Last Friday, I was in two different suburban environments in Atlanta. Both are sprawl by any normal definition of the term - car-oriented environments where residential streets are separated from commerce, sidewalks are rare, and densities are low. But the two places are as different as sprawl and new urbanism.
Last Friday, I was in two different suburban environments in
Atlanta. Both are sprawl by any normal definition of
the term - car-oriented environments where residential streets are separated from commerce, sidewalks are rare, and densities are low. But the two places are as different
as sprawl and new urbanism.
On the way into town, I prayed at a synagogue in Sandy Springs (an inner ring suburb) and then walked
along a residential street to a nearby commercial street Both the residential street and commercial
street were not very pedestrian-friendly: there were no sidewalks on the residential
street, and the commercial street was perhaps a couple of lanes too wide to be
truly comfortable for pedestrians.
But this area (or as I call it, "Sprawl Heck") has its
consolations. While the residential
street did lack sidewalks, it at least had lawns to walk on so I didn't have to
walk in the street most of the time (much like these streets from
neighboring Atlanta suburbs:
http://atlantaphotos.fotopic.net/p14010326.html
and
http://atlantaphotos.fotopic.net/p14010324.html )
Traffic calming measures kept Sprawl Heck cars
going relatively safe speeds. And even
though the residential streets don't connect very well to each other, they are
reasonably close to a commercial street with sidewalks and bus stops.
By contrast, I spent the rest of the weekend with family
members. They live in an area that I
would describe as "Sprawl Hell." In
Sprawl Hell, trees go right up to the street so there's no way to avoid walking
on the street. And on many of Sprawl
Hell's residential streets, traffic goes 40 mph. So in Sprawl Hell, walking can be pretty
dangerous.
(For some examples, see
http://atlantaphotos.fotopic.net/p50930564.html
and
http://atlantaphotos.fotopic.net/p50930560.html )
And the nearest commercial street, about a mile and a half
away, is a highway which also lacks sidewalks:
http://atlantaphotos.fotopic.net/p50930562.html
In sum, not all car-oriented suburbs are equally bad. The mere addition of sidewalks, or some limits on
foliage near streets, can elevate a suburb from terrible to merely mediocre.
A few feet
Because of President-elect Obama’s plans to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure, some recent discussion of smart growth has focused on proposals for huge projects, such as rebuilding America’s rail network. But walkability often depends on much smaller steps, steps that require changes in tiny increments of space.
Why I fight
Occasionally, someone familiar with my scholarship asks me: why do you care about walkability and sprawl and cities? Why is this cause more important to you than twenty other worthy causes you might be involved in? The answer: Freedom. I grew up in a part of Atlanta that, for a carless teenager, was essentially a minimum-security prison. There were no buses or sidewalks, as in many of Atlanta’s suburbs and pseudo-suburbs. But in my parents' non-neighborhood, unlike in most American suburbs, there were also no lawns to walk on, so if you wanted to walk, you had to walk in the street - not a particularly safe experience in 40 mph traffic.
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