100 employees, taking away 24/7 service from train and bus stops, CANCELING 3 Subway lines, AND killing off 12 bus routes. If you don’t believe me, look it up, but I swear i’m only stating fact(s).Parking must be taken into consideration for the citizens, as well as the commuters, of NYC. I would lvoe soemthing beautiful like this, but it needs to be scaled back and take parking into consideration.
@Anon Deadline is May 1st!
@Anon (April 7, 2009 at 8:22 am)
Question: is this contest/project for streets in America only or are participants from other parts of the world also welcome?
We gladly accept submissions from anywhere in the world. If you’ve got a street you’d like to see made more livable, we’d love to review and share your ideas.
What is the grand prize?
This is excellent. It’s one thing to talk about it, but to see it in this way can help change the perception of livable streets and transit-oriented developments. I talk a lot about that at Switching Modes. Check it out here: http://www.switchingmode.com
Drats! Is this open to Canadian readers?! I wish I’d known about this sooner, cause I definitely would’ve publicized this for Toronto!
attn: livable streets advocates. it’d be great if someone made a tool where you could take your street (i.e. size / number of lanes, sidewalks, etc), and play with wider sidewalks, bike lanes, etc (either modular or variable width), planters, paving / survaces, bike racks, street furniture, etc. in a sort of palette of livable streets. anyone up for it?
Oh shucks! Is there a way to show the ‘populated’ version of my after graphic as well? Seeing the labeled one makes it seem just as barren and lifeless as the original…
That last post, of course, coming from me, and in reference to Flint, MI entry…
This is fantastic. Shaun Smakel FTW. Well thought out, pragmatic & achievable. John/Teo/David’s idea, though utopian & grand is unrealistic. The rest IMHO could’ve been taken a bit further
This is an awesome idea to have – but it is easier said then done isn’t it. It’s hard to change anything in a community.
That’s why things like this are so important right now, JulieC. I’m seeing a lot of effort being made here to reduce the over-scaled and over-engineered infrastructure of our cities and replace it with something easier to maintain and more accessible to folks on bikes. The ideas folks are showing here honestly aren’t that much more broader in scope than any of the green or complete street programs being adopted by cities and state DOT’s.
The first thing that could make some disasters as our streets looking,is behind the executive cycles in cities management…These cycle lead the total thinking toward majors and manager learned solving the major first and something like happiness and good looking have the last position in minorities list!!!
I think Shaun Smakal’s is probably the best one so far. Also, as for parking and cars, why go to extremes? Designate certain area for personal car usage, for example suburban or residential areas on the outskirts of heavily trafficked (sic) areas and other for pedestrian/bike/service/delivery vehicles only. Then, actually provide efficient and accessible public transportation for people. I’m sure a lot of folks have park and rides in their area. Most cities could do that on a grand scale. For those parts of the city or town that require a dual purpose, designate “hours of operation” for personal vehicles.I’m not a fan of this area for other reasons, but Kansas City has “The Power and Light” District which I think is a decent example of a dual purpose area. After hours, when all the commuters have left during the weekday, the city can raise barriers to keep personal vehicles out effectively turning a couple of blocks into a “pedestrian only” zone. We have to to let go of the idea of ‘living in our cars’ as if they are some sort of second home, but this unmetered backlash against car use is a bit much.