Street Renaissance

p>A coalition of groups in New York have come together to work toward the goal of reforming public space usage initiate city. 80% of people in New York do not own a car, yet much of the public space is dedicated to car usage. The NYC Street Renaissance is "building the movement to re-imagine our streets as lively public places."

While DC doesn't have the same numbers as New York, we also waste much public space on auto use. I'm not against cars, they serve a real purpose. I'm against the over-use and inefficient use of cars. When I ask people why they don't bike commute they list fear (because the streets are not safe for bikes), lack of bicycle parking and and lack of showers as the top reasons. Those are all indicative of a failure of the district to plan.

The same reasons do not crop up for car commuters. While I know a few people who don't drive to work because there's no parking, I don't know anyone who feels streets aren't safe for cars. In general the lack of facilities or planning do not keep people out of their cars.

Still, In DC things are changing. Often when I complain about DC design flaws I'm complaining about decisions made in the 50's, 60's or 70's (which is why the decisions made today are so important). One example of things getting better is the Thomas Circle project (pictured) . I also suspect the new baseball stadium will be a better public space than RFK. Still there are too many times when decisions are imbalanced in the direction of automobile interests.

Not shown in the Thomas Circle photo is that there should be a bike lane using new blue concrete so that it really stands out.