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June 19, 2008
People First or Cars First?
Metro's Chair and City of Santa Monica Councilwoman Pam O'Connor held one of her monthly online chats with residents yesterday. StreetsblogLA was there and noted that she personally thinks transit planning needs to stop just counting cars and start counting people. You know, bicycles, walkers, people on busses -- all those aspects that make up street use. The current mainstream models mainly focus on cars, cars, cars.
Ever notice in Downtown LA when walking around on one-way streets that signs telling you which street you're on tend to only display towards traffic? Half the time, pedestrians get shafted by this model.
And then, let's not even get started on how pedestrians are legally allowed to cross the street at unmarked crosswalks, but no education campaign is set in place or politician has been willing to take it on.
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I think this is a really great idea. Los Angeles has the perfect weather and environment for walkers, but the lack of adequate sidewalks or consideration for pedestrians makes walking difficult if not dangerous in alot of areas. It's a shame that so many people feel they need to drive even very short distances. Perhaps better pedestrian routes will encourage more people to leave the car at home more often.
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I totally agree with this.
We need to think of moving people, not vehicles.
Thanks to gas prices and increasing density, the car culture will continue to decline.
Our planning must give a higher priority to the needs of people and masses of people than moving vehicles occupied by single-occupancy motorists.
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Maybe it's far fetched but I'm dreaming of a future where most long distance city traffic is train, and most short distance travel is bikes and pedestrians. Maybe it's far fetched sounding now, but it certainly isn't going to be seen as a viable option if we only count traffic by counting cars.