Newspaper Page Text
Many of us are already aware that sprawl
kills. An auto-oriented society became domi
nant after World War II to make life easier
and healthier by making the suburbs, with
lots of clean air and open space, possible.
Unfortunately, suburban life is better in theory
than practice. Clean air has been replaced by
smog, and all that open space has been paved
over with acre-sized parking lots surround
ing a big box store and streets so large and
unfriendly pedestrians can't cross them.
Dependence on the automobile has elimi
nated the ability to walk or cycle. For years,
obesity rates have been blamed on the types
of food prevalent in today's society, but lack
of walking is just as much to blame. According
to planner and author Jeff Speck, the farther
people live from the city center the more they
weigh, and three times as many people die
from exhaust-caused asthma today than in
the '90s. Essentially, sprawl is planning for
automobiles and not the actual people who
drive them.
There is hope for the future. Things are
changing as the Millennial come of age. We're
different from the Boomers and Gen-Xers in
that we tend to move to places we want to
live and then find work there, not the other
way around. The places we choose to move
are largely urban, and we are also far more
likely to walk, cycle or use mass transit than
prior generations. And while many Millennial
are concerned with their carbon footprint
and buzzwords such as "sustainable," Speck
says the most sustainable thing a f=
person can do is walk or cycle, not ??
buy a hybrid car. Lowering your car-
bon footprint is about changing your ??
lifestyle, not buying the newest green 00
accessories.
Speck, an influential New Urbanist,
gave a public lecture and held a
workshop for Athens-Clarke officials
and neighborhood leaders last week,
centered on his newest book, Walkable
City: How Downtown Can Save America,
One Step at a Time.
As Speck said, the towns that are
in the most need of help are not the
towns getting Speck and city planners
like him to lecture. Athens is in pretty
good shape. While we have outlying
areas that do require automobiles, our
city center is walkable.
At the ACHF workshop Thursday, May
2, Speck said parking and block size are
two of the biggest factors in whether a
city is walkable.
Counterintuitively, increasing park
ing rates increases the number of
stores and, in turn, increases walk-
ability. Higher parking rates encourage
people to walk rather than drive; the
cheaper the parking, the more likely people
are to drive. Raising the cost of parking in
front of shops and restaurants keeps people
from parking in them all day and encourages
people to park in them only while shopping
or dining. Parking decks should be cheaper for
those who have to park all day.
Unfortunately, Athens has it backwards. It's
twice as expensive per hour to park in a down
town deck as it is on the street.
While our parking rates might be back
wards, at least our city blocks are the right
size. Small, well-protected blocks promote
pedestrian safety and therefore encourage
walkability. While downtown is already walk-
able, our new master plan should make it even
more so; this lecture and workshop came at a
great time for us.
Creating safe streets for pedestrians goes
hand-in-hand with creating safe streets for
cyclists. Safer streets generally begin with
reducing the number of car lanes and increas
ing the number of bike lanes, mostly on roads
leading into the city center, rather than in the
city center itself, where slower speeds already
make cycling safer. Reducing the number of
car lanes and creating bike lanes auto
matically reduces the speed people
drive. As with Portland, OR, if bike
lanes are created, people will use them.
According to Speck, Portland residents
bike 15 times as much as the rest of
the country, because safe bike lanes
create an environment where people
want to bike.
One of Speck's few criticisms of
Athens was that some of our downtown
streets are too wide. While Clayton
Street might need a middle lane for
delivery trucks, Washington Street does
not, and Jack Crowley, who is direct
ing the master plan, has proposed
replacing a lane of traffic with a wider
sidewalk.
As for closing lanes, would barring
auto traffic from College Square be
beneficial? Whether real or imagined,
retailers are afraid that a lack of park
ing in front of their businesses will
deter customers. However, the public
doesn't see how increasing foot traffic
and providing a gathering place could
be bad for business. Pedestrian malls
often fail, and Speck urged blocking
off College Square temporarily to see
what will happen before doing it per
manently. Trying it for a month or a couple of
football weekends could be very beneficial to
the master plan.
Stella Smith
THE ERA OF SPRAWL IS OVER
Jeff Speck
Uenn to Mom,
Pods ?? Gnadh
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