A Car Street Undesired

20 January 2010 - 6:00am

While in Copenhagen for climate talks in December, U.S. officials got a taste of Danish-style bicycle planning. Some of them liked what they saw, but translating that infrastructure here in the States is no easy task.

This post from Miller-McCune looks at the prospects and challenges of recasting American street infrastructure as a multi-modal platform.

"'Unfortunately, the existing built environment isn't helping us,' California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said, 'and it makes it much more difficult and expensive to meet those goals.'

This isn't just a matter of engineering lithium-ion electric car batteries, but re-engineering whole communities. If you live in certain urban areas, you may have seen a prototype: the trendy mixed-use development arisen out of an abandoned industrial complex complete with condos, restaurants and metro access

Advocates of "transit-oriented development" stress, though, that they're not just talking about Starbucks on the ground floor and yuppies up above."

Source: Miller-McCune, January 19, 2010

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Has The Netherlands Conquered Denmark?

"While in Copenhagen for climate talks in December, U.S. officials got a taste of Dutch-style bicycle planning."

Dutch style??

Charles Siegel

"Danish-style", that is

A previous version of this news summary mistakenly identified Copenhagen's bicycle infrastructure as "Dutch-style". This mistake has been corrected.

Thanks to reader Charles Siegel for catching the error.

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Rarely does eminent domain get credit for the positive things that have been accomplished through its use. Without it, our urban areas would be places without the great virtues of conformity and sensible land use.