the built environment: seize the means of recreation

May 2, 2020 12:12 AM

How cities are reshaping streets to prepare for life after lockdown - "Milan is beginning to transform 22 miles of local streets, adding temporary bike lanes and wider sidewalks, and lowering the speed limit. In Berlin, some parking spots have also become pop-up bike lanes. Paris is fast-tracking long-distance bike lanes that connect suburbs to the city center. And in Brussels, on May 4, the city center will become a priority zone for people on bikes and on foot." (previously)

also btw...
people's parks - "SF closed the 9(!) golf courses in the City & turned them into parks for social distance recreation."

posted by kliuless (30 comments total)

That is really interesting and positive.
posted by mumimor at 12:39 AM on May 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

This is wonderful, I really hope that pedestrian/cyclist-friendly towns and cities become part of the "new normal".
posted by Mauve at 1:01 AM on May 2, 2020 [12 favorites]

The Shock Doctrine used for good rather than evil.
posted by fairmettle at 1:02 AM on May 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

Parks in New Orleans are mostly golf, which means they are mostly empty. I walk and ride in them -- the non golf areas are one twentieth the space with two hundred times the amount of people, who can't distance on a two way, six foot path. Watching people trying to maintain six feet is like a plinko game

There are also no women or people of color in the public golf courses, and most of these guys seem high risk. So, I get a lot of sneers from 30 feet away, but whatever, play through, jerk. What are they going to do, come over and breathe my air?
posted by eustatic at 4:22 AM on May 2, 2020 [13 favorites]

Not my city (Chicago)

Our mayor got a lot of meme respect early on and now she seems to be all in on just being celebrity Mayor Nope.
posted by srboisvert at 5:12 AM on May 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Let's just take my griping about Mayor Miracle Whip on Wonderbread as read. Sigh.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:13 AM on May 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

The City Fix: How COVID-19 Can Drive Transformational Change in Cities
This pandemic is exposing existing fault lines with respect to poor physical infrastructure and inequalities in access to core urban services.
We need to bring laser sharp focus on investing in infrastructure and housing for better health, wellbeing and resilience for the urban poor

Brent Toderian, previously the chief planner for Vancouver, BC
I’m a city planner. My goal is that we plan and decide what sticks and what doesn’t.
Cities have come up with rules to address crowding — not density, mind you, but crowding.
Cars have taken up so much space. There’s not a lot of room left over for people.
A lot of it comes down to whether your city is creative or risk averse. The best illustration of that distinction involves cities that are closing parks because they’re too crowded, instead of realizing that they are too crowded because there is too little space and you should open more. They are taking a bad situation and making it worse.
posted by adamvasco at 5:52 AM on May 2, 2020 [23 favorites]

cities that are closing parks because they’re too crowded, instead of realizing that they are too crowded because there is too little space and you should open more. They are taking a bad situation and making it worse.

Exactly this, which is why I was fucking furious that in NYC, they took the thousand acres at Floyd Bennet Field and closed it because... they needed a place to keep 100 buses.
posted by entropone at 6:03 AM on May 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

My street is switching to only 10mph local traffic today (along with a bunch of other streets). Gonna see how well people respect it but I'm excited to get more car free space to walk and run. My city closed all the parks in mid March and it's been a real project to take a walk without coming within 6 ft, let alone a run where I leave more space than that and feel like I constantly end up running in the street. Most parks are reopening today too, yeah!
posted by geegollygosh at 6:19 AM on May 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

This last week was the first time I’ve ever seen more bikes on the streets of Toronto than cars.

I don’t want to go back to the old normal. I want to abolish rent, give everyone a reasonable universal basic income and save the world in the process.
posted by mhoye at 6:38 AM on May 2, 2020 [33 favorites]

Here in Milwaukee, there are a lot more pedestrians out, but the cars that are out have taken the empty roads to mean they can drive like absolute garbage. I’ve come close to being run over a few times at crosswalks where I have the walk sign.

Which isn’t that unusual, actually- I always proceed cautiously at controlled intersections because it’s very common for drivers to not look when they’re turning. I’m in one of the busiest areas of the city with a lot of foot traffic in normal times. And drivers don’t watch for pedestrians.

We’ve had a number of pedestrians killed in the past year, including a well known/loved bartender who was killed in a hit and run, and a dean at Marquette struck while crossing (he was crossing when the driver had a green light, but the driver was traveling at a “high rate of speed”).

There is often discussion of this in the neighborhood Facebook groups and the Milwaukee reddit. Which I’m glad for. But I’m shocked at the number of people who feel so entitled as drivers. Or those that believe the law is on their side if they strike a pedestrian. Or don’t understand that unmarked crosswalks are still crosswalks. Or that they are responsible for being mindful of pedestrians. It’s written into our laws, and yes, in some cases a pedestrian might be in the wrong if they step out in traffic, cars are still legally expected to watch for those pedestrians and avoid them! And our laws clearly state that cars need to heed pedestrians waiting at marked and unmarked crosswalks and yet few do, and many will argue there is no obligation to do so.

There was some discussion and a petition to close off some streets during the lockdown to make more room for people, and it seemed to gain some traction, but ultimately didn’t go anywhere.

I had high hopes the first couple weeks because there really did seem to be virtually no cars on the road, but people out walking. Traffic hasn’t returned to normal but it’s much higher, and drivers are worse than ever.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 7:11 AM on May 2, 2020 [9 favorites]

Meanwhile our lot (Poland) banned bike rental schemes, which is absolutely idiotic when a lot of people in big cities don't own cars and public transport has been limited to 50% of seated capacity. They also had the police hunt down normal bicycles all over as "banned leisure trips" with high fines during the strictest lockdown (which also included closing parks and forests) - I'm hoping a lot of those people will appeal.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 7:13 AM on May 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

Here in Milwaukee, there are a lot more pedestrians out, but the cars that are out have taken the empty roads to mean they can drive like absolute garbage. I’ve come close to being run over a few times at crosswalks where I have the walk sign.

It's the same here. Way fewer cars on the roads, but some of them are driving much faster and with a huge sense of entitlement. I saw a lady almost get hit at a crosswalk a couple of days ago; the driver didn't even touch their brakes. Even so, it still feels safer than before to me, because of the huge drop in car traffic. Unfortunately they haven't proposed full or partial road closures near me, but if they did I think you would see so many people using that space.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:35 AM on May 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Medford, MA: on the minor streets, now, it's considered proper for families to just walk and bike on the road, and drivers have accepted it and slowed down.
posted by ocschwar at 7:45 AM on May 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

Unfortunately, what this pandemic means for my city, and I'm sure many others, is near or actual bankruptcy due to the loss of tax revenue and the refusal of congress to bail out the cities. So no money for new bike lane or parks or any of that.
posted by octothorpe at 8:16 AM on May 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

We never fully closed down, but instead have navigated the overpolicing of who composes an unsafe crowd and who is just normally enjoying their time off. There are people here, as I'm sure there are everywhere, who would be very happy to see the right of free assembly in public space tossed aside permanently in the name of protecting others.
posted by mdonley at 8:20 AM on May 2, 2020

eustatic: There are also no women or people of color in the public golf courses, and most of these guys seem high risk. So, I get a lot of sneers from 30 feet away, but whatever, play through, jerk. What are they going to do, come over and breathe my air?

The Social-Distancing Culture War Has Begun -- Across the country, social distancing is morphing from a public-health to political act. The consequences could be disastrous. (McKay Coppins for The Atlantic, March 30, 2020)

At the driving range, while Frost and his like-minded friends slathered on hand sanitizer and kept six feet apart, the white-haired Republicans seemed to delight in breaking the new rules. They made a show of shaking hands, and complained loudly about the “stupid hoax” being propagated by virus alarmists. When their tee times were up, they piled defiantly into golf carts, shoulder to shoulder, and sped off toward the first hole.

adamvasco: A lot of it comes down to whether your city is creative or risk averse. The best illustration of that distinction involves cities that are closing parks because they’re too crowded, instead of realizing that they are too crowded because there is too little space and you should open more.

More parks would mean more space, but also more places for people to be shitty humans: Illegal parking, public defecation, overflowing trash cans: Crowds cause mess at parks during coronavirus pandemic (Ellie Rushing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 2020)


mhoye: This last week was the first time I’ve ever seen more bikes on the streets of Toronto than cars.

I don’t want to go back to the old normal. I want to abolish rent, give everyone a reasonable universal basic income and save the world in the process.

Push Toronto's Vision Zero Plan to be more like Oslo, Norway's effort, citing the city's recorded zero cycling and pedestrian fatalities in 2019 (Aaron Short for Streets Blog, Jan 3, 2020)

Oslo’s status as a pedestrian and cycling safe have didn’t occur overnight. The road to Vision Zero was paved with a mix of regulations that lowered speed, barring cars from certain areas, expanding its bike network, and added traffic calming measures around schools.

The article lays out the range of efforts employed not only in Oslo, but country-wide.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:47 AM on May 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

What. You mean the vision of Vision Zero is POSSIBLE?!?!!!
posted by aniola at 10:07 AM on May 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

I guarantee you there are hundreds of thousands of GTA residents who are anxiously awaiting that glorious day when they can once again sit in smog-enveloped gridlock and swear at cyclists while they text.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:33 AM on May 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

I am an "essential worker" I guess and the first few days of the lockdowns here in the Bay Area were surreal with almost no other cars on 101 heading south from SF. I will probably never experience that singular joy in my life again (what's the Japanese word for the impermanence of things again?). A week later people realized the roads were a free for all and I literally saw 2 high speed accidents in 2 days and multiple people going over a hundred MPH. Then came the CHP crackdowns and CalTrans pushed up construction of the 101 overpass through SF from this summer and now the traffic is slowly creeping back to pre-COVID levels and here I am wistfully remembering the glory days of commuting in spring 2020 during a global pandemic.
posted by flamk at 10:39 AM on May 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

(what's the Japanese word for the impermanence of things again?)

Mono no aware (物の哀れ), which usually means a wistful sensitivity to the transience and impermanence of all things.

It is also used to refer to the state of an audio listener who has not yet realized one of his speakers is no longer working.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:52 AM on May 2, 2020 [23 favorites]

Push Toronto's Vision Zero Plan to be more like Oslo, Norway's effort, citing the city's recorded zero cycling and pedestrian fatalities in 2019

Respectfully, I’ve been on the sharp edge of Toronto’s “vision zero” plan more than once, and it’s a sick joke and will continue to be a sick joke as long as Tory is mayor. 85% of Toronto police don’t actually live in Toronto; they are simply not enforcing any laws that might add ten minutes to their commutes, and Tory has no inclination to address that. Whatever he says means nothing when you compare it to what he actually does, and particularly how he staffs committees.
posted by mhoye at 11:12 AM on May 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

Respectfully, I’ve been on the sharp edge of Toronto’s “vision zero” plan more than once, and it’s a sick joke and will continue to be a sick joke as long as Tory is mayor. 85% of Toronto police don’t actually live in Toronto; they are simply not enforcing any laws that might add ten minutes to their commutes, and Tory has no inclination to address that. Whatever he says means nothing when you compare it to what he actually does, and particularly how he staffs committees.

oh, this sounds like NYC's implementation of Vision Zero, which has mostly been "be careful!" advertisements about how individual choices matter, and very little actual use of data and design to drive safety. a wack shift of responsibility to the individual, instead of systemic change.
posted by entropone at 11:28 AM on May 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

If big cities in the US can’t restore commercial occupancy and taxable sales volumes, they are all bankrupt, sooner or later. If public health authorities won’t permit a return to old mass transit densities, or suburbanites and outer-district residents reject those densities on their own, cities are going to have to become more car friendly, not less.
posted by MattD at 3:43 PM on May 2, 2020

[insert clever name here]: Traffic hasn’t returned to normal but it’s much higher, and drivers are worse than ever.

When it's considerate to stay home, only the assholes will be driving.

As someone who commutes by bike, "seize the means of transportation" would be more on-point than "seize the means of recreation".
posted by clawsoon at 4:29 PM on May 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

I never really thought about it, but the human race is as dependent on elevators as any other technology. Any solution to that problem is going to be straight out of a Terry Gillium movie.
posted by Beholder at 6:32 PM on May 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Oakland has been gradually rolling out Slow Streets, which are closed to thru traffic so people can exercise in the street for the duration of the SIP. There are soft barricades to entry but drivers can get around them to access their homes, or just if they want to.

As a person who walks everywhere, I'm supposed to love this program, but in reality it feels inconsequential. On the selected streets in my neighborhood, I haven't noticed a difference from other similar streets nearby, either in the number of users in their behavior; the default is still to stay on the sidewalk except for a brief detour to avoid a close encounter. And that detour into the street is still preceded by a quick anxious look in both directions.

Which is fine, actually; walking down the middle of the street has never been high on my wish list, or anywhere on my wish list. Ultimately, the real game changers for pedestrian safety involve reconfiguration of physical street space, which can't be done quickly in a crisis. But if the city wanted to take quick action, I wish they'd turned on automatic walk phases at signaled intersections like some neighboring cities have done. (And then I wish they'd keep them on.)
posted by aws17576 at 6:33 PM on May 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

"cities are going to have to become more car friendly, not less"

Uh, cities--at least American cities, and most European cities I've seen, as well--are just about as car friendly as it is possible to make them.

You can drive your car at very high speed all over the place, and you can drive your car right up to pretty much any destination you please.

Our cities are quite literally designed around the automobile.

Making cities safer places to walk and bicycle--that is to say, to live--isn't going to disturb the suburbanites' pleasant existence of zooming in and out of the city at high speeds in their oversized personal vehicles.

So what does stop us from just putting in 10X more private vehicles into cities?

Oh, yeah. It's the fact that putting 10X the cars on the streets will inevitably lead to complete gridlock.

Pedestrians and cyclists--and people, in general--aren't the mortal enemy of the auto-topia you're dreaming of.

It's all those other damn car drivers.
posted by flug at 7:10 PM on May 2, 2020 [9 favorites]

Unsurprisingly, Seattle is all over this trend. I hope it sticks around. We’ve got halfway decent bike infrastructure (exceptional by American Standards with separated bike lanes in many places) and the closures only help. A few days ago I was able to bike with my 11 year old across the center of town, something I would never consider in most other US cities.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:56 PM on May 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Cities Have a Small Window to Save Themselves From Cars
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:11 AM on May 14, 2020 [1 favorite]