nj complete streets summit keynote - charles marohn
TRANSCRIPT
New Jersey
Complete Streets Summit
October 21, 2013#NJBikePed #STChat
The mission of Strong Towns is to support a model for growth that allows America's towns
to become financially strong and resilient.
Complete Streets is a rational response to irrational thinking.
The second oldest profession?
Traffic EngineeringA relatively new profession
Trial and Error
Forgiving Design
• Widen lanes
• Flatten hills
• Smooth Curves
• Increase shoulders
• Add clear zone
The “standard”
Complete Streets is a rational response to irrational thinking.
Complete Streets accommodatepedestrians within an auto-
dominated environment.
Everything has it’s place….
Resolve conflict with priority
What are the values we apply?
Engineer’s Approach
• Traffic Speed
• Traffic Volume
• Safety
• Cost
Public’s Approach
• Safety
• Cost
• Traffic Volume
• Traffic Speed
Engineers will gladly build Complete Streets….
….because they can keep their value system.
Are we building a street or a road?
ROADS v. STREETSWhy is this so important?
Building Roads
Diminishing Returns
Reduced Travel Time Growth
Negative ROI
Negative ROI
High Return Investments
$1,136,500
$803,200
High Return Investments
Highway Oriented $0.6 million/acre
Traditional Pattern $1.1 million/acre
It is not enough to accommodatepedestrians within an auto-
dominated environment.
It is not enough to accommodatepedestrians within an auto-
dominated environment.
Productive Places accommodateautomobiles within an
environment dominated by people.
People create value
Shared Space
Shared Space
Productive Places – places scaled to
humans – cost less to build and have
greater financial returns than those
built strictly for automobiles.
Safe Routes to School
$200 million
Schools on un-Safe Routes
$9 billion
Now Available…
www.StrongTowns.org
www.StrongTowns.net
Deal Stopper
Swiss Firetrap?
Where are you more likely to die from a fire?
The fire fatality rate in the U.S. is 5x that of Switzerland.The U.S. approach emphasizes response time and suppression while the Swiss
approach emphasizes prevention.
A tragic irony
Our wide streets allow us to quickly respond to the collisions caused by our wide streets.