Episode 17: Patterns of Development podcast show notes
Don’t have time to read? Check out the podcast where I discuss the best of what I learned about urban planning, architecture, and real estate development, in less than 10 minutes.
Street Design
Photo by Ian Mackey on Unsplash
To help small businesses and restaurants during the last 6 quarters we got creative with how we used our streets. With chaos comes opportunity, right?
And cities got creative with converting unused street space into additional space for dinners. Essential, well-ventilated space. Unused street space also presented opportunities for bikers to ride a little freer.
As restrictions wind down, will we also do away with the creative use of public space and push all these things back to the way they were?
The cars are coming. If you haven’t heard it’s official people that people are driving faster and even though we drove fewer miles in the States there were more traffic fatalities (a 25% spike). That’s according to the national safety council.
Will there be pressure to get the parking and the lanes back? Will we keep our outdoor dining and newfound public space? An article in the New York Times (paywall) calls out just this issue…the next administration in that city will have to decide what to do.
In a country where so many things are gird locked, it’s impressive to think how quickly we utilized that underused (at least temporarily) space. Now we’ve got one of our biggest cities in the country wondering how to best use our streets and having it to make it a part of their campaign platform.
A Manual
As we consider our streets, the Federal Highway Administration has been working on gathering public feedback to suggest changes for the manual for uniform traffic control devices. You can view the timeline for the project here.
The manual 85 years old, and on its 11th edition considers that in order for our roads to be safe, they must be consistent, no…
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