#pedestrianization

Milwaukee Ave closed to cars today.

Because of the unique dangers the car posed to others, especially pedestrians and children, it was originally treated as an outside invader and a menace. Newspapers covered each pedestrian death as a scandal. Then, as people began contemplating actual concrete ways to restrict automobile usage in cities, the auto industry and its allies quickly organized a massive counter-campaign. They invented, and cities quickly criminalized, “jaywalking.” In a few short years, industry definitively won out over the safety of children and everyone else. “The car had already cleaned up its once bloody reputation in cities,” Norton writes, “less by killing fewer people than by enlisting others to share in the responsibility for the carnage.” What happened next? “Engineers said they could rebuild cities to accommodate cars, and they were already breaking ground.”

The street and the city were transformed, the freedoms of everyone else curtailed and their health endangered, for the sake of a valuable and growing American industry. If you know that history, might you think it could repeat itself? And then might you start thinking of ways to hasten that process?

Other figures in the push for autonomous vehicles, perhaps unfamiliar with that history, already openly bandy about ideas for how we might come to “share” space with vehicles that are incapable of safely responding to unpredictable and improvisational usage of inconsistently maintained streets. They have suggested things like…walling off sidewalks, as the Times reported in a 2019 story that inadvertently echoed the history of the invention of jaywalking: “One solution, suggested by an automotive industry official, is gates at each corner, which would periodically open to allow pedestrians to cross.”

So. While other manufacturers of partially autonomous automobiles focus on safety features and carefully note the limits of their systems, Tesla rushes to market with false promises of full self-driving and makes seemingly baffling decisions around the safety of its system. I do not claim that Elon Musk actually wants his cars to kill a bunch of people, especially pedestrians. That would, after all, be a very irresponsible thing to say about an impossibly wealthy man. I will say that Elon Musk's cars killing a lot of people, especially pedestrians, could turn out to work enormously in Elon Musk's favor, and while that is a risky bet, Elon Musk is the type of person who can’t imagine losing.

“The struggle for the future of urban transportation,” Norton writes, “was less a contest between vehicles than a competition for their urban medium: The street.” I think Elon Musk, a man who pretends not to understand a lot of things, understands that better than most.

Originally instituted to create safe space for social distancing, pedestrianized streets proved so popular in Montreal that businesses are eager to see them return.

Whodathunkit?

PONTEVEDRA—Once a city with narrow streets invaded by traffic and city squares more like parking lots, the roads of Pontevedra, Spain, are now often filled with baby strollers and children playing. Kids carry their toys in small backpacks and spread them on the pavement to share with other kids. Playgrounds with swing sets and slides are deliberately unencumbered by fences. “We want children to play all over our city, and to play whatever game comes to mind,” said Cesar Mosquera, the Urban Councilor of Pontevedra.

By restricting traffic and eliminating physical barriers, the city council has redesigned Pontevedra from the sight line of a child. Doing so, Mosquera believes, helps the city address everybody’s needs, especially the disadvantaged. “Where there are children, there are healthy adults,” Mosquera said. The policy, which has been expanding for almost two decades now, has had many impacts on the community. One of the most tangible: The once-languishing historic city center has become a friendlier space for kids and their caretakers.

[...]

“Here you don’t have to hold your child’s hand all the time. In any other city that would only happen inside a mall,” said Willy García, father of three-year-old Mauro, standing at the pedestrian “Children’s Fountain” square, once an intersection with 25,000 cars passing daily.

[...]

Pontevedra has continued to expand the pedestrian area from the center to the outskirts, liberating a total 669,000 square meters previously dominated by cars, and the transformation is still ongoing. Car use in the inner city has dropped by 77 percent, and CO2 emissions have dropped by 66 percent, according to the city council. The crime rate has gone down, too, adding to the feeling that the city is safe for unattended kids. In 2010, Pontevedra reached its lowest crime rate in a decade with 34 offenses per 1,000 citizens, and last year it reached a new low of 27.

Surprisingly, cars are not strictly banned inside the city. Residents with a private garage can bring their cars in, and traffic is open to delivery services, emergencies, and even to private drivers who need to stop by the center for a pick-up or drop-off.

One of the most impactful policies on human behavior has actually been removing most of the street parking space inside the pedestrian-priority area. “We found that almost 60 percent of vehicles circulating inside town were actually going around in circles trying to find a parking spot. Now, since they know they won’t be able to park, they have stopped bringing their cars in and they use the outer parking areas,” Mosquera explained.

“It is a very safe environment. With no cars, you don’t have to worry about them being run over,” Otero said. “And since there are a lot of parents with kids, and we all end up knowing each other. Sometimes you can even ask a friend to look after your kids while you quickly run errands.”

For Ferrás, the demographer, this might be Pontevedra’s key to success: a social and urban environment that makes parents feel supported by the community. In Pontevedra, 80 percent of kids age 6 to 12 walk alone to school every morning, and in case they need help, they can report to volunteering local businesses, where they will be looked after.

“Cities must be designed so citizens can afford being a parent—an urban model that favors work-family reconciliation. They need to feel accompanied through the process and [that they are in] an ecosystem that values childhood and teenhood.”

[...]

The early resistance of neighbors and local businessmen who feared the absence of cars would mean an absence of customers are well over. Even for the opposition parties challenging BNG’s 20-year dominance, reversing pedestrianization is now likely out of the question. Still, some of those living outside the flourishing pedestrian area are the ones who have the most criticism of the policy, saying they’ve been excluded from Pontevedra’s urban improvements, and that the lack of a working public transit network has forced them to either take their car and deal with the limited parking space available or simply stay away from town.

As part of the city’s strategy for work-family balance, schools are kept in the city center and the maternity and pediatric services have been moved from the big hospital complex outside town to a smaller facility right in the pedestrian area. Families with children in Pontevedra also benefit from a wide range of cultural activities tailored for kids. The local theater offers a play every Sunday for children under 12, the central food market hosts workshops for kids on Saturday afternoons, and the city libraries have a year-round activity program for them. During the summer, public urban boot camps take care of the kids while their parents work.