#pedestrian infrastructure

[atlantathecity]

As I was reminded while walking here earlier today, the sidewalk on Edgewood Avenue is way too narrow. Folks regularly have to step into the roadway to pass others.

It shouldn't be like this anywhere, but especially not on the streetcar route. We're missing an opportunity to match transit investment with great pedestrian conditions.

Please look into redesigning this as a shared street, Atlanta! This is an incredible success story waiting to happen.

Some people complain that the streetcar "doesn't go anywhere people want to go," but I see the problem as being that we have 2.7 miles in the middle of the city that can be described by too many as a place they don't want to go.

What we should be asking is: how many people are we delivering to the streetcar by way of a combination of rail-supportive land use that puts an appropriate density near the stations -- and excellent pedestrian conditions that help alternatives to driving be competitive.

We're failing on all those fronts, but we can turn this ship around. We're capable of succeeding in Atlanta and becoming a city that truly supports alternatives to driving (like the streetcar) through our urban design and policies.

Every little piece of that puzzle matters, including the design of every block of street on the streetcar route.

[atlurbanist]

😍 Very cool! I couldn't help but add a train to the photo from AtlWinKnee's tweet (second image).

Put rail on the Atlanta Beltline and turn this into an excellent urban corridor surrounded by infill homes (with affordability), offices, and more.

And *build great ped/bike paths like this everywhere* so that the Beltline isn't such a rare destination for safe walking and cycling.

I want the Beltline path to be instructional for Atlanta, so we learn how much demand there is for great spaces to walk and bike. We should expand this quality of experience (including protected bike lanes) on many streets.

In that situation, the Beltline's use as a visitor destination for recreational strolling/chatting would be reduced some (though certainly not eliminated) due to the 'competition' elsewhere, and the Beltline corridor becomes a bit more of a productive transportation route.

[foxofanequinox]

like to charge reblog to cast

Pedestrian affirmations:

YOU ARE INVINCIBLE

AUTOMOBILES TREMBLE AT THE SIGHT OF YOU

GOD'S DIVINE LIGHT SHIELDS YOU

CROSSWALKS ARE YOUR HOLY PATH TO SALVATION

[littlespud]

my city is funny because somehow they managed to make their bike infrastructure hostile to peds 😭 how do you extend the community path but the extension is 3 miles of 6ft across pavement with no benches that is somehow meant to accommodate pedestrians and bikes riding at 15+ mph??? that’s just not safe for anyone involved. and they let electric bikes ride on it too and those go much faster and are heavy. this is how how we create bike/ped solidarity

[bethelctpride]

Working hard on the gay agenda: improved pedestrian infrastructure

[biglisbonnews]

Which Cities Have The Fewest Drinking Fountains — And What It Means For Walking and Biking As climate change causes temperatures to climb, should cities be doing more to help people who walk and bike stay cool and hydrated? The post Which Cities Have The Fewest Drinking Fountains — And What It Means For Walking and Biking appeared first on Streetsblog USA. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/07/27/which-cities-have-the-fewest-drinking-fountains-and-what-it-means-for-walking-and-biking

[thebreakfastgod]

America's Roads: Dangerous by Design

[phoenixyfriend]

Gonna fight the NYT podcast/a specific article. So are half the people in the comments.

The article is about increasing pedestrian deaths in the US, specifically at night.

They blame smart phones (and automatic transmission), increased vehicle size, and car-centric infrastructure being hostile to pedestrians.

I and everyone in the comments: IT'S THE FUCKING HEADLIGHTS

Had to leave my comment on YouTube because Spotify has a very low maximum character count.

I think the section on the change in cars is severely lacking in commentary on the factor that is changes in headlights. The lights are on average MUCH brighter than they were years ago, and paired with the increasing size of newer cars, they are often at the exact height to hit the eyeline for a driver in a sedan or other low cars. I and many drivers my age find that we DO NOT feel safe driving at night because we find ourselves blinded by oncoming traffic or cars in our rear view mirrors. This is not just a matter of the drivers, but the manufacturers; you can't really buy a car with weaker lights the way you can buy one with heated seats.

I'd have also liked to hear you touch on the factor of increasing fatigue in drivers coming home when you talked about the afterwork cell usage, since drowsy driving is known to be incredibly dangerous, and increasing wealth inequality means a lot of people in those low-income areas you mentioned are working multiple jobs and thus more fatigued when driving.

I do appreciate the explanation that the United States car-centric infrastructure is hostile to pedestrians, but I think it could have benefited from greater focus.

If you ever do a follow-up, I would suggest reaching out to urbanism activists like Not Just Bikes.

[ceilidhtransing]

I've been thinking about urbanism and about how some people (I'm particularly thinking folks like “the vocal minority of business owners that go absolutely apeshit any time there's a proposal to remove some space from cars in favour of a bike lane, a tram line, a pedestrianised area, etc”) don't seem to really consider anyone outside a car to be a person.

*a city plans to remove some parking spaces to make room for a protected bike lane*

“But how is anyone supposed to get here?!”

*looks at bustling street filled with pedestrians, cyclists, and people riding a tram*

Like, it genuinely doesn't seem to occur to some people that all of those people moving around outside of cars are people. That's how “anyone is supposed to get here”: by way of all of the non-car options, especially those that are actively made safer and easier by the removal or limiting of space for cars. And I don't know what's going on here - whether it's something like classism (only those wealthy enough to drive everywhere matter as people) or simply that car dependency is perhaps so entrenched and unquestioned for some folk that it genuinely doesn't occur to them that getting to a place without a car is (or at least should be) an entirely valid and possible thing to do. It's probably a bit of both. But my god does it drive me nuts when people respond to a new proposal that will dramatically increase the capacity and footfall of an urban space by shifting from emphasising cars to emphasising walking, cycling and public transport with “but how will anyone get here?!”

[atlantathecity]

This sludgy, slippery sidewalk on Grant Street is the only pedestrian route between King Memorial Station & the apartments completed a couple of years ago as a "transit-oriented development."

Ownership is split among MARTA, Atlanta & CSX. We need those parties to cooperate.

My understanding is that the water comes from the portion that CSX owns (the ground behind the wall, which lies under their freight rail line), it seeps through the tunnel wall that MARTA owns, and lands on the sidewalk the City owns. All three entities will need to cooperate to fix it.

I'm not convinced we can truly call this a transit-oriented development until it becomes a great space for pedestrians.

[atlurbanist]

Big freeway-capping concepts like The Stitch understandably grab headlines and build excitement.

I would also like to see some attention for other neighborhoods affected by freeways.

Here's a look at southwest Atlanta neighborhoods that were disconnected by I-20; same view, before (1949) and after.

This is the Mozely Park/Ashview Heights/West End area. Pedestrian pathways were greatly harmed here (not to mention the displacement and loss of homes). Can we repair those lost connections for pedestrians, and do so with a program for preventing displacement?

[Side note: when I see these comparisons I'm always struck by the density of development Atlanta used to have before the freeways -- notice all the empty lots in the current view.]

[ourstarsystem]

whoever decided that pedestrians should cross the street at the same time cars can turn should have their corpse dug out of their grave and beaten with baseball bats. im a pedestrian by the way

[modernistdelights]

Michael's Bridge, leading into the grounds of Eton College, near Slough.

[camels-pen]

ok. ok plans. plan. planning. tomorrow I will draw. and also I will, stay with me now, write. this is a plan that I am making. that way I can say I made a plan. like a planning person would do. in plansville.

[thoughtportal]