How to transform city streets — without losing your parking spot. Washington Post Amanda Shendruk August 13, 2024 at 4:30 a.m. City streets share a common blight.....Uninviting, and even harmful, these are the streets many of us live on. Endless pavement. Little nature. Tiring traffic. If you live in a big city, you know the challenges: Pollution, traffic, noise and lack of nature can cause both physical and mental stress. For many, it’s just the reality of urban living. But what if it didn’t have to be?.......What if, instead, a road could be a tree-lined pedestrian walkway with benches? An intersection could be a playground. Safer, healthier, less lonely cities — who wouldn’t want that? There’s an obvious problem: More street space for people means less space for vehicles. And in car-centric America, where freedom often depends on access to a vehicle, many wouldn’t want that. Fortunately, there’s a way to have your park — and parking, too. It’s called a superblock — an urban planning concept that is gaining traction throughout Europe. And it’s something urban planners think could work in the United States. First, find a neighborhood. Here’s a small example- (check out the graphics in the artcle), but the idea could be implemented across larger areas. On the “inner streets” of the neighborhood, city planners limit vehicle speed, prohibit through-traffic and designate portions of road and intersection as pedestrian-first space. Now that most traffic has been pushed to exterior roads, the next step is to make space for nature and community by adding trees, planters, benches and playgrounds.
Superblocks Don’t aim to Eliminate Cars.......they just Make them Less Important. The space is Designed Primarily for Pedestrians; Vehicles are Secondary.
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Superblocks don’t aim to eliminate cars.......they just make them less important. The space is designed primarily for pedestrians; vehicles are secondary. Why? Because city streets are terrible for residents’ health, and the chief culprit is often cars. Air pollution, much of which comes from vehicle exhaust, contributes to numerous conditions, including asthma, heart disease, lung cancer and strokes. The noise is bad for us, too. Additionally, most streets lack any kind of nature. This has a significant impact on depression and anxiety, and can make “heat islands” worse in warm months. Good urban design can help. “At the end of the day, what kind of city do you want?” asks Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, who studies the health impacts of superblocks and is the director of multiple programs at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. “Do you want to have a city for cars? Or do you want to have a city for people? I believe cities are there for people.” Superblocks are already working.....Barcelona has a history of innovative, health-focused urban design. In the 19th century, architect Ildefons Cerdà designed a neighborhood beyond the city walls as an antidote to cramped, unhealthy conditions within them. His wider streets allowed for greater airflow, each block had internal green space, and buildings were oriented for the best light and circulation. Soon, however, Cerdà’s green spaces were filled in with buildings, and his wide streets left residents choking in some of the highest pollution rates in Europe. What Cerdà suspected, and what we now know for sure, is that city design has a big impact on health. So, Barcelona again tried to find a better way. Initially proposed in 1987, the first superblock was implemented in Barcelona in 2003. Now, the Catalan city is home to about six traditional superblocks, and city planners have converted other roads into similar pedestrian-first zones. I spent time in Barcelona’s vibrant Sant Antoni superblock in May. Established in 2018, it’s a showpiece of the concept.....check out the article- excellent graphics and photos! https://www.washingtonpost.