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I thought that I would say a few things about what I call "arterial
streets," and also the larger "grand boulevards." Arterial Streets
are designed for wheeled vehicles, with a segregated central roadway
of two to four lanes, plus sidewalks on either side. The Grand
Boulevard would have four lanes or more. (I overlap the two
categories a bit, because once you start adding things like central
turn lanes, median strips, shoulders/onstreet parking, bike lanes,
Green Space buffers and so forth, a street can take on a Grand
Boulevard character with four main lanes.) The Arterial Street is
the smallest form of street in 19th Century Hypertrophism. In the
Traditional City, however, most streets are a smaller and different
format: the Really Narrow or pedestrian street. The pedestrian
street is designed primarily for use by walking humans. It is
typically one flat surface from one side to the other, with no
segregated automobile roadway and no sidewalks. You could say the
entire street is a "sidewalk." Because you really don't need much
street width at all for people walking, these streets tend to be
quite narrow, perhaps twelve to twenty feet from
building-to-building assuming no front setback. If it becomes larger
than this, it typically begins to feel quite barren and "oversized"
unless you have a very large amount of people traffic, literally
thousands of people.
You can certainly drive a car, truck, or even a bus on a Really
Narrow pedestrian street, and often this is done, at least for
deliveries and pickups and even for personal automobiles. However,
it is primarily a place for people, such that people feel
comfortable walking down the middle of the street even if they are
sharing it with motorized vehicles, which are typically traveling
very slowly, at 10mph or less.
Thus, the pedestrian street naturally tends to be Really Narrow,
certainly compared to the Arterial Street which can easily be sixty
feet wide when including both the central automobile roadway and
sidewalks, plus any additional buffers and so forth.
I've given a basic ratio of 80% Really Narrow pedestrian streets,
17% Arterial streets and 3% Grand Boulevards as a way of thinking
about how a Traditional City can be laid out. This measure is by
street length. Since the Really Narrow street is much narrower than
the Arterials and Grand Boulevards, these larger formats take a
proportionately larger amount of total surface area devoted to
streets.
Although it may seem that this would create problems for motorized
vehicles, in practice this is not the case. Although 80% of the
streets are of the Really Narrow people-centric type, in actuality
there are few places that are more than perhaps 200-300 meters from
an Arterial Street. Thus, any trip in a wheeled vehicle would be on
Arterial or larger streets until the last 200 meters or so, which
might be done at a sub-10mph pace. Thus, from the perspective of a
driver, it is largely irrelevant. Indeed, the Really Narrow street
offers some attractions to a driver. There is typically very little
auto traffic at all, so it is often easy to stop the vehicle right
in the middle of the street for at least a few minutes, enough for a
taxi dropoff or package delivery.
Let's stop there and see what all of this looks like in real life:
This is a basic Arterial street, in Tokyo. Clearly, this is at the
narrower end of the range. However, note that there is a
segregated central roadway with sidewalks on either side.
Obviously, once you are designating the center of the street for
wheeled vehicles, and the sidewalks for walkers, then it is no
longer a people-centric street (Really Narrow "pedestrian"
street). This is not necessarily related to street width alone,
and indeed there are many Really Narrow pedestrian streets that
are as wide or wider than this.
This street is not much narrower, but it is in the Really Narrow
pedestrian street format, with one surface from side to side.
There is no segregated place for wheeled vehicles and people, and
as you can see people are comfortable walking down the middle of
the street. Note that there is a bus making its way down this
street! It is traveling very slowly, and is thus no particular
danger or nuisance, despite being a very large vehicle.
Here we have a rather ugly mistake. This street should really be
in the Really Narrow format, and undoubtedly was at some point.
However, it was converted to what amounts to an Arterial format,
with a segregated roadway, sidewalks, and onstreet parking. Yech!
Paris.
 
Another typical Really Narrow pedestrian street in Tokyo. No
sidewalks, and people are comfortable walking down the middle of
the street. Note the bikes and small motorcycles. This is not a
"pedestrian only" area. But, everyone gets along easily together.
Another popular "shopping street" in Tokyo. No central automobile
roadway here!
An Arterial Street in Tokyo.
Now that we have looked at some arterial streets, let's think about
a few design issues.
Buffers: As I've said in the past, a lot of "green space" in
Suburban Hell today serves as a "buffer" between automobile roadways
and various places where people are, known as Places.
October
10,
2009:
Place and Non-Place
This has been disastrous, as the city becomes consumed by automobile
roadways, parking lots, and immense amounts of buffer space to make
all the roadways and parking lots more tolerable.
However, we should also recognize that the buffer space is there for
a purpose: to create some barrier or insulation between a lane of
moving traffic, and the places where people are -- homes, offices,
stores, sidewalks, parks etc. This, in itself, is a worthy purpose.
The trick is to have fewer automobile roadways and parking lots, so
that you don't need so much buffer space. That's why I suggest that
a Traditional City design be 80% Really Narrow pedestrian streets.
I noted several times the use of steel railings along Arterial
Streets in Japan. Obviously, they too felt a need for some kind of
buffer between the people space (sidewalk) and a lane of traffic.
Because these Arterial Streets often do not have either a Green
Space buffer (3-5 feet of trees or shrubbery), or a buffer in the
form of on-street parking or a shoulder, they have opted for the
most space-efficient design, a steel railing.
Thus, I suggest that Arterial Streets should have some kind of
buffer between a lane of moving traffic and the sidewalk. This can
take the form of a steel railing of some sort, but perhaps a Green
Space buffer consisting of at least three feet of grass, trees,
shrubbery and so forth would be better. Our roadways are already
going to be forty or more feet wide, so an additional ten feet or so
of buffer space (five feet on either side) is perhaps not too much
of a concession. These Japanese Arterial Streets are often, like
most streets in most cities, historical remnants of some
pre-automobile period, so they had to make do with what they had,
which was often not very much space to work with.
Conversely, the Really Narrow pedestrian street typically requires
no buffers at all. If people feel a buffer is needed, it is often a
reaction to an oversized pedestrian street. When a pedestrian street
becomes too wide, it begins to feel quite empty and barren, which
people often try to compensate for by adding shrubbery.
This outdoor shopping mall in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a 100%
pedestrian place with no vehicles or cyclists. However, in the
typically stupid American fashion, the street width subtly
imitates the 19th Century Hypertrophism of the small town Main
Street, resulting in a very wide, barren area, which is also not
identifiably a Traditional City element like a square or plaza.
The designers are attempting to compensate for this area with the
addition of Green Space, although the result is not identifiably a
park, garden or other such element of the Traditional City, which
I call a Place. They are just piling error on error.
You can certainly incorporate plants into a Really Narrow Street
environment, with wonderful effect. However, this is not to
compensate for the error of an overly-large street, and is not
used here as a "buffer."
Brazil.
Gorgeous? Oh yes. But, this is not a buffer or Green Space, and is
not to compensate for an overly-large barren paved area.
Italy.
July
26, 2009: Let's Take a Trip to an American Village 3: How the
Suburbs Came to Be
July
19,
2009:
Let's Take a Trip to an American Village 2: Downtown
July
12,
2009:
Let's Take a Trip to an American Village
One function of street parking is to provide a buffer between the
sidewalk and automobile traffic. People have a sense for this, so if
you don't have some other buffer solution, people will tend to grasp
at street parking or shoulders. These are both flawed solutions in
my opinion, so it is better to have a proper buffer solution of
Green Space (it's always nice to have some trees), or perhaps a
steel railing if space is an issue.
Street parking is rare on Japanese Arterial Streets, although it
does exist sporadically.
Shoulders: As with street parking, shoulders provide a
buffer space between the traffic and the sidewalk. Either a Green
Space buffer or a railing would be better. Because 19th Century
Hypertrophic cities do not have Really Narrow Streets, then of
course people think that some of these Arterial Streets should have
some means for a vehicle to stop. However, when you have
intersections with Really Narrow Streets every hundred meters or so
(the spacing between numbered streets in Manhattan is about 260
feet), then there are many places to pull over if necessary, and
make short stops. Generally, a truck can park briefly (for a pickup
or dropoff) right in the middle of a Really Narrow Street, with no
particular difficulty. For longer periods of parking, small parking
lots are often available. The kind of large, possibly high-rise
buildings that are often found along Arterial Streets often have
their own loading docks and garages.
Thus, as with street parking, I see no particular need for
shoulders. These do serve a role within the 19th Century
Hypertrophic environment as we know it in the U.S., but these roles
can be served better in other ways, in my opinion.
Garbage truck stopped on a Really Narrow Street in Tokyo for a
trash pickup. No shoulder, no sidewalks, no "onstreet parking," no
offstreet parking.
No problems whatsoever.
This street is wide enough for a vehicle to pass around another
stopped vehicle, if necessary (if the stopped vehicle is off to
the side of course).
However, Grand Boulevards, as they are expressly designed for
high-volume vehicular traffic, may include something like shoulders.
At this point, the street is so wide that adding a bit of shoulder
space is perhaps no great problem. Plus, maintaining good vehicular
traffic flow is a priority. Remember that Grand Boulevards
constitute only about 3% of total street length in my example. If
only 3% of streets have shoulders, it is not that big a deal.
Bike lanes: In the Traditional City, biking is far more
pleasant along the Really Narrow Streets that constitute perhaps 80%
of total street width. Why try to share a roadway with fast-moving
motorized traffic when you can have a whole street all to yourself?
The more crowded Really Narrow commercial streets would have too
much walking traffic for easy biking, but typically there are a
great many other Really Narrow Streets that are largely empty, and
very pleasant for cycling.
Thus, Arterial Streets do not really require bike lanes either, this
role being taken by the abundant Really Narrow Streets.
Wouldn't you rather ride your bike here than on some
traffic-filled Arterial Street? What if 80% of all streets looked
like this?
Other purposes of Arterial Streets: I might mention that
Arterial Streets serve some purposes besides enabling vehicular
traffic. For example, they serve as firebreaks.
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