The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy helps cities in the developing world address traffic and congestion with creative, cost-efficient solutions. Executive Director Walter Hook shares some strategies for the US as well.
"In developing countries, the people who own and operate cars tend to be a small minority; they tend to be the richest people in country, and they tend to be the decision-makers. In the developing country context, the notion of using scarce public roads and space to give priority to public-transit users, cyclists, pedestrians, open space, and meaningful interaction in the public realm has a class meaning. Dedicating urban public space and roads to private cars means turning over most of those public resources to the richest 10–20 percent."
"Any mayor or district that controls roads is making a choice about whether that public space should be dedicated to subsidized private parking or dedicated to a bike lane and a widened sidewalk with park benches and new trees along it. That is a choice. The width of the road that is dedicated to private cars is a choice. And then, whether to create a bus lane or to leave it a mixed traffic lane: that is a political choice. Whether to build 300 km of bike lanes or ignore cycling as a possibility: that is a political choice. Those are all political choices.
"Public space-how it is used and allocated-is not something that is, at the end of day, determined by abstract engineering principles. It is a choice made every day by politicians, who have, in this country, thought that our public space should be dedicated to moving private motor vehicles around, even if it's at the expense of human interaction. That being said, obviously shopkeepers and other people have some vested interest in parking. The process of reclaiming this public space has to be done in a participatory way where shopkeepers that want their streetscapes full of cars should have that option."
Thanks to Josh Stephens
FULL STORY: ITDP Seeks to Help Third World Cities Avoid Congestion and Auto Dependency of First World
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