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Street Reclaiming Using Activity David Engwicht How we lost our streets in the first place Children once played in our streets and adults met there to chat. As traffic increased, parents became intimidated and instructed their children to play on the sidewalk. Moving the children (and other adult activities) out of the street encouraged the traffic to go faster. This made it feel unsafe to play or hold conversations on the sidewalk, so these activities were moved to the front yard or local park. So the traffic went even faster. As speeds increased, residents retreated even further by not walking, not allowing their children to walk, and not parking their car in the street. Each step of this psychological retreat from the street not only eroded the quality of neighborhood life and sense of community - it also encouraged the traffic to go even faster. It also left those who must walk or cycle more vulnerable. Why reclaiming must start in our heads Like a frog being cooked in the pot, this surrender of the street was been a long and gradual process. The loss of our streets for community-building activities started with a mental attitude: feeling intimidated and retreating. Winning our streets back starts by changing our mental attitude to our street: refusing to be intimidated and highly valuing our street for social and cultural activity. For thousands of years streets have served two purposes. They were a space for people to move and an 'outdoor living room' for spontaneous social, cultural and economic activity. The traditional social roles of the street included providing a space for spontaneous encounters between neighbors, a play-space for children, and a place for the elderly to sit and share their 'street wisdom'. (For a summary see the article The Lost Tradition.) Why simple activities slow traffic There are two things that automatically cause motorists to slow down
- intrigue and uncertainty. For example, the mere presence of children
in the street or on the sidewalk increases motorists' perceptions of
uncertainty and intrigue. Remove the children and you decrease the levels
of uncertainty and intrigue. The motorists automatically speed up. When
there is little uncertainty or intrigue, motorist become disengaged
from their immediate surroundings and focus on the task of getting to
their destination as quickly as possible. [ Giving a friendly wave to a motorist causes them to slow down far more that if you shake your fist and yell. The reason? The friendly wave contains high levels of intrigue. The motorist wonders if they know you and wonder why this 'stranger' is waving at them. They must slow down to collect the visual clues to answer these questions you have provoked by waving to them. By contrast, if you shake your fist they know instantly who you are: just another 'enemy'. The fist contains no intrigue and the natural instinct of the motorist is to flee the threat - fast. Everyday activities residents can use to slow traffic Reclaiming through activity involves a reversal of the surrender and erosion process — a gradual moving of human activities back towards the street. Please note that this does not mean that you start by telling the kids to go and play in the traffic. If the last act of surrender was not parking your cars in the street, then this is where you start. You reverse the erosion process, which means that kids playing in the street will probably be the last step of a reclaiming process. This need not take 20 years. I conduct Instant Street Reclaiming Events in which the reversal process is compressed into a couple of hours. For example, it may start by simply getting people to park their cars in the street. This visually narrows the road, which slows the traffic and allows other reclaiming activities to be added in safety. This further slows traffic, allowing even more activity to be added. However, you do not necessarily need an organized event to begin reclaiming your street. Think of your existing activities that you can move closer to the street. For example, Anne Hausrauth in Boise, Idaho (who first tested these street-reclaiming techniques) decided that instead of painting her furniture in the garage she would paint it in the street and invited the neighborhood kids to give her a hand. Instead of having afternoon tea with friends on the back deck, she had it in the parking bay outside her house. These activities did not cost her any extra time (they were things she had planned to do anyway), but they did slow traffic dramatically. And more importantly, they helped build a more vibrant neighborhood life. Instead of reading a book in the sun at the back of your house, take
your chair out and read it in your front yard, the sidewalk or even
in your parking bay. Instead of taking your kids to the park to play,
supervise them playing on the sidewalk.[ As a neighborhood you can create street activity by organizing an inter-street street games competition - street hockey, hopscotch, etc. Or you may organize a block party, but one where the street is not closed to traffic. (This is very important as we are trying to establish a new culture of respect for the dual role of streets for movement and social activity. For more information on why this need not compromise safety see the article Does Intrigue and Uncertainty Compromise Safety.) You can also increase street activity by organizing a Walking School Bus or by helping your school organize a WOW! Program (Walk-n-Wave on Wednesday.) What a city can do to foster neighborhood activity The city can play an important role in fostering neighborhood activities that will automatically reduce traffic speeds. — Any neighborhood complaining about traffic may be offered an Instant Street Reclaiming Event. This may be where the city invites residents to participate in other programs that help reduce speed such as the Pace Car Program. — The city sponsors block parties and street-games competitions. (It is important that you do not close the street to traffic for these events. The aim is to establish a new culture which respects and accommodates both functions of the street.) — Support and resource programs such as the Pace Car Program that create a more civilized street environment. This will encourage people to use their streets more for walking, socializing and play. — Support and resource school-based programs such as Red Sneaker Week and WOW! (Walk-n-Wave on Wednesday). — Promote fitness through walking and cycling. — Encourage the establishment of 'activity nodes' - places where
people are encouraged to linger. These can be located at street corners
(maximum potential for spontaneous interactions), outside businesses
(increases opportunities for sales for business) or at transit stops.
These activity nodes can be as simple as a group of loose chairs. They
can be a couple of large rocks for kids to climb on; an outdoor chess
set; interactive sculpture that people can change as they pass; or community
notice board. [ |
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Street Reclaiming Introduction Instant street reclaiming event Does intrigue & uncertainty compromise safety? Integrating 2nd Generation Traffic Calming into an existing traffic calming program
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