In many places in the United States, residential streets were as wide as busy city streets. I understand why urban streets might need to be wide — parking, buses, traffic, and bike lanes all need the room. But why do quiet residential streets need to be so wide? Why do they need parking when all of the houses on the streets have garages and driveways? Why do they need wide lanes when most of the traffic is just cars and minivans? Why are we building residential streets as wide as big city streets?
Resources on this topic:
I based this video on my Master’s thesis, which my advisor and I turned into a book chapter. You can buy the book, Retrofitting Sprawl, on Amazon:
Video sources:
– Videoblocks.com
Photo sources:
– AASHTO
– Blake Wheeler (via Unsplash.com)
– Drew DeVitis https://psudelft2015drewdevitis.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/the-woonerf-living-streets-for-people/
– Google Maps
– NASA
– Wikimedia Commons
Filmed in sunny Sacramento, California.
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