Looking into 2023
We decamped to Saratoga Springs NY this year, half way between New York City and Montreal. Toga, as I like to call it, is 91 times smaller than Brooklyn. This has altered my focus as I look into 2023.
—Michael King
Driving to drink
Ahead of the France-England World Cup match, I ordered a beer. Along with the standard taps there were four or five local “microbrews”. Not being familiar, I asked about them. The bar keep answered, somewhat derisively, “I don’t know, I drink Miller Lite.” [point of reference for those not familiar…Beer Advocate ranks Miller Lite 30,663 out of 30,701 beers.]. Fortunately I had a witty comeback, “I try to support local businesses.”
Some years ago I read a transportation planning book that offered a beer analogy. The author lamented that we once drank beer brewed nearby using local water. Now we drink beer brewed elsewhere. Since beer is mostly water, we are essentially moving water around on trucks and trains.
In 1976 New York passed a law which opened the door for local vineyards to produce and sell their own product (which they had not been able to do since Prohibition). In 2013 farm breweries and distilleries were allowed to join. Now there are about 1300 breweries, wineries and distilleries in the state. In Brooklyn I could walk to nine breweries. There are about the same number within a 20 minute drive of Toga, but I can only walk to two. So we have returned to brewing beer locally, but now we are driving to drink it.
Sometime ago, I developed an axiom: If the mayor can drive to the airport in 15 minutes, nothing will ever change. Very few cities around the world have good transit to the airport (including baggage transfer). Lufthansa will cross-book your train ticket, guarantee arrival, and check your luggage at the train station. Most airports are fiefdoms of taxis, rental cars, and car parks. Point is that if you ensconce your decision makers and monied classes in private vehicles, then they will assume and design a system accordingly.
How internalized is the driving-parking axis? Here is an excerpt from the program of a local theatre:
“Parking…can be a challenge. Please allow extra time to find parking when attending our performances…Police will be posting “No Parking - temporary Police Order” signs…These signs are being posted for US to make use of the space for a drop off zone…There are several free parking options…If you park in a 2-hour spot and do not move your car, you will get a ticket!”
The program contained nothing about walking, bike parking, nearby restaurants, places to have a nightcap afterwards, information about the park adjacent, how to support the local economy, or anything else. Just parking. And people who attend local theatre are a fairly progressive bunch, no?
Please don’t get me started about people who remotely start their cars to warm them up….
The parking space paradox
In “The Spatial Organization of Cities: Deliberate Outcome or Unforeseen Consequence?”, Alain Bertaud reveals that Atlanta is about 25 times the land area of Barcelona, but with about the same number of people. Barcelona is imminently walkable whereas Atlanta is not. There are probably a dozen reason why, but one has to be distance. Things in Atlanta are farther apart than in Barcelona. Not coincidentally, the area required to store a car (the parking space plus the driveway) is about 25 times the area required for a person to sit.
Figure 6. The Built-up Area of Atlanta and Barcelona Represented at the Same Scale from “The Spatial Organization of Cities: Deliberate Outcome or Unforeseen Consequence?” by Alain Bertaud, 2004.
I recently worked on a comprehensive plan update for a an exurban village. The previous plan prescribed more highways, more big roads, more parking, and more suburban sprawl. I don’t think it could have been more retrograde.
I want communities to be more proactive about crafting progressive visions. Instead of a rote retelling of the subdivision-mall-sprawl story, communities can focus on paths and streets, which would give people of all ages and abilities opportunities to perambulate safely. Everyone complains about having to drive hither and yon for everything, so let us question the minimum parking requirements that spatially separate. Communities can promote density around transit and neighborhood centers, instead of reflexively accepting large, single family lots. Our inherited transportation system has had a huge impact on climate change and racial inequities. It is up to us to alter the trajectory.
Obvious and desirable
Jan Gehl once remarked that Copenhagen never tried to shame people into riding bikes, or tell them it was more economical or ecological or equitable. They just made cycling obvious and desirable. Similarly, we need to focus on building places where transit, walking and cycling is obvious and desirable. This means that places have to be near each other, relatively dense, organized around transit, and near nature.
Herein lies a few rubs. A) We accumulate generational wealth in our property-based, capitalistic system via zoning. Challenging zoning threatens the family nest egg. B) Because everyone drives everywhere all the time, density compounds traffic. C) Development has been equated to gentrification, which has been used as a NIMBY cudgel.
I have a solution:
Relax zoning so that property owners can realize higher returns via density.
Relax parking requirements so that the development is spatially smaller.
Organic development is not gentrification, it is investment.
The diagram below illustrates a transit-greenway-road hierarchy. The most important element is the transit station. This centers the community (or series of communities) and connects them to other places. It should be walkable and protected - there should be no through vehicle traffic. Second is the greenway, which provides unhindered mobility for people walking and cycling. It allows long distance as well as local travel, and access to nature. Third is the road system. The highway is kept at bay. Vehicles are allowed in, but they must exit from whence they came. This de-induces traffic while transit, walking and cycling are obvious and desirable.
Transit-greenway-road hierarchy