Keeping the Spirit of the Pace Car

David Engwicht

Cities and residents are free to start a Pace Car program using the materials on this site. All we ask is that you keep what we, the developers of the program, believe to be the essential spirit of the program.
 
Accepting personal responsibility - striking a better balance

Almost everyone in the city would like less traffic and slower traffic in their home street. We must find a way of giving all residents a better quality-of-life by reducing the impacts of traffic in all streets. Such a community-based approach can only start with people accepting the responsibility for the damage their car use does to the quality of life in the neighborhoods they drive through. (This includes most 'arterials' which contain homes and community activity nodes such as schools, shops, work places, parks, churches, etc.)

The Pace Car pledge is a kind of treaty between neighborhoods; we will act as a guest in your neighborhood if you act as a guest in ours. However, the pledge is also a treaty between our own paradoxical desires. We all have a desire to travel - to move, explore and discover (the 'hunter-gatherer' that still lives in our psyche). We also have a desire for home or to 'reside' - to put our roots down and feel nurtured and grounded (the 'gardener' that still lives in our psyche). However, excessive movement (particularly in automobiles) ultimately destroys our home environment. We must find a better balance between these paradoxical desires so we can maximize both our ability to move and our ability to have a quality 'resident' environment.

The central core of this program is accepting responsibility for our part in the overall imbalance between our desires for 'movement' and 'residing' and finding a way of creating a better balance.

Working together to build community

The city, by very definition, is a cooperative enterprise. We agree to cooperate with other residents because, working together, we can all get more out of the cooperative enterprise than we put in. The city was founded on notions of citizenship - the idea that as members of the cooperative enterprise we must pull our weight in creating the kind of environment in which we get back more than we put in.

The Pace Car Program is built on the notion of good citizenship. One Pace Car can do very little on its own. But by working together, Pace Car Drivers can calm an entire city.

Slowing down - enriching the public domain

As our cities have speed up, we have forgotten how to enjoy the unplanned encounters which were such a rich part of traditional city life: stopping to watch a group of children play in the street; chatting with an elderly person and hearing their story; watching a bird build a nest; sitting and watching people walk past; meeting an eccentric who makes us laugh; exchanging neighborhood news with neighbors we meet when walking to the store.

If we are to enjoy a rich community life, then we must both slow down and reclaim our streets for spontaneous life-enriching exchanges.

When Pace Car drivers slow down, they not only reduce the impact of their car use on the communities they drive through. They also reduce their own stress levels, become more connected to the communities they travel through, and help create a more relaxed life-style which enriches the entire culture of the city.

Humor - humanizing the street environment

As a cyclist, I have been the victim of road rage on a number of occasions. Some time back I put some red devil horns on the sides of my bike helmet. The effect was amazing. Motorists wound their windows down to talk with me. People smiled and waved. Kids pulled faces. Over the past two years, I reckon I have sent about 10,000 people to work a little happier. But I have also had no incidents of road rage.

Humor breaks tension and puts us in a better frame of mind. Studies show that people are more likely to do nice things for other people and to be far more creative when they are in a good mood.
Serious, 'preachy' messages such as 'Take Heed! Don't Speed!' put many people in a reactive, rebellious frame of mind. They may provoke the exact opposite behavior.

Humor is central to the Pace Car Program. Pace Car drivers are encouraged to do something humorous to their car. They are offered funny bumper stickers and encouraged to decorate their car in some way. This is done to reduce the chances or road rage and to change the mood of the streets to something more festive and celebratory.

Reducing car use - tackling the root problem

If we are to tackle the root causes of traffic problems we must tackle both speed and volume. Reducing the speed and volume will not only make streets more livable. It will also free up valuable road and car-parking spaces that can be recycled into more valuable 'exchange spaces'; community spaces, play spaces, walk and cycle boulevards, a greater variety of shops, residences, etc.

Most people can reduce their car use significantly (usually by 20%-50%) by organizing their travel more efficiently. (See Traffic Reduction.) The rewards are a saving in time and money. One of the commitments of the Pace Car Pledge is to reduce car use to a minimum.

Street Reclaiming - creating a vibrant street life

As traffic volume and speed has increased in our streets we have retreated from our streets - intimidated psychologically. As we have retreated we have invited the traffic to go even faster - which encourages us to retreat even more.

Slower traffic may stop the erosion of neighborhood life, but it may not give the residents back what they have already lost — the street as a place where neighborhood life is conceived and nurtured. To do this we must reverse the process of psychological retreat — and this requires a change in mental attitude rather than just simply putting physical devices in the street. (Physical changes may still be needed, but these must follow the mental changes, not be done in isolation.) Street reclaiming starts with residents seeing their street through new eyes — as an 'outdoor living room' in which a rich community life can flourish.

Psychological reclaiming is a process of residents moving activities back towards the street. Psychological reclaiming also uses design to change the feel of streets, from a corridor owned exclusively by cars, to an outdoor living room which is a shared space.

The Pace Car Program recognizes that streets have a dual role as 'movement corridors' and as 'exchange space' for social, cultural and economic activity.

Being courteous - creating a better walk and cycle environment

By reducing speed, stopping to let pedestrians cross, and being courteous to cyclists, Pace Car drivers help create an environment in which it is safer for everyone to walk and cycle. Eventually this will help reduce overall traffic levels and help create a more vibrant street life.

However, the benefits go much deeper. For example, under current conditions, many parents will not allow their children to walk to school because they perceive it to be too dangerous. This puts extra traffic on our streets and robs our children of independent mobility. Many psychologists and health professionals are worried about the impacts this trend is having on the well-being of our children with a large percentage of children not getting enough exercise to maintain minimum health levels. By creating a more courteous and safe street environment, parents can begin to regain their confidence and allow their children to walk and cycle again. There are many other people in our community who will also enjoy greater levels of independent mobility by creating a more courteous street environment - those with disabilities, those who chose not to own a car, and those who are elderly.

Pace Car drivers pledge to stop to let pedestrians cross and be courteous to cyclists and other road users.

Fun & celebration - living today as we want to live tomorrow

Lets face it, in the past most attempts at creating a better world have been hard work. We spend so much time trying to create a better world that we never have time to actually enjoy it! A wise person once said that we must live today as we want to live tomorrow. The methods we choose to create a better world should be that better world in seed form. If we want our streets back for community building activities, then the methods we choose must build the community we will enjoy tomorrow. There is something incredibly powerful about creating a better world through fun and celebration rather than sheer hard work.

The Pace Car program is built on humor and celebration. As much as possible, it tries to avoid meetings and committees. It encourages the use of block parties for sharing information. Through street reclaiming it goes straight to the heart of the matter - the creation of a more vibrant street life and a richer neighborhood life.