This sounds very cool!
At an intersection in Portland's Chinatown, the asphalt street suddenly gives way to an urban oasis. A pair of massive, granite planters with palm trees flank the entrance to the street, which opens onto a one-block space paved with concrete squares. There are no white lane dividers or sidewalks. Instead, rough-hewn granite columns distinguish places for pedestrians and places for cars.
"The idea of this street is that it's designed like a public square but it's open to traffic," said Ellen Vanderslice, a project manager for the Portland Department of Transportation. "We were very consciously trying to create a body language of the street that tells people something different is going on here."
The approach appears to be working, she said. "Pedestrians tend to just mosey across the street every which way," Vanderslice said. "And drivers slow down and pay attention."
It's called "psychological traffic calming" and I find the concept very appealing. The idea is to make streets more pedestrian-friendly. We're still renting a house that's within walking distance of... uh... well, other houses and nothing else. However, we would really like to live in a place where we could (get this) walk places. Maybe not to the grocery store (carrying a dozen bags of groceries home wouldn't be practical), but to restaurants, bookstores, schools, etc. Or, at the very least, someplace where we could ride a bike and not feel like we're on a suicide mission.
I have on occasion gone on business trips, staying in a hotel in the Chicago suburbs. There are stores and restaurants all around the hotel -- but actually walking to one of them is nearly impossible. Lots of cars flying by, no sidewalks, no pedestrian crossing signals. Traffic calming such as that described in this article would be very helpful.
Will it ever come to Illinois, much less Springfield? Who knows. Not anytime soon, I suspect.
Link: Where The Sidewalk Ends
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