An introduction to the "sad results" of one-way streets.

The paper from which this extract is drawn has been around for quite a while. Then again, New Albany is a slowly reacting kind of place, where the 21st century sometimes remains a nebulous, illusory concept.

Last week: Two way streets: A Seinfeldist dialogue about nothing, but not for want of trying.

The report referenced here is onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/circulars/ec019/Ec019_f2.pdf" style="font-weight: bold;">Downtown Streets: Are We Strangling Ourselves on One-Way Networks?, by G. Wade Walker, Walter M. Kulash, and Brian T. McHugh (TRB Circular E-C019: Urban Street Symposium, 1999). The link leads to a .pdf that is very long, and just as relevant.

INTRODUCTION

Ever since the explosion of automobile use that occurred after WWII, people have moved their residences further and further from downtown centers, out into new suburban communities. With this exodus came a daily travel ritual in which suburbanites in motor vehicles behave as tides do, placing a tremendous strain on the downtown street network. The historical response to this strain has been to improve the efficiency of moving vehicles into and out of the city at all costs, without considering other system users.

We now understand that downtowns that operate predominantly as a place of work and clear out in the evening are the ones most often struggling to foster new development and business ventures. The longstanding mantra to seek the greatest speed by which commuter motorists can flee the city has accelerated the downtown deterioration process.

The sad results are streets congested with fast-moving automobiles and barren of lively pedestrian, cultural, or commercial activity after the mad evening exodus.

As many communities are in the process of revitalizing their downtowns, a common issue is the prevalence of intricate and often confusing one-way street networks.

This legacy of one-way streets can be traced back to when the streets’ sole mission was to move traffic into and out of the downtown employment center as quickly as possible. An emerging role of downtown as a cultural and entertainment center is now challenging embedded mindset that the primary purpose of streets is the unequivocal movement of commuter automobile traffic.