Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Why motorists misbehaving and out-of-date transportation standards are degrading our quality of life

Lake Ave in downtown Lake Worth, Lucerne Ave, Dixie Hwy, and those wide one-way roads where cars recklessly speed all day and all night. . .it's not just a nuisance, it's degrading our quality of life. Here is an excerpt from Jesse Bailey in his Walkable West Palm blog on how out-of-date, misapplied transportation standards are so damaging to our cities and towns:
The building blocks of our public realm – streets, squares, plazas, parks – depend upon civilized behavior by all participants in order for civilization to flourish. In this environment, cars need to move slowly, not just for safety of the people not in cars, but in order for community itself to be able to flourish. Imagine some of your favorite public spaces: A square in Savannah. Duval Street in Key West. Clematis Street in West Palm Beach. Central Park. What’s common about all these places? Cars are secondary to people – the dominant species in these environments are the people walking, talking, and playing – and cars are welcome too as long as they behave.
Watch this video Jesse Bailey includes in his post: