Livable streets are streets that have a balance between vehicles and pedestrians; they offer the possibility for a social environment, as well being conduits for constant vertical movement. This balance creates a safe space for children to play, for people to work or study, and for communities to bond, while still allowing vehicles to pass through the streets. But, most streets aren’t livable streets. This piece is how-to guide to enact change in your neighborhood.

INTRODUCTION TO BEING PROACTIVE IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Donald Appleyard, one of the most prominent writers on livable streets, said this about streets and their difficult transformation, “…streets are dangerous, noisy, polluted, and impersonal domains, about which residents feel able to do little. Though nominally public, they are actually controlled by agencies and ordinances that are remote from the residents of each street, a fact which severely restricts efforts at improvement by the residents.”[1] Appleyard’s discouraging statement is both true and false. While streets are controlled by agencies and ordinances that are far removed from the people that live on them and this can seem daunting, communities have agency to create change.

If a community can identify a way to improve itself, it has the ability to convincingly appeal to the Department of Transportation (DOT) and request change. And while it might seem that the system is built to “severely restrict” the agency of an individual, it requires the action of an individual to make the system work, to create positive change toward attaining a more livable community. I specifically look at how to appeal for change in New York City and Los Angeles, and while the steps you take in this process are different in these two cities, they both require activism by an individual, their community, and the DOT. So, if you’re looking to make a similar appeal elsewhere, you should check with the DOT, but you’re likely going to need to build similar relationships between these actors.

SOME IDEAS THAT CAN TRANSFORM YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

There are a number of changes that can vastly improve the environment of a neighborhood. Depending on the force that prevents the street from being a good balance between pedestrian and vehicular traffic, a community can identify a variety of solutions. Some such solutions are to slow traffic, encourage social interaction, or advance public and alternative transportation options, aside from the private vehicle.

The first possible solution, traffic calming, can improve a community by making a street a safer social environment, where pedestrians have less fear of a speeding vehicle, a quieter space, and even a cleaner space that encourages social interaction. To achieve this, one could request any of the following changes: 1. Road diets reduce the size of streets, eliminating multi-lane streets, which typically encourage speeding and decrease walking. By requesting road diets in Seattle, there was an estimated 6% reduction in traffic injuries and fatalities.[2] 2. Curb extensions allow both vehicles and pedestrians to better see each other and because it is the narrowing of the street and the widening of the curb at a signal or stop sign, it requires the vehicle to slow. Thus, they both slow traffic and encourage awareness between pedestrians and vehicles.[3] 3. Raised medians also manage traffic. On high-volume, high-speed streets, often with multi-lanes, raised medians slow traffic and offer pedestrians a safe way to cross the street.[4] In addition, according to Dumbaugh, they have also been found to actually decrease vehicle accidents; making the streets safer for everyone on them.[5] 4. Raised intersections , speed humps , speed bumps, and textured pavement also all manage street traffic, as they are raised portions of the street that force cars to drive over them slowly. All of these options help to slow traffic, reducing any danger it might pose and deterrence it might have on a neighborhood’s social use of its streets.

A more true balance might also be achieved by measures that encourage greater social interaction on streets. Plantings along sidewalks create a separation between the street space and sidewalk space, insulating a social atmosphere from that of the vehicles. This separation allows for a sense of privacy from the vehicular use of the street, encouraging social its use.[5] Some changes, if approved by the community and city, exceed a community’s need for a physical space for socializing by offering a topic for community conversation and bonding, like art installations. These types of changes within a community are less about the interaction between pedestrians and vehicles and instead focus on creating an incentive for pedestrians to fully use their streets.

Finally, communities can affect the purely vehicular nature of their streets by requesting measures that support transportation alternatives, like separated or dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes or bike boulevards, and by offering bike parking. These measures both encourage the proliferation of transportation alternatives and decrease the room, therefore quantity, of single person vehicles on those streets.

There are other changes that could be made within neighborhoods to increase the positive interaction and balance between pedestrians and vehicles, but these are just a few options to consider, to move one step closer to the goal of living on liveable streets.

NYCDOT—CREATING CHANGE IN NEW YORK CITY

Successful petitions to create change in New York City require the support of one’s community. While you can make requests alone, even the NYCDOT is clear to acknowledge that they give more weight to requests made by communities. The process is simple, you write to the Commissioner of Transportation at 40 Worth Street, New York, NY 10013 stating the change you would like, for example a speed hump on Prospect Place, and reasons why you think it would be a positive change in the neighborhood.[6] You include with this request, a demonstration of support from the community members and then you wait for the DOT to reply.

To demonstrate that your proposal has community support, there are a variety of actions you could take. For example, you could include a petition signed by homeowners, residents, and business in the community that explains that all signed parties believe that your proposal would greatly benefit the environment of the neighborhood. Or, if you’re involved in your Community Board, you could encourage them to pass a resolution in support of the proposal. Community Boards are local representative bodies whose members are appointed by the Borough President and who meet once a month. Whether or not you’re on the board, you are welcome to attend these public meetings and make comments or suggestions. A resolution from a community board carries a lot of weight with the DOT.(com boards) (To get a better sense of the advantages and problems that Community Boards might contribute to your project or to find your local Community Board, read more in the Community Board article.) Another suggestion for showing support for your petition is to recruit the support of a local elected official. As they are officially seen as representing the interests of their community, they can help influence DOT activism.[6]

Upon submitting your request, the DOT will review your reasons for wanting change and your display of community support and will hopefully take action.

If this is not the case, however, there are a number of advocacy groups in a number of neighborhoods throughout the city and citywide groups whose primary goal is to encourage and propagate liveable streets in New York City, many of which are named and described on this cite. Two such examples are Transportation Alternatives and the Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief.

LADOT—CREATING CHANGE IN LOS ANGELES

In Los Angeles, the process for formally requesting a traffic changing mechanism in one’s neighborhood is slightly reversed. Rather than go to one’s community first to discuss how the neighborhood could be improved by a traffic calming or other street altering measure and bolster support for action, it is an individual who makes the request of the DOT. If you are within Los Angeles city limits, you dial 311, “one call to city hall.”[7] If you are calling from outside the city, even just within the country, call 213.473.3231. This number will connect you to someone who will then transfer you to the LADOT. Once you’ve made it this far, you get to speak to someone in the DOT about your proposal. You will not be allowed to make a formal proposal over the phone, but you might learn if you’re neighborhood is fielding proposals at that time for the improvements you are suggesting.[8] This information, however, only pertains to the two traffic calming measures that the DOT systematically acts on, speed humps and stop sign patterns, so if you are proposing something else, you might benefit from not calling the DOT and just making an official request.[7]

To make an official request, the city asks that you write about the change you would like within your neighborhood and why you think it would be an improvement. You are to send your request to the Department of Transportation at 100 South Main Street, 9th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012.[8] Upon the DOT’s receipt of the request, the city sends out a DOT engineer to investigate your claim. And it is only upon his/her agreement with your argument for change that the DOT entertains the petition. If you receive this support, the city will then tell you, based on the size and density of the neighborhood, how many signatures you are to collect for a petition to request action. Once you’ve collected the allotted number of signatures, showing community approval of the request, the city validates the signatures. And it is upon the validation of this support that the city finally honors the request.[8]

Unfortunately, this process is guaranteed for the aforementioned requests for speed humps or stop sign patterns. For all other improvements, neither the website nor the DOT operator I spoke with was able to assure me of the process. I was told, however, that the initial request should be uniform, no matter what the subject.

Also, while it is not included in the LADOT’s guidelines for requesting transportation-related change, the City of Los Angeles’ Department of City Planning is comprised of a number of neighborhood councils that each oversee and field requests for action within their community. These councils all differ greatly between each other, but generally meet once a month to discuss citywide projects and activities.[9]

While both New York City and Los Angeles still have a long way to go to in striking their balance between vehicles and pedestrians, Los Angeles lacks a historical tradition or culture around this concept. So, to effectively create change in Los Angeles, Appleyard might be right when in talking about progress he said, “There are many ways to create liveable streets and neighborhoods. Most of them will come from the grass roots as they have in the past.”[1] For widespread change to be possible in LA, it is necessary to cultivate a culture of around livable streets. To create change, it might require the assistance from some of the activist groups throughout the city that, whether for the cause of alternative modes of transportation and/or awareness raising, have been successful in evoking innovative change from the LADOT and from CalTrans. Bicycle-focused groups, like the LA County Bicycle Coalition, have been particularly successful at creating these kinds of changes.

CONCLUSION

There are a variety of changes you can bring to your neighborhood that can benefit the social interactions within your community and can promote healthfulness and peace of mind. Once you or your community has decided upon a way to make this transformation possible, the DOT has actualized these changes. One person’s observations in their neighborhood are enough to create lasting change in their community. But, if the DOT is hesitant or inactive, there are other ways of exacting change.

ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK

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REFERENCES

Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1] Appleyard, Donald. "Livable Streets: Protected Neighborhoods?" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 451 (1980): 106-117.

[2] Burden, Dan and Lagerwey, Peter. "Road Diets: Fixing the Big Roads." Walkable Communities, Inc. March 1999.

[3] "Curb Extensions/Neckdowns." Context Sensitive Solutions.

[4] "Raised Medians." Walkinginfo.org: Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, University of North Carolina Highways Safety Research Center, and U.S. Department of Transportation.

[5] Dumbaugh, Eric. "Safe Streets, Livable Streets." Journal of the American Planning Association 71 (2005): 283-300.

[6] "Slowing Down Traffic: Traffic Calming Information." New York City Department of Transportation.

[7] "Traffic Calming: Withing Neighborhoods." Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

[8] LADOT. Telephone Interview. June 3, 2008.

[9] "Neighborhood Counsel Information." City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning.

PICTURE REFERENCES

Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1] Creative Commons Photo.

[2] Courtesy of Streetsblog LA.

FURTHER READING

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