PARK(ing) Day: September 21

Started in San Francisco in 2005, PARK(ing) Day is now an international event of small proportions. City dwellers worldwide are encouraged to build a mini-park in a parking spot to draw attention to how streets are utilized and the lack greenspace in urban areas. Find out more and directions for making your own Park(ing) Space here.

Thanks Mim!

Sign-Free Cities

Several European cities are following the example of the Dutch town of Makkinga, which has removed street signs as a means of fostering better driver/pedestrian interactions and ultimately increased safety for all. From a recent(ish) Der Spiegel article:

...About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by drivers. What's more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.

...It may sound like chaos, but it's only the lesson drawn from one of the insights of traffic psychology: Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has been fully regulated. Where the situation is unclear, they're forced to drive more carefully and cautiously.

Read the entire article here.

Car-Free America

Car-free zones and times are on the rise in the US (though mostly centered around existing public spaces like parks) according to a recent Christian Science Monitor article:

• New York is proposing to shut down perimeter roads of Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park all summer long.

• Atlanta plans to transform 53 acres of blighted, unused land into new bike-friendly green space.

• Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, and El Paso, Texas, are planning events to promote car-free days in public parks, most in the hope that the idea will become permanent or extend for months.

"Cities across America are increasingly declaring that parks are for people, not cars, ... and closing roads within parks is one result of that," says Ben Welle with The Trust for Public Land's Center for City Park Excellence, in Washington.

Resistance can be fierce at first, he and others say, because of worries about traffic congestion, parking problems, and loss of visitors for businesses and museums. But studies are showing that traffic problems can be minimized, shops and museums get more visitors, and residents begin to cherish their where-the-action-is location.

Read the entire article here.