From the Fabian Society’s Capital Gains: A global city in a changing world.
Streets make our cities tick, but for too long we have paid too little attention to how they might be transformed for the better. In London, we need to see streets as an equalities issue. That means giving our residents the unpolluted and safe public spaces they deserve.
Local leaders are deeply preoccupied with how to make their boroughs better places. But some things capture more of our attention than others. We spend a lot of time thinking about services and buildings and finances. But — although our casework is often to do with what happens on our streets — we rarely consider overhauling them at a fundamental level. We may reorganise a library service to meet changing demand or financial pressures; we may build new council homes to house those in need. But we are too often unable to conceptualise a street in a new way.
This is a 360-degree blind spot. Our streets are the bloodstream of a borough, connecting everything up with everything else. They are also the places where people live, work and spend time. Yet for all their perpetual motion and activity, streets tend to be regarded as immutable things — by the public and councillors alike.
Of course, our streets were not always how they are today. But post-war planners embraced the car above all, aiming to shuttle as many of them as they could around the city as quickly as possible. They built one-way systems and flyovers that remain with us today. As in many cities, over the years we drifted into a situation where public space was largely given over to cars.
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Reclaiming The Streets: A Bold Approach To Car Use – Adam Harrison – Medium
Adam Harrison From the Fabian Society’s Capital Gains: A global city in a changing world. Streets make our cities tick, but for too long we have paid too little attention to how they might be transformed for the better. In London, we need to see streets as an equalities issue. That means giving our residents… [Read More]
