This document discusses the concept of "Complete Streets" which aims to ensure streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders. It covers three parts: processes, practices, and possibilities. In part one, it discusses the history of prioritizing automobiles over other street users and questions whether policies promote economic freedom or caused problems cities now face. Part two examines examples of street practices and their impacts, like gentrification. Part three explores possibilities for more inclusive street designs and their ability to build community. Throughout, it questions whose needs streets serve and how to achieve social equity.
For the Final of the European Student Parliament in Copenhagen in June 2014, I created a preparation kit. My working group of around 10 young students from all over Europe was asked to develop new ideas for future mobility in cities.
In my overview I touched several topics, such as understanding cities, relevance of mobility, current challenges and perspectives for the future.
More information on my blog: hoffmannmartin.eu/youth-science-finals-of-the-european-student-parliaments/
Placemaking: Building our Cities around placesPriya Vakil
ThinkPhi is on a journey to build cities that are healthy and sustainable. We are doing this by using Placemaking - a design philosophy that explores how spaces in a community can be better utilised.
And this is philosophy, we constantly use when having discussion on helping design sustainable cities.
For the Final of the European Student Parliament in Copenhagen in June 2014, I created a preparation kit. My working group of around 10 young students from all over Europe was asked to develop new ideas for future mobility in cities.
In my overview I touched several topics, such as understanding cities, relevance of mobility, current challenges and perspectives for the future.
More information on my blog: hoffmannmartin.eu/youth-science-finals-of-the-european-student-parliaments/
Placemaking: Building our Cities around placesPriya Vakil
ThinkPhi is on a journey to build cities that are healthy and sustainable. We are doing this by using Placemaking - a design philosophy that explores how spaces in a community can be better utilised.
And this is philosophy, we constantly use when having discussion on helping design sustainable cities.
[Slides] Equity in Motion: Bikeshare in Low-Income CommunitiesAysha Cohen
Overview of emerging trends, challenges, analysis, findings and recommendations from my UCLA Capstone research for the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) entitled, "Equity in Motion: Bikeshare in Low-Income Communities". Presented at "Transportation Techies" at WeWork Crystal City on 11/3.
Functional Classification of Streets: So important that no one wants to talk ...Andy Boenau
This presentation was given as an online seminar sponsored by American Planning Association's New Urbanism Division. The audio is available on YouTube: http://youtu.be/J9HjJ78Ma7w
As practitioners of new urbanism principles, it is important to understand why our street networks have eroded so dramatically and the direct connection to livability and sustainability that we strive to achieve. The purpose of the webcast will educate participants to strengthen their transportation planning knowledge base. That knowledge will increase productivity of the collaboration between engineers and planners.
Functional classification is a transportation topic that is often left for engineers to sort out, but it has a huge impact on urban planning. Anyone involved in urban planning – including community stakeholders – should be part of the dialogue surrounding the function of public streets. Functional classification is a way that transportation professionals group streets according to the type of traffic they serve and the degree of access expected to adjacent land uses.
Few transportation issues are as important as functional classification, and yet it is one of the least understood or debated. Despite the Federal Highway Administration’s advocacy of flexible design standards, typical practice in the United States has been very rigid, leading to unintended negative consequences. For new urbanism, that means streets that require almost highway speeds and lane widths—physical impacts that are contrary to the overall purpose of new urban planning. For example, in some areas an Urban Principal Arterial might require a minimum 45 MPH design speed and minimum 12-foot wide lanes, even if the surrounding land uses need more appropriate (i.e. livable, sustainable) solutions.
The session includes two primary takeaways: (1) history of streets (vitality, walkability, etc.); and (2) how we can learn from our history to improve streets (including mobility and safety for all users). Designing places scaled appropriately for active human living is critical, especially in urbanized areas (city centers, suburbs, villages, etc.).
Shreya Gadepalli, Sr. Programme Director, ITDP "Transport is key to sustainab...www.theurbanvision.com
Building Livable Cities : a multi city investigation on ideas that can make Indian cities livable. See: www.theurbanvision.com/blc
Shreya Gadepalli, Sr. Programme Director, ITDP "Transport is key to sustainable Cities"
Street design and the reality of urban life in the global southJimly Faraby
This presentation questioned the inclusiveness of streets in the global south, by reflecting the typical urbanism in the global south with current practices of street design.
Street space and informality: towards an inclusive communityJimly Faraby
This paper summarizes the evolution of views about street, and describes some empirical evidences from several cases showing the potentiality of street to bring inclusive community. From such cases, informal utilization of street space seems to be one of key factors to bring social interaction in street space, especially in developing countries. Therefore, while government’s attitude toward informality is often cumbersome, apparently informality needs to be taken into account in urban planning and design process in developing countries, including Indonesia, to stimulate social life in urban area.
Upper Green Side conducted a survey with over 200 residents of the Upper East Side about their transportation patterns a views on how to reduce congestion and promote more sustainable modes.
EIP Water Action Group City Blueprints September 2013EIP Water
The City Blueprint for Water is a baseline assessment of the sustainability of water management in a city (or other dominantly urban region). The result allows a city to quickly understand how advanced it is in sustainable water management and enables it to compare its status with other leading cities.
This project is one of nine Action Groups selected by the European Commission as an initial EIP Water Action Group.
Sixteen cities/regions have participated so far (August 2013) and many others are being approached. This is an opportunity to take part in a new and innovative programme to help improve city-level water stewardship, in the spirit of smart and sustainable cities.
The basic output is a simple radar chart as shown in the example from Melbourne at the top of this page. The chart provides a quick visual representation of the city’s water stewardship status, and is a tool for easy comparison between cities. It covers 24 key water-related subject areas, such as water footprint, water scarcity, water quality, drinking water availability and wastewater management.
A City Blueprint is just the first step on a journey of communication and cooperation between cities. A key intention is to encourage cities to share their best practices with others, and for all to improve. A website will be developed to facilitate this. All cities are different. Some are advanced in a few or many subject areas. Some have much work to do. The aim is not to highlight failings, but instead to help a city identify areas of focus for improvement, and to learn from the best practices of others, as well as demonstrating and sharing their own best practices.
Strategy and Options for Planning Inclusive CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the context of inclusive cities, its relevance in the Indian context, problems faced by Indian cities and what are the options to make cities inclusive, and sustainable
Todd Litman of the Victoria Transportation Institute reports on the history of desirability of living locations, and how our automobile dependent society has fueled sprawl development. Mr. Litman also outlines the benefits of Smart Growth development and how growing trends, "changing attitudes about urban living," "increasing health and environmental concerns" and "shifting assumptions about suburban real estate values" are making headway in support of transportation and planning reforms that can transform our regions and communities into healthier, more functional, and beautiful places.
GLOBAL VIEW OF A VIBRANT WORLD 360° THE ISSUE Urbanisation FACE TO FACEAdhitya Arjanggi
AN URBAN PLANET:The sustainable city challenge
CITY LIVING: Creating vibrant sustainable cities SECURING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SOME FOR ALL FOREVER:Water resource management on an urban planet
TRANSFORMING TRANSPORT: The 21st century urban challenge
URBAN ENERGIES RESOURCES DEMAND AND COMMUNITY IMPACTS A 360° face to face interview BUILDING A LEGACY Creating an agile global culture of inventiveness, safety and sustainability
NEW SKILLS MAKE THE SUSTAINABLE DIFFERENCE INSPIRATIONAL ENGINEERING CAPTURING THE VISION
DOE Workshop: Shaping the Transportation RevolutionRegina Clewlow
Presentation given at a Department of Energy (DOE) workshop on "Shaping the Transportation Revolution" in Sacramento on October 21, 2015. Highlights trends in shared-use mobility, potential impacts of vehicle ownership, and challenges for researchers to measure the impacts of these services.
Note: this work was conducted while I was a Research Scholar at Stanford University. Views are my own.
“The ethics of transport planning” - Prof Stephen Potter talks at the HCDI se...Marco Ajovalasit
This presentation will explore the ethical issues behind what appears to be a technical design process - that of transport planning decisions. It will draw upon the transport/land use designs explored in Britain’s new towns (and Milton Keynes in particular) which help to highlight the ethical decisions involved.
This will illustrate the way that the design of towns and cities affects our travel behaviour and constrains our ability to choose to travel in a socially and environmentally responsible way. Indeed, we can get locked into unsustainable travel behaviours and feel powerless to behave otherwise. This leads to the now prevalent negative attitude towards transport policy initiatives and often outright opposition to sustainable transport developments.
Urban design professionals argue that high density settlements are the main way that sustainable transport choices can be provided, as such designs produce conditions which make for good public, and also suppress car use. However, although such an approach is possible in major conurbations and city centres, this is a difficult and contentious approach for suburban Britain. For most places ‘big city’ design solutions are not politically viable.
Perhaps we should be looking to more innovative approaches. These could blend a variety of new measures, such as the ‘smarter travel’ initiatives as well as new emerging technologies. However these require a different way of doing transport planning to the traditional ‘big infrastructure’ transport policy approaches. New physical design approaches often require the redesign of the processes and structures to implement and manage them, and this may be the key barrier to success.
We invite Foucault on a bus ride to help us contest our thinking about the role of BRT in Quito.
Planning is understood as something ‘good’.
The outcomes of planning are not always what we would like it to be.
The outcomes are a consequence of powerful forces.
Understanding the role of power can give use some clues to start unpacking the existing forces.
Foucault understanding of power breaks away from common understandings of power as they do not capture all the complexities of modern uses of power.
[Slides] Equity in Motion: Bikeshare in Low-Income CommunitiesAysha Cohen
Overview of emerging trends, challenges, analysis, findings and recommendations from my UCLA Capstone research for the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) entitled, "Equity in Motion: Bikeshare in Low-Income Communities". Presented at "Transportation Techies" at WeWork Crystal City on 11/3.
Functional Classification of Streets: So important that no one wants to talk ...Andy Boenau
This presentation was given as an online seminar sponsored by American Planning Association's New Urbanism Division. The audio is available on YouTube: http://youtu.be/J9HjJ78Ma7w
As practitioners of new urbanism principles, it is important to understand why our street networks have eroded so dramatically and the direct connection to livability and sustainability that we strive to achieve. The purpose of the webcast will educate participants to strengthen their transportation planning knowledge base. That knowledge will increase productivity of the collaboration between engineers and planners.
Functional classification is a transportation topic that is often left for engineers to sort out, but it has a huge impact on urban planning. Anyone involved in urban planning – including community stakeholders – should be part of the dialogue surrounding the function of public streets. Functional classification is a way that transportation professionals group streets according to the type of traffic they serve and the degree of access expected to adjacent land uses.
Few transportation issues are as important as functional classification, and yet it is one of the least understood or debated. Despite the Federal Highway Administration’s advocacy of flexible design standards, typical practice in the United States has been very rigid, leading to unintended negative consequences. For new urbanism, that means streets that require almost highway speeds and lane widths—physical impacts that are contrary to the overall purpose of new urban planning. For example, in some areas an Urban Principal Arterial might require a minimum 45 MPH design speed and minimum 12-foot wide lanes, even if the surrounding land uses need more appropriate (i.e. livable, sustainable) solutions.
The session includes two primary takeaways: (1) history of streets (vitality, walkability, etc.); and (2) how we can learn from our history to improve streets (including mobility and safety for all users). Designing places scaled appropriately for active human living is critical, especially in urbanized areas (city centers, suburbs, villages, etc.).
Shreya Gadepalli, Sr. Programme Director, ITDP "Transport is key to sustainab...www.theurbanvision.com
Building Livable Cities : a multi city investigation on ideas that can make Indian cities livable. See: www.theurbanvision.com/blc
Shreya Gadepalli, Sr. Programme Director, ITDP "Transport is key to sustainable Cities"
Street design and the reality of urban life in the global southJimly Faraby
This presentation questioned the inclusiveness of streets in the global south, by reflecting the typical urbanism in the global south with current practices of street design.
Street space and informality: towards an inclusive communityJimly Faraby
This paper summarizes the evolution of views about street, and describes some empirical evidences from several cases showing the potentiality of street to bring inclusive community. From such cases, informal utilization of street space seems to be one of key factors to bring social interaction in street space, especially in developing countries. Therefore, while government’s attitude toward informality is often cumbersome, apparently informality needs to be taken into account in urban planning and design process in developing countries, including Indonesia, to stimulate social life in urban area.
Upper Green Side conducted a survey with over 200 residents of the Upper East Side about their transportation patterns a views on how to reduce congestion and promote more sustainable modes.
EIP Water Action Group City Blueprints September 2013EIP Water
The City Blueprint for Water is a baseline assessment of the sustainability of water management in a city (or other dominantly urban region). The result allows a city to quickly understand how advanced it is in sustainable water management and enables it to compare its status with other leading cities.
This project is one of nine Action Groups selected by the European Commission as an initial EIP Water Action Group.
Sixteen cities/regions have participated so far (August 2013) and many others are being approached. This is an opportunity to take part in a new and innovative programme to help improve city-level water stewardship, in the spirit of smart and sustainable cities.
The basic output is a simple radar chart as shown in the example from Melbourne at the top of this page. The chart provides a quick visual representation of the city’s water stewardship status, and is a tool for easy comparison between cities. It covers 24 key water-related subject areas, such as water footprint, water scarcity, water quality, drinking water availability and wastewater management.
A City Blueprint is just the first step on a journey of communication and cooperation between cities. A key intention is to encourage cities to share their best practices with others, and for all to improve. A website will be developed to facilitate this. All cities are different. Some are advanced in a few or many subject areas. Some have much work to do. The aim is not to highlight failings, but instead to help a city identify areas of focus for improvement, and to learn from the best practices of others, as well as demonstrating and sharing their own best practices.
Strategy and Options for Planning Inclusive CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the context of inclusive cities, its relevance in the Indian context, problems faced by Indian cities and what are the options to make cities inclusive, and sustainable
Todd Litman of the Victoria Transportation Institute reports on the history of desirability of living locations, and how our automobile dependent society has fueled sprawl development. Mr. Litman also outlines the benefits of Smart Growth development and how growing trends, "changing attitudes about urban living," "increasing health and environmental concerns" and "shifting assumptions about suburban real estate values" are making headway in support of transportation and planning reforms that can transform our regions and communities into healthier, more functional, and beautiful places.
GLOBAL VIEW OF A VIBRANT WORLD 360° THE ISSUE Urbanisation FACE TO FACEAdhitya Arjanggi
AN URBAN PLANET:The sustainable city challenge
CITY LIVING: Creating vibrant sustainable cities SECURING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SOME FOR ALL FOREVER:Water resource management on an urban planet
TRANSFORMING TRANSPORT: The 21st century urban challenge
URBAN ENERGIES RESOURCES DEMAND AND COMMUNITY IMPACTS A 360° face to face interview BUILDING A LEGACY Creating an agile global culture of inventiveness, safety and sustainability
NEW SKILLS MAKE THE SUSTAINABLE DIFFERENCE INSPIRATIONAL ENGINEERING CAPTURING THE VISION
DOE Workshop: Shaping the Transportation RevolutionRegina Clewlow
Presentation given at a Department of Energy (DOE) workshop on "Shaping the Transportation Revolution" in Sacramento on October 21, 2015. Highlights trends in shared-use mobility, potential impacts of vehicle ownership, and challenges for researchers to measure the impacts of these services.
Note: this work was conducted while I was a Research Scholar at Stanford University. Views are my own.
“The ethics of transport planning” - Prof Stephen Potter talks at the HCDI se...Marco Ajovalasit
This presentation will explore the ethical issues behind what appears to be a technical design process - that of transport planning decisions. It will draw upon the transport/land use designs explored in Britain’s new towns (and Milton Keynes in particular) which help to highlight the ethical decisions involved.
This will illustrate the way that the design of towns and cities affects our travel behaviour and constrains our ability to choose to travel in a socially and environmentally responsible way. Indeed, we can get locked into unsustainable travel behaviours and feel powerless to behave otherwise. This leads to the now prevalent negative attitude towards transport policy initiatives and often outright opposition to sustainable transport developments.
Urban design professionals argue that high density settlements are the main way that sustainable transport choices can be provided, as such designs produce conditions which make for good public, and also suppress car use. However, although such an approach is possible in major conurbations and city centres, this is a difficult and contentious approach for suburban Britain. For most places ‘big city’ design solutions are not politically viable.
Perhaps we should be looking to more innovative approaches. These could blend a variety of new measures, such as the ‘smarter travel’ initiatives as well as new emerging technologies. However these require a different way of doing transport planning to the traditional ‘big infrastructure’ transport policy approaches. New physical design approaches often require the redesign of the processes and structures to implement and manage them, and this may be the key barrier to success.
We invite Foucault on a bus ride to help us contest our thinking about the role of BRT in Quito.
Planning is understood as something ‘good’.
The outcomes of planning are not always what we would like it to be.
The outcomes are a consequence of powerful forces.
Understanding the role of power can give use some clues to start unpacking the existing forces.
Foucault understanding of power breaks away from common understandings of power as they do not capture all the complexities of modern uses of power.
A Tale of Two Streets - Indiana Walk-Bike Summit.pptxCynthia Hoyle
Creating communities in which everyone, regardless of ability or income, can get where they need to go safely can be challenging. We can transform our communities and create healthier and more equitable place to live, work, and play. This presentation discusses tools to successfully transform your community.
Istanbul IETT Professional Development Workshop, #1 of 6_Foundations of Publi...VTPI
Istanbul IETT Professional Development Workshop, #1 of 6, Foundations of Public Transport Planning
Presenter: Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Assistant: Aysha Cohen, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies Scholar
Presentation Date: June 14, 2015
A presentation made by Nicholas de Wolff to Burbank City Council and fellow Sustainability Commissioners, outlining the benefits of Complete Streets, and new ways to consider the role of the streetscape in urban areas.
Guest presentation delivered by Gayle Wooton of Cardiff University, 25 November 2015.
Abstract: despite rising levels of urban mobility, access to places, activities and services has become increasingly difficult, particularly for the marginalised urban poor who face long distances or unaffordable travel costs in order to reach places of employment, education or leisure. In cities where access to private travel is uncommon, mass transport systems are essential elements allowing citizens to participate in everyday activities. Following successes in Curitiba and Bogota, mass transit systems such as bus rapid transit have been implemented in many Latin American cities (Medellin, Buenos Aires, Lima), while others are implementing metro systems (Quito, Panama City, Guadalajara, Santiago de Chile). Many such systems are unevenly distributed throughout the city however, with poorer neighbourhoods often poorly connected to the city centre where the majority of jobs and opportunities are located.
In tandem, many Latin American nations have been debating rights-based approaches to tackling social inequality. Ecuador and Brazil have adopted the Right to the City concept as part of their constitutions and Mexico City is developing a similar city charter. A human rights dimension is relevant to the provision of transport systems recognising that ‘the right to mobility is universal to all human beings, and essential for the effective practical realisation of most other basic human rights’ (CEMR 2007). Despite this link, rights-based approaches to social equity have not been studied in the context of mass transport systems. My research attempts to address to what extent rights-based approaches have been, or can be, integrated into decisions about mass transport investment, through the case study of Quito and plans for a new metro line and connecting metrocable routes. This presentation would present preliminary analysis following fieldwork in early 2015.
Bio: Gayle Wootton is a trained planner with a background in ecology, environmental impacts and assessments. Before returning to full-time education in 2013 to undertake her PhD in Inclusive Urban Mobilities, she worked for ten years for organisations involved with providing environmental and sustainability advice to the land-use and transport planning systems of England and Wales. Gayle has previously worked as a Research Officer for the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), ran a £10m European-funded Regeneration Programme for the Welsh Government, and advised on strategic plans for the Countryside Council for Wales and the Environment Agency Wales. Now in the third year of her PhD, Gayle is also Chair of Planning Aid Wales, the postgraduate representative for UTSG and has teaching responsibilities on modules relating to transport economics and sustainable mobility.
2. Purpose
• Definition of Complete Streets:
“A Complete Streets policy ensures that the entire right of way is
routinely designed and operated to enable safe access for all users.
Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and
abilities must be able to move along and across a complete street.”
(McCann and Rynne 2010, p. 3)
• Answer the question: “For whom?”
• Part 1 – Processes
• Part 2 – Practices
• Part 3 –Possibilities
4. Part 1 – Processes
Of love affairs and other stories
Vs.Jane Jacobs Groucho Marx
What/Who are streets for?
• Not for cars (1925) = many causalities
• Car sells decline, manufactures create new
“stories”. (pedestrians to blame)
• By 1930, streets are back to cars.
• “The automobile was an expression of American
ideals, in particular of personal freedom against
official restraint, of economic freedom against
regulation … of individual against collectivism” (page
26).
• Are we trying to get back to more
communal living?
• Is this economic freedom against regulation
what got our country and cities into this
mess our local governments are trying to
fix?
5. Moving Beyond Fordism
• The car - suburban complex was reinforced by: public
investment, consumer identity, and public policy.
• Themes:
• Urbanization vs. Suburbanization
• Integration vs. Segregation
• Is Fordism discriminatory?
Page 44 – The price of new vehicles increases without
median income increasing. Can Americans continue to
make financial sense of the car-suburban complex?
Geographer William
Bunge created this map of
Detroit in 1960s depicting
“Where commuters run
over black children”. The
commuters were white
elites coming to and from
their high-paying jobs in
downtown and then back
out to their suburban
life.
6. Urban Spatial Mobility
Congestion pricing and the people
London
• Initial success
• Buses faster and cheaper
• Change in mayor =
• Change in political
support
• Increase in bus costs
• System collapses
New York
• Never happened
• Why?
• Lack of local political power to
change the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
(MTA)?
Stockholm
• People of higher incomes paid
more congestion tax.
• Permanent implementation of
tax may not equal success.
• Other problems:
• Unsafe for cyclists
• Social inclusion in mass
transit
• Lack of suburban public
transportation
7. Urban Spatial Mobility
Congestion pricing and the people
Do we expect the political leaders to “practice what they preach” and use public transportation?
Examples: mayor of New York, city planner of Hutto, ourselves?
Thoughts on this quote:
“Environmental justice is based on the myth that environmental measures
benefit everyone equally and harm no one excessively.”
-Julian Agyeman, Robert Bullard, and Bob Evans (2003)
8. 0
1500
3000
4500
6000
1988 1995 2003 2010 2018
Numberoffatalities
Year
National Nonmotorists Street Deaths
1994-2013
Pedestrians
Cyclists
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
Cumulative irresponsibility in streetscapes
Ghost Bikes
10. Disconnect from driver and road:
Death, injury, & fear of public streets.
Is this more common today with texting and driving?
11. The street as ecology
• Problems with the Complete Street concept:
• Further fragmenting space
• Reinforcing hierarchies
• Issues of pedestrians and bicyclists in shared space
• Views streets as path and not as a place
• Street as Ecology:
• India- order in the chaos, diversity of use
• Cambridge, MA - space of participation, socialization,
business, political activities
• Is the Street as Ecology concept better than the
Complete Street?
Paris goes car free September 27, 2015.
13. 13
Lowriding and the domestication of Denver’s Northside
Who are streets for?
• Not Latinos
• Issues of gentrification:
• ethnic groups displacing other ethnic groups
• mainstream middle class versus working class Latino
“Yesterday’s neighborhood plans shape today’s neighborhoods” (page 123).
• What are some examples in which the above statement
applies?
• Is gentrification a good or bad thing in this specific case?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hILM__78MVg
14. 14
Socioeconomic sustainability in Minneapolis’s bicycle
infrastructure
• Urban spaces compete for being “green” and
attracting the creative class
• “The new urban politics is as much about
sustainability as it is about urban competition” (page
141).
• Sustainable development = usually an economic
ploy, can further segregate people
• Do you agree that Austin displays this
environmental gentrification?
• How does climate effect the desire for these bike-
only roads?
• Would you ride on them? Why/why not?
15. 15
Gentrification through Oakland farmers market
• Eco-gentrification
• Super-gentrification
• The (possible) irony of Phat Beets
Can affordable housing lessen the effects of
gentrification?
How does the process of building community occur
without some gentrification? (if it’s “hip,” it will attract
outsiders)
16. 16
Reversing Complete Streets disparities
Case study of Portland, Oregon
• Using Community Watershed Stewardship Program
(CWSP) to create a win-win-win
• economic development - environmental
improvement - social equity
• “the city and the city” problem
• white, well off, eco-conscious and the lower-
income, minorities
Does Austin have the two cities issue as well? What
about San Marcos?
Does population play a role in the social inequity?
18. 18
Compl(eat)ing the streets
Sidewalk food vending: history, laws, vendors as space shapers, and legalization
• Reemerged in the 1970-1980s
• Mainly immigrants (again, who are the streets for?)
• Transforms path to place through attracting people and creating culture
• “Layers of microspatial organization”
• Legalization with permits
• Number of permits, location of vendors, health regulations/requirements,
undocumented workers
• Incentives for healthier food options
19. 19
Institutionalized DIY through CFSE
Car-free streets events such as Critical Mass, and Park(ing)
Day foster:
• Sense of community and empowerment
• Camaraderie, connection, openness
• Reclaiming the space and the city for the people
Concept of oeuvre - building the city as a work of art
The majority of San Francisco bicyclists are white males (26-
35). Now there is a push to make the streets more bike-
friendly. Does this reinforce the idea of the streets being mainly
for white commuters or does it disband it?
21. 21
The most Complete Street in the world
Claiborne Avenue study looks at
removing ramps but leaving elevated
expressway (2013)
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/04/claiborne
_avenue_study_looks_a_1.html
22. 22
The politics of sustainability in Portland
Infrastructure is only noticed when it is in flux - creation,
transformation, or destruction
• North Williams Traffic and Safety Operations Project
• Community inclusion/exclusion - Who is participating in the
process?
• City planners role in politics - Are they proactive or
reactive?
• Project’s main focus is safe streets - For Whom?
23. 23
Incomplete Streets, Complete Regions
Low-income workers’ transportation, industrial zoning, and complete communities
• Low-income workers (increasly) dependent on cars.
• Location of jobs, public transportation doesn’t serve their needs
• Industrial districts
• Major contributors to local economy
• Factor in sustainability (products to market)
• Complete Communities
• quality education, affordable housing, jobs, healthy food, recreation, affordable transportation
What about the environmental impacts of an increased dependency on cars for low-income people?
(they are probably not buying hybrids)
Are Complete Streets and Complete Communities different? If so, which one would allow for more
social equity?
24. 24
Towards an understanding of Complete Streets
Overview of contributing authors insights
• Streets are complex spaces with multiple
functions
• Complete streets = “Creative Class”
• Thus attracting the creative class,
gentrification is going to follow.
Can cities implement environmental amenities
into a space without causing gentrification?
Does bicycle infrastructure lead to
gentrification? (Who rides bikes?)
http://austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Transportation/Complete_Streets/Austin_CompleteStreetsGuideToCityPrograms_10-22-15.pdf
