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Donald Appleyard’s original dedication
To children whose lives are threatened by traffic and to all those who suffer noise, vibration, fumes, dirt, ugliness, loneliness, alienation or other impoverishments due to its presence. Yet also to my father, one of the great rat-runners of all time, who in thirty years of commuting worked out a route through London that avoided every stop light.
Donald Appleyard, 1981
BRUCE APPLEYARD’S ADDITIONAL DEDICATION
On behalf of my siblings, Rustin, Moana, Ian and our Mom, Sheila, and my partner, Belinda, this is for Dad who advised to always work towards “making the world a better place” and who—along with all of his grandchildren, Victoria Shea, Jason Donald (J.D.), Analisa, Kian and Riyan—give me passion and purpose to at least try to do so every day of my life.
We all dearly love and miss him, and will forever rekindle his joyful, enriching spirit for our children, partners and friends.
Bruce Appleyard, PhD
8.
BRUCE APPLEYARD, CAROLYN McANDREWS AND TODD LITMAN
9. Cars, conflict and community severance
LAURA VAUGHAN, PAULO R. ANCIAES, AND JENNIFER S. MINDELL
10. How livable streets humanized the auto-mobility paradigm
The nature and structure of planning paradigms 132
The technocracy sets in: The institutionalization of auto-domination
Why is Livable Streets needed, then and now? 136
The vicious cycle of the automobility paradigm
The paradigm broadening power of livable streets
The inclusion of livability into the auto-mobility paradigm 138
11. The shaping of street ecologies and neighborhoods in the US and Europe: A brief 20th century history (up to 1980)
American residential street and neighborhood
Post war era
The European experience
12. A contemporary history, circa 1981 onward
The interstate highway/automobile era
The 1980s onwards
The beginning of the end of the affair with the automobile: The Intermodal Surface and Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and turning away from the interstate highway/automobile era 158
The rise of walkability advocacy in the United States 159
Transformative movements: Critical mass to naked streets 160
The Rise of Complete Streets and Vision Zero 162
Dialogues on history 162
13. Early street battles of Britain: The first environmental areas—Barnsbury and Pimlico
Introduction: The early street battles of Britain and California (Chapters 13 and 16) 169
Case 1: Barnsbury
Case 2: Pimlico
Case 3: Comprehensive traffic management: Camden and London 181
Case 4: Comprehensive Camden Traffic Plan 184
14. Early street battles of San Francisco Bay Area: Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley
Case 1: Clinton Park, East Oakland 189
San Francisco: The protected residential area program (PRA) 192 Berkeley at the barricades 197
15. Street fights for livability, health, and humanity: Power, catalysts, and promise
BRUCE APPLEYARD, DONALD APPLEYARD, TIMOTHY BRIGGS, ANNA SKANBECK, AND COURTNEY ARMUSEWICZ
International case studies on neighborhood traffic management systems circa 1970s 219
Contemporary international case studies on creating livable and complete streets and neighborhoods 226
16. Power and politics of the street
A break with the original: incorporating “YIMBYISM” alongside neighborhood protection 261 Bent Flyvbjerg: Aalborg and lessons of rationality and Power[B1] 263
The politics and power of creating livable and complete streets 264
268
III
Realizing the promise of our streets: Toward ethical, empathetic, equitable, and just streets and communities
17. Livability ethics for street and urban empathy, equity, and justice: A guide for planning, design, & engineering Introduction 277
Guiding process principles for complete and livable streets and neighborhoods 298
18. A Charter for Humane & Equitable Streets: A statement of principles, goals, and tactics to realize the promise of ethically livable streets with empathy, equity, and justice
BRUCE APPLEYARD, DONALD APPLEYARD, DAVID LEVINSON, AND WILLIAM RIGGS
307 Background and overview of the Charter for Humane & Equitable Streets 308
19. Processes and principles for creating livable & complete streets and communities
20. Tools, rules, and techniques: Planning, engineering, and design approaches to creating complete and livable streets and neighborhoods
Introduction 379
The physical manifestation of a charter for humane and equitable streets 381
Getting people across the street: Creating safe, comfortable and livable crossings and intersections 385
Creating better crossings 392
Improving safety and comfort for cyclists in crossing the street 397
Tactical area: Getting people safely and comfortably along the street: Measures to improve street safety and livability 402
Tactical area and tactics: Calming speeds, lowering volumes, increasing safety 410
Apply ecosystem thinking: Design and plan, from the human to regional scale, to provide access, connection, and convenience, and a positive sense of place, equitably 427
The safety of street nakedness: The benefits of stripping away certainty and introducing risk and intrigue to the story of the street ecology 434
Bringing home zones and shared spaces to the U.S. 438
Tactical area: access, connectivity, and convenience— Land use is everything 449
Closing remarks on overcoming the transportation land use disconnect and imbalance 451
21. The generation, articulation, and communication of alternatives
or permanent changes? Sometimes nothing is more permanent than a temporary treatment 461
Strategies for different street types: Light, medium, and heavy 462 The communication of alternatives 468
Part 3:
The challenge and future of our streets
22. Streets can kill cities: Third world beware
23. Epilogue: Toward a manifesto for street livability, health, and humanity in a future of transportation innovation, disruption, and automation
BRUCE APPLEYARD AND WILLIAM RIGGS
Author biography
Bruce Appleyard, PhD, is an Associate Professor of City Planning and Urban Design at San Diego State University (SDSU) where he helps people make more informed decisions about how we live, work, play, and thrive. He specializes in pedestrian and bicycle planning and design and is an expert at working with people so they can celebrate the humanity of their streets and communities together.
Dr. Appleyard has authored numerous publications including the nationally lauded Handbook for Building Livable Transit Corridors (National Academies Press, 2016) and The Transportation/Land Use Connection (American Planning Association, 2007). In 2006, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named Bruce as one of their top ten “Active Living Heroes” for his work helping communities, alongside other notable figures including Barack Obama. He is passionate about helping people create joyful and enriching communities that reflect their spirit and identity, are economically vibrant, and yield environmental and health benefits for all.
Dr. Appleyard holds a Doctorate (as well as a Masters and Bachelors) from the University of California, Berkeley. Follow him on Twitter @docappleyard.
Affiliations and expertise
Associate Professor of City Planning and Urban Design at San Diego State University, USA.
Dr. Appleyard works with a variety of groups including local and regional governments, transportation agencies, nonprofits, and corporate clients to address the needs of cities and regions large and small, and to create more livable and complete streets and communities that work for everyone (including drivers).
• Conducting “walkabouts” with the public, professionals, and politicians
• Expert witness testimony
• Developing bicycle and pedestrian plans and designs and traffic calming plans
• Designing for the future of transportation (autonomous vehicles and micromobility)
Foreword
Conflict, power, promise, and the future of streets: Problem understanding, and problem solving
Have you ever walked along a street with heavy traffic, and all you could think about were cars roaring by? Have you ever tried to cross a street and a driver refused to stop or even look at you, treating you like you did not belong? That is not a livable street.
How about when you walk down the street with a young child and you hurry to grab their hand because of the fear of traffic nearby? That is not a livable street.
But, have you ever been on a street that makes you feel relaxed, comfortable, even enriched? Where you can let your child's hand go? Where you let them freely explore their world? Where you feel OK about letting them walk or bicycle to and from school? An equal partner with drivers in the dynamic choreography and “ballet of the street”? These are qualities of livable streets.
To achieve livable streets, we need to understand the conflict and power dynamics of the street environment and all that make a street what it is—the street network, the urban form, the land use activities, and the laws, professional practices, and institutional and socio-cultural norms that shape them. In this book, we refer to this as the “ecology of the street” or simply the “street ecology”—and we address issues of conflict and power to understand the problems in this ecosystem.
This book also deals with ways to solve these problems, through principles, processes, and prescriptions, to achieve the promise of our streets—streets that help us find peace and rejuvenation; engage in enriching exchanges with others; access opportunities that instill meaning, fulfillment and hope in our lives. Livable streets also allow us to support those we care about, and the world itself—as streets that are more livable and inviting are key to solving problems before us—from obesity, pollution, and congestion, to the climate crisis at hand.
Updates, and new ideas
The original Livable Streets, first published in 1981, documented how automobiles degraded the lives of residents in cities and towns and presented a wealth of designs and policies to improve conditions on the ground. Drawing upon work in the UK, the US, and The Netherlands, its author Donald Appleyard and his co-authors, Sue Gerson and Mark Lintell used scientific methods to evaluate how streets and public spaces affected the people who used them and lived near them. The work introduced new ways to conduct environmental analyses of traffic speeds, volumes, and noise. While focused primarily on how residents were affected by traffic, Livable Streets pioneered the recognition that there were multiple users of streets, including transit users, pedestrians and cyclists, whose needs were often neglected in practices that focused on traffic flow. The book became a classic in the field and is widely credited with presenting the most significant arguments that streets are for people.
There is more to be said, however, and this new edition vastly expands the focus on the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, providing the latest, state-the-art practical knowledge on tools, rules, and techniques. Further, the application of traffic calming and other strategies for making streets more livable has spread from its early days in the Netherlands and England, to other parts of Europe and the world over. It has expanded in scope as well. Over the four decades since the book’s first publication, a wealth of research and empirical evidence on street design and its impacts has accumulated. Applications have expanded from local residential streets to Main Streets and other urban arterials, where the thoughtful inclusion of multiple modes is key to success. Examples from countries around the
world are now available and illustrate the widespread need for responsive street design. Experience with a range of interventions have provided evidence on what works well and what is less effective or may even have unintended consequences.
In addition, there is still more to be said about equity and the planning and decision making processes for street design and operation. First, in the ensuing years it has become increasingly apparent that more attention must be given to the needs of more vulnerable and less powerful groups including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, people with disabilities, people with low incomes, and people of color. More attention also is needed to how we mediate between competing livability agendas. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests show us both how streets are needed for socially distanced outdoor recreation and eating, as well as places for meaningful gathering and protest. Climate Change means both of these issues will continue, albeit possibly under different names. Our streets must accommodate these aspects of society moving forward.
One of the reasons for this “reset”—Version 2.0 of the book—is to include this large body of new work. The original edition had 15 chapters, this new edition has 23. Except for the first four chapters, all of the original material has undergone major revisions with substantial new content that builds on decades of research and work in the field to make streets safer and more livable. This new edition has also recast the book into four main parts dealing with the underlying themes of Conflict, Power, Promise, and the Future. New chapters have been added to cover the broadened range of issues confronting us today, including issues of equity, inclusion, the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists, and the challenges of new technology. The book thus includes new material and examples to reflect what we have learned over the years, plus new chapters.
Part 1: Conflict
Part 1 (Chapters 1–9) deals with the research around the conflict in and around our streets. Chapters 1–6 have been revised to present the research from the original edition. Chapter 7 provides innovative environmental quality research, combining methods from Donald Appleyard and Kevin Lynch, into the impacts of traffic on schoolchildren and the benefits of Safe Routes to School infrastructure (providing pathways and improving crosswalks). Chapter 8 provides a review and discussion of the latest public health research—including mental along with physical health—as well as the role of active modes of travel in promoting better health and safety. Chapter 9 provides an overview of environmental quality case studies from the UK looking at “community severance” emerging from traffic impacts.
Part 2: Power
Part 2 (Chapters 10–16) deals with the histories and power struggles in and around efforts to make the street ecology more livable. These chapters have been updated with new insights. Chapters 10–14 have been substantially updated to address histories of the various street battles, from small to large, and Chapter 15 provides new international case studies, alongside ones from the original Livable Streets. Chapter 16 provides an updated discussion about the power struggles between the various actors in the battles to reclaim street livability.
Part 3: Promise
Building on decades of practical experience, Part 3 (Chapters 17–21) deals with how we realize the promise of our streets, beginning with an in-depth discussion of Livability Ethics for Empathy, Equity, and Justice principles (Chapter 17) that are then used to inform a Charter for Humane and Equitable Streets (Chapter 18). The rest of Part 3 (Chapters 19–21) provides practical guidance on state-of-the-art processes, tools and methods to physically manifest these principles into our streets, with an entirely new emphasis on the needs of walkers and wheelers, as well as the latest understanding on traffic calming to protect human road users (HRUs) and residents alike. Chapter 19 deals with the processes of working with a diverse array of key stakeholders to create livable and complete streets. Chapter 20 provides a user manual to the “tools, rules, and techniques” people can use to realize the promise of our streets. Chapter 21 lays out processes to generate and articulate the various alternatives for creating livable and complete streets and street networks.
Part 4: Future challenges
Looking to the future in Part 4, we see the importance of arguing for street humanity given the prospect, both positive and negative, that our streets could be taken over by a new wave of automation from roboticized “autonomous vehicles” or AVs. If done right, this new mobility future could lead to safer streets alongside the opportunity to give more streetspace to people. If done poorly, we could see the re-criminalization of pedestrians and a dramatic increase in car travel that could overwhelm our already burdened streets and communities, as well as our planet’s ability to deal with our global climate crisis.
Part 4 starts off with a new chapter (22) added to this book, “Streets Can Kill Cities: Third World Beware”, which provides warnings and guidance to countries pushing toward auto-mobility.a Chapter 23 represents new work in a manifesto-designed to address emerging issues associated with new modes of travel that have taken off in the past decade, including autonomous vehicles (AVs), providing practical guidance, from the ecosystem to human scale, on how we should plan and design all parts of the street ecology to meet the demands of this new technological transformation.
Livable Streets 2.0 is thus a major update of the original text as well as a major expansion addressing a broader range of social, environmental, and policy issues of our time. If the original argued that streets are for people, this new edition builds on this to say that our streets—our most accessible public spaces—are for our humanity.
a Based on a paper written by Donald Appleyard shortly before he was killed in 1982.
The endurance of livable streets: An essay on the conflict, power, promise,
and future of our streets
Part 1: The conflict in the street ecology
Throughout my work on this book, I have often asked the question “Why did Livable Streets resonate so strongly with people when it was first published? And why has it endured over the years?”
While there may be many reasons, I would like to offer these over others—this book uncovers, articulates and perhaps most importantly presents in graphic form rigorous research into the conflict playing out in our streets between traffic and people—a power struggle that was felt by many, but until the first edition of Livable Streets, was not fully understood, let alone clearly imagined or pictured. In short, it was the first to use scientific methods to graphically illustrate the invisible harms traffic forced upon people and their communities. Up until then, people likely knew this intuitively, but had not yet fully understood the extent of both the cognitive and community impacts to their environment. Thus, the enduring effectiveness of Livable Streets is conveyed powerfully in figures in Chapters 1 and 2,b where he looked at three streets, similar in all respects (context, sociodemographics), but with varying volumes of traffic. He found that people on the light traffic street had three times as many friends and twice as many acquaintances, illustrating how a livable street can knit a community together, while heavy traffic can rip it apart.
b And large credit is due to the remarkable skill of the illustrator Betty Drake.
Donald Appleyard was part of a movement that introduced scientific methods into understanding streets and public spaces, providing new ways to conduct environmental analyses to understand speeds, volume, noise, etc. He, however, limited his focus to how residents were affected by traffic. I have built on this to broaden our knowledge of how these methods could be applied to understand and solve the problems for more vulnerable and less powerful groups including pedestrians, bicyclists, children and families, people with disabilities, and people of color, as well as how we mediate between competing livability agendas. I have also broadened this book to discuss public health, including mental as well physical health.
In many ways this book is a phenomenological masterwork, building on the collective insights emerging from in-depth analyses of the effects of automobile traffic and street design on people’s lives—clarifying ideas about how
we should research, understand, and respond to unlivable conditions, whether they be in our streets or elsewhere in our cities.c Along these lines this book also provides a handbook on the ethnographic studyd of neighborhood life and transformation—traffic management plans themselves serve as vehicles for a variety of issues to come to the surface to then be discussed, and this book provides guidance on how to work through these issues with the people involved.
Light traffic
Where people have friends
Where people gather
Modera te traffic
Where people have friends
Where people gather
Heavy traffic
Where people have friends
Where people gather
c Jane Jacobs’ “Eyes on the Street” is an important concept explored in the research of this book. In fact, this book provides the scientific methods to research and test her theories.
d At the time of the publication of the first edition in 1981, “ethnography” had not yet been adopted outside the field of anthropology.
For a quick overview of the power of the original research, search on the web for “streetfilms” and “Appleyard” to see a video I helped create with the team at Streetfilms,e which led to the creation of this new graphic of neighboring. My work on this new edition builds on decades of researching and working in the field to make streets safer and more livable. As well as being about conflict, power, and promise, at its core, this book is about us—people—human beings and our humanity—and whether or not the street ecology is empathetic, caring, and equitable. Through this lens, the book focuses on the quality of our lives, relationships and interactions—our experiences—within and around streets—the most accessible public places in our cities—the places for civic engagement, physical activity, meeting neighbors, learning about the world, or simply finding rest and rejuvenation. If I had to sum it up, a livable street restores you. In contrast, an unlivable street drains you.
In accordance, this book reintroduces the general theory that streets are for people—not merely conduits for cars. This new edition takes this theory even further to argue that streets are places for our humanity, our empathy, and our social equity—from thoughtfully providing for our most natural modes of travel (walking and bicycling), to our ability to equitably access opportunities—spanning from peaceful, restorative, rejuvenation and joy, to equal access to enriching exchanges with others that empower us and our senses of possibility and hope. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests show us also how streets are needed for both socially distanced outdoor recreation and sustenance, as well as places for meaningful gathering and protest. With the growing climate change crisis at hand, it is clear our streets must be prepared to accommodate these dynamic aspects of society moving forward.
Along these lines, this book argues that we should pivot the planning, design, and operation of our streets around our most natural capacities as human beings—in short, our humanity. For instance, the chances of being killed as a pedestrian or cyclist grows exponentially with speed, ramping up most dramatically between about 20 and 30 MPH.f In our quest to understand the humanity of our streets, we should ask why might the middle point, 25 MPH, be significant? Is it possible that we, as a species, evolved to withstand collisions around the fastest speeds we can run? If so, shouldn’t we always argue for lower speed limits based on our physio-biological capacity as human beings? Further, if we can achieve some of the highest vehicle throughputs at around 25-30 MPH on surface streets, is there really any need for much higher speeds anywhere in or around our communities? In sum, we should let our humanity drive our decisions around our street ecologies rather than some preconceived needs of machines, and now roboticized automation.
The risk of being killed rises most dramatically around 25 MPH, about the fastest speed our species can run. Courtesy: Offer Grembeck. Wramborg, P., 2005. A new approach to a safe and sustainable road structure and street design for urban areas. In: Paper Presented at 13th International Conference on Road Safety on Four Continents, Warsaw, Poland, 5–7 October, 2005.
e https://www.streetfilms.org/revisiting-donald-appleyards-livable-streets/. This work was Produced and Edited by: Elizabeth Press; Graphic Design: by Carly Clark; Animation by David Rowley; and Shot by: Elizabeth Press, John Hamilton, Clarence Eckerson Jr. The work was funded by Mark Gorton, who also co-starred in this video.
f Further accentuating this dramatic increase beyond 25 MPH, Speck (2018) points out that being hit at 20 mph equals falling from a second floor, which you may be able to survive, but being hit at 40 mph equals falling from the seventh, which will likely prove fatal.
If we can achieve our greatest vehicle throughputs around 25 to 35 MPH on surface streets, why should traffic travel any faster? Courtesy: Walter Kulash. Source: Based on research in the 1985 Highway Capacity Manual, and a more recent 2002 study by Michael Li, “The Role of Speed–flow Relationship in Congestion Pricing Implementation with an Application to Singapore,”.
Maintaining its progressive voice of the 1960s and 1970s, this new edition points out injustices and presents ways to address them; to improve our world; to fight for equality and our humanity, now and into the future, in and around our city’s most accessible public spaces—our streets.
Part 2: The power of the street ecology
The rise of auto-mobility in the mid-20th century fueled by massive roads and suburbanization, created acute conflicts over the power imbalance in the “street ecology” and as Donald Appleyard would describe as a sort of “auto-mania” where:
The automobile, satisfier of private needs, demands, and whims, has created an insatiable demand for access, and a whole profession of planners and engineers both serving and further stimulating that demand. The result has been cities with streets and street systems dedicated to the automobile to the virtual exclusion of all other uses.g
Drilling down from this multifaceted force, if we simply place a car next to a person we clearly see a car’s dominating mass and scale. Add in speed and volume, and the street ecology becomes even less humane. Beyond the physical imbalance between the various modes, there are other behavioral factors at play—a person driving a car, encased in an almost 3000 pound tank of alloy and steel is severely de-sensitized from their surroundings—dramatically more so than those experiencing the world in more exposed, natural states of being. Making matters worse, the design of the street dangerously encourages drivers to go faster, accentuating this inequitable domination over human road users, walking or wheeling.
Matt and Elliott Elmes (on scooter) demonstrating the power imbalance between people and vehicles.
Miller.
Car travel brings up serious sustainability and equity concerns, especially considering that the typical European car is parked 92% of the time; it spends 1/4th of its driving time looking for parking. Its 5 seats only move 1.5 people; 86% of its fuel never reaches the wheels, & most of the energy that does, moves the car, not people (The Circular Economy of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and a Tweet by Brent Toderian). Therefore, this book is about how to understand and solve the conflict emerging from these power imbalances between people who use and experience streets in different ways, whether as an extension of their home, or as pathways to opportunity via foot, wheelchair, bicycle, transit, and yes, even by car.
The moral and ethical imperative to act!
Recognizing that “automania” has an unyielding and overpowering influence in changing human behavior patterns over the long run (witness the precipitous decline in children walking to school in the USh), this book is also about changing the way we do things—from redesigning streets and neighborhoods to achieve a healthy and livable balance, to changing our views, practices, and even our institutions.
The questions raised by Livable Streets are as relevant today, if not more so, as when they were first published as the steady increase in pedestrian and bicyclist casualties highlights our moral and ethical imperative to create more livable and complete streets—and to act now!
In the US in 2018, 6,283 pedestrians were killed by cars and trucks—up 43 percent from 2008—which averages to about 17 every day, or about one every 84 minutes.i This rise in pedestrian and bicycle casualties is believed to be driven both by the size of the vehicles and distracted driversj—all of this challenges the humaneness, benevolence and the humanity of our streets. The roughly 40,000 total traffic deaths a year in the US equates to losing over 100 people a day. This is equivalent to having an average sized airplane crash every other day. Yet, such losses are rarely voiced by the media.
Globally, the outlook on street humanity is no better, with road casualties becoming recognized as a global public health concern of “epidemic” proportions. According to the World Health Organization:k
• Approximately 1.35 million died in road crashes each year, on average 3,698 deaths a day or about one fatality every 20–30 seconds.
• An additional 20–50 million are injured or disabled (as many as 40–95 people, on average, maimed every minute).
• Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death worldwide among young people ages 5–29.
h A 2007 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that only 31 percent of children 5 to 15 years old who live within one mile of their school walk or bike to class. In 1969, this figure approached 90 percent (Dellinger and Staunton, 2002).
i https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812850.
j A 2018 study the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that between 2009 and 2016, SUVs had the biggest spike in single-vehicle fatal pedestrian crashes, and crashes were increasingly likely to involve high-horsepower vehicles.
k https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffic-injuries.
Harvey Miller waging a war on cars. Courtesy Susanne
• Each year nearly 400,000 people under 25 die on the world’s roads, on average over 1,000 a day.
• More than half of all road traffic deaths are among vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. All of this taken alone would indicate a public health crisis, and speaks to our need to address the issues of conflict, power dynamics, and the inequitable distribution of oppressive forces in and around our street ecologies. This can include not only driver behavior and inter-modal conflicts, but also how police operate—with growing evidence that people of color are stopped at disproportionate rates—with potentially tragic outcomes. Furthermore, our laws themselves can be inadequate, as one of the easiest ways to kill someone, and get away with it, is by a car.l
This new edition of Livable Streets takes on these issues of power—from its imbalances, to its forces of oppression—arguing for our need to think about the equity of the street ecology in a new light. For while we often think of power as a monolithic institutional structure, like a Department of Transportation, power can be more varied and multifaceted—coming at us from all angles, especially in and around the “street ecology”. In many ways power is about the ability to control and determine what will, and will not, happen. And power can shape our cognitive sense of place, as well as knowledge and understanding (Foucault, 1991, 1998; Flyvbjerg, 1998) In terms of equity and justice, power can inflict “harms” to our humanity, in the form of repression, suppression, and oppression. Along these lines, this book even explores the idea that there can possibly be a “Stockholm Syndrome” of the Street—something similar to a “psychological response wherein a captive begins to identify closely with his or her captors, as well as with their agenda and demands” (See Part 3 for more).m
Part 3: The promise of our streets for our humanity
Building on the research and examination of conflict and power in the street ecology, and decades of practical experience, Part 3 deals with realizing the promise of our streets and how to make them places for living and expressions of our humanity. Part 3 begins with an in depth discussion of Livability Ethics for Empathy, Equity, and Justice, which lays out principles to help form a Charter for Humane and Equitable Streets. The rest of Part 3 then provides practical guidance on the latest, state-of-the art processes, tools, and methods to physically manifest these ethical principles for empathy, equity and justice directly into our street ecologies. A key premise is that as we strive for street livability, we should strive for all users, especially the most vulnerable and less powerful.
Raised median with opening to allow bicycle access while preventing cut-through auto traffic
Part 4: Future innovations, disruptions, and challenges (to street humanity)
With the rise of roboticized autonomous vehicles (AVs) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) we are at an important inflection point in the face of perhaps one of the greatest transformational forces to our transport and urban form since the emergence of the private automobile over a hundred years ago.
If increases in driving rates continue (as has been seen with the rise of ride-hailing companies) and household car ownership remains as they are, there will be more cars driving more miles each year—likely worsening congestion and degrading street livability. Struggling transit lines could become more challenged, while bus, taxi, and truck drivers could all see work opportunities radically change, or disappear altogether. AVs will likely call for more frequent curbside access for pickups and drop-offs, and the potential for more free-flowing intersections could create challenges for how these autonomous vehicles interact with cyclists and pedestrians.
On the flip side, vehicles programmed to yield to human travelers could be rendered inoperable at the flick of a hand in populated urban areas, which could lead to a new era of pedestrian and bicyclist criminalization. At the time of this writing, a few opinions were being voiced that to make AVs work there will need to be things like pedestrian gates at corners and other controls on people’s ability to freely cross the street—but this time the crime of “jaywalking” could be enforced by a multitude of cars equipped with a “synopticon” of cameras, fueling fears of AVs becoming tools for authoritarianism. All this speaks to the need to examine the human and machine interfaces—developing systems, policies, and even media ethics, to foster cultural and behavioral norms in support of people’s rights to experience the street ecology without diminishing key senses of humanity. At a basic level this includes feelings of safety and comfort, and at a higher level, feelings around dignity, empowerment, fit and control.n
Many questions remain as to the possible impacts this new technological tidal wave will have on the experiences of those outside the protected confines of driverless cars. Issues of livability, safety, and health will certainly be put to the test—moderating speeds, vehicular size, and behavior will be key in determining outcomes. But we also need to ask how will these streets really feel? Will we—can we—be lifted up in spirit in the presence of driverless vehicular operation? Or will the incessant, droning, uniform, and predictable, driver-less movement undermine our sense of what it means to be human? If this new wave of driverless cars are large, fast, and everywhere, there is little doubt that our sense of the street—our senses of the essence of what it feels to be human, could be deadened—these conflicts, power imbalances, promises, and challenges to our humanity are key questions we deal with in these pages.
Sidebar
Enduring with the work of others
At its roots, this book is a celebration of the work of my father, and the many people who listened to his clarion call, followed his beacon, and as Hans Monderman said to me “stood on his shoulders”.
In short, Livable Streets laid the groundwork for others to pick up the ball. And there are many who have worked throughout the years, building on the foundations of Livable Streets, furthering its legacy and allowing my father’s spirit, passion and purpose to recreate our streets as joyful and enriching places to live on.
Dan Burden—a true “Johnny Appleseed” of walkability—helped inspire people to action through effective presentation and in-the-field walk-audits or “walkabouts”. Through organizations like the National Center for Bicycling and Walking (NCBW) and UC TechTransfer myself and my co-presenters (Charlie Gandy, Pete Lagerway, and John Ciccarelli) led numerous Walkable Community Workshops throughout the US, not only to teach about best practices, but to inspire leaders to nourish the seeds of change.
Hans Monderman and Ben Hamilton-Baillie who pioneered the “naked/shared streets” movement also deserve attention for valuing and building on the original work. Their work embraced the idea of reintroducing uncertainty, risk and/or “intrigue” into street so that drivers would proceed with greater caution, and pedestrians and bicyclists stood a chance to reclaim their streets.
Allan Jacobs who had hired my father as San Francisco Planning Director, authored Great Streets, which was a further articulation of a phenomenon discovered by my father—some people liked busy urban streets. In higher crime areas, for instance, these busy streets felt safer, and they had more destinations for people to accomplish daily tasks. By extension, people felt such streets were given more care and attention.
n For more, we can turn to Lynch’s “Dimensions of Performance” from his 1984 book Good City Form, which discusses such sensory qualities.
Michael Southworth and Eran Ben-Joseph, in Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities, explored even further the dysfunctional evolution of standards and institutional practice that has resulted in US subdivision streets and neighborhoods being poor places for pedestrians and bicyclists. Reid Ewing, in my father’s absence, picked up and carried the ball forward on traffic calming for practicing engineers. And while many professionals may still place a priority on mobility and increasing vehicle throughput over livability, whether unwittingly or on purpose, they do so with caution because of the paradigm broadening power and voice of Livable Streets
Bruce Appleyard leading a Walkable Community Workshop in San Ysidro, CA, working with the community group, Casa Familiar, and professionals from public health to the regional government, SANDAG, and sponsored by Lisa Cirill and the California Center for Physical Activity.
Bruce Appleyard leading Walkability Audit in Richmond, California.
Every bit of available space is used in places like Mumbai, where a handshake between vehicles waiting at a stoplight is easy.
The morning journey to school in Old Delhi, India. Although there were young children walking, many of this age were chauffeured one way or another.
