We've worked hard for decades to make vehicles safer for those inside, but pedestrians and cyclists suffer from the design of our roads. The concept in this video from Cheddar really hit home when I taught my kids how to drive. After they learned the basics on the local neighborhood streets, I took them on increasing wider roads to get them used to driving faster, until they were ready to try the interstate highway. Wider roads seem safer on the surface, but they encourage drivers to go faster, no matter what the posted speed limit is. I could go on and on about how wider roads kill community structure and social behavior, but they also literally kill people. -via Digg
There's a place for highways, to get people from town to town fast, but city streets should be for the people who live there. Wider roads and faster traffic in town mean fewer sidewalks. Houses are built further back from the street, not only for safety but because the road might be widened in the future. That means big useless front yards and neighbors living further away from each other, and people are less likely to get out and walk. That's the way to isolate people from their community.
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And then, to slow cars down, the city-planners put in Speed Bumps, to punish drivers who have to use those streets, like delivery and emergency vehicles. And where I live, the snow on speedbump streets never gets cleared away properly. But it sure is slower!
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Good design has to take into account human nature. Efficient, logical designs don't always work because humans are inefficient and illogical.
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