"Traffic calming measures aren’t just concrete and strategic design: they’re a clear signal that drivers don’t own the roads we live on, and that our streets are where residents live, not just where we drive our cars."
-- Kea Wilson
Read all about it. What to do when driver bots hate traffic calming?
Wilson proposes involving the neighborhood in the decision-making process; beautifying; educating; building incrementally; and celebrating.
When your city hates your traffic calming measures, by Kea Wilson (Strong Towns)
... This is the uncomfortable reality of the movement to #slowthecars in our human-scaled neighborhoods; all too often, drivers really, really hate being slowed down. And a lot of them will stay angry, no matter how beautifully you argue that narrowing your road makes your neighborhood immediately safer for all modes of transport — and let’s be clear, it does. There’s no magic wand that will force all your neighbors to be happy about changes to the streets they drive down every day — much less stop them from flooding the alderwoman with calls to get the “hazards” removed, especially when the nightly news is all but telling them to do it.
Does that mean we shouldn’t #slowthecars? Nope. The safety and financial productivity of our cities is far too important.
But it does mean that we can and should get a little better at implementing traffic calming measures each time we attempt them. That’s the essence of the Strong Towns approach.
Here are a few lessons I’ve learned from my neighborhood’s Great Concrete Ball saga of 2018 that might help in your town too ...
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