Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Rightsizing Streets: Change design, change behavior.

Think about rightsizing New Albany's streets.

What is ‘Rightsizing’ a Street? Rightsizing is the process of reallocating a street’s space to better serve its full range of users.

Rightsizing Streets: The needs of our communities evolve over time, and our street design should, too. That’s the idea behind ‘rightsizing streets’ – reconfiguring the layout of our streets to better serve the people who use them, whether they’re commuters driving, shoppers walking, or children bicycling. Across the country, communities large and small are achieving impressive safety, mobility, and community outcomes by implementing such reconfigurations.

I glance outside the window at our outdated, one-way, pass-through street grid, and I think: It's a veritable laboratory for changing behavior by changing design.

So, why is it that we're so chickenshit when it comes to sorely needed paradigm shifts?

No comments: