The Urbanist Agenda - Closing Open Streets (with City Beautiful)

Closing Open Streets (with City Beautiful)

05/19/23 • 39 min

During the covid-19 pandemic, many US cities made streets off-limits to cars and opened them to people walking an cycling. These "open streets" were loved by urbanists everywhere, but now that the lockdowns are over, many of these places are being given back to motor vehicle traffic. In this episode, I talk to Dave from the YouTube channel City Beautiful about these closed open streets and what the future of "open streets" might look like in the US and Canada.

How New York City Lost 63 Miles of Pedestrian-Friendly 'Open Streets'

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/nyregion/open-streets-nyc.html

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How New York City Lost 63 Miles of Pedestrian-Friendly 'Open Streets'

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/nyregion/open-streets-nyc.html

Directly support the production of this podcast, and listen to every episode ad-free and sponsor-free, by subscribing to Nebula: https://nebula.tv/agenda

Not Just Bikes: https://youtube.com/@notjustbikes

City Beautiful: https://youtube.com/@citybeautiful

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Previous Episode

Toronto Drivers are Above the Law (with RMTransit)

Toronto has almost completely stopped issuing parking tickets to drivers, even as it faces critical budget problems. But this is just one more decision in a long line that allow drivers in Toronto to get away with almost any behaviour. From running red lights to driving literally twice the speed limit, the Toronto Police have proven, time and time again, that Toronto drivers are above the law.

Want to do something about it? Join Friends and Families for Safe Streets: https://www.cycleto.ca/friends-and-families-safe-streets

Directly support the production of this podcast by subscribing to Nebula: https://nebula.tv/agenda

Not Just Bikes: https://youtube.com/@notjustbikes

RMTransit: https://youtube.com/@rmtransit

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Next Episode

Engineering Bad Outcomes (with CityNerd)

Traffic engineers in the US and Canada have complex guidebooks and formulas for everything they do, but somehow they still build places that are dangerous, expensive, ugly, and terrible at actually moving people. Jason (Not Just Bikes) and Ray (CityNerd) discuss how all this engineering still results in bad outcomes.

All Traffic Models are Wrong (Strong Towns)

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/9/7/all-traffic-models-are-wrong

WSDOT VS. REALITY

https://www.sightline.org/2011/07/13/wsdot-vs-reality/

https://riskcenter.wharton.upenn.edu/climate-risk-solutions-2/its-time-to-rethink-our-roads/

https://www.pps.org/article/levels-of-service-and-travel-projections-the-wrong-tools-for-planning-our-streets

https://cityobservatory.org/the-limits-of-data-driven-approaches-to-planning/

Directly support the production of this podcast, and listen to every episode early (and without ads!) by subscribing to Nebula: https://nebula.tv/agenda

Not Just Bikes: https://youtube.com/@notjustbikes

CityNerd: https://youtube.com/@citynerd

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.