Douglas Hausladen, New Haven’s transportation director, envisions building complete streets quickly through a fail-fast approach.
Faced with a long queue of complete streets projects and the prospect of implementing only one a year, Hausladen imagines a different way. Called Complete Streets 2.0, the project will substantially reduce costs by "failing often" via impermanent changes to street space.
Existing roads will be modified to better serve the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, and buses. "That sounds like a major project, but by doing the job with paint, delineator tubes, and traffic bollards—rather than hard-engineered curbing—[Hausladen] says it can be done for less than $80,000."
If they fail to deliver desirable effects, New Haven can simply reverse the changes. Eric Jaffe reports that amateur "experimental urbanists" already apply extralegal fixes to the urban fabric. Hausladen wants to try out similar approaches officially.
While temporary road markers lack aesthetic appeal, surpassing theory and actually building complete streets might help the model spread.
FULL STORY: The Next Generation of Complete Streets Is Unfolding in New Haven
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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