« High Quality Exports | Main | The Anti-Sit: Miliary Affairs »
July 13, 2005
NaMing ScHemes and Other Infidels, Namely, Traffic
NYTimes licks more developer ass with last Sunday's Real Estate cover story, Greetings from SoFi. Back in March Transfer covered the massive amount of lux hi-rise construction in this area, and Jokingly dubbed it I-SeS (In the Shadow of the Empire State). Here we are, mid-July, and the Times can't seem to engage in any critical journalism about this, other than polishing some CT based speculators beam & christening another obnoxious neighborhood name. Oh joy, SoFinished.
Richard Rogers, who has not only one, but a list of dream jobs: head of his own hi-profile firm, director of the UK's urban task force, and council to Barcelona's own urban strategy council. He's also been quite active lately in commenting and speaking on the general state of urban policy... Which is why it makes perfect sense that he wrote this piece in the Guardian about London's Olympic victory and, you guessed it, the similarities it has to Barcelona's thrust forward by hosting the '88 Games.
The EU, what bunch of backwerd twits, they think that by enforcing an EU charter that demanded "states to draw maps that track the level of noise from cars, planes, machinery and other sources in areas inhabited by more than 100,000 people. Busy intersections or traffic networks are also targeted." (and who are now in trouble for not acting upon that data) that they might make city life more enjoyable? Honk on Hummers, America Rulez!
Joe Scanlan wrote an interesting opinion in the summer edition of Art Forum entitled 'Social Space and Relational Aesthetics'. A talking point not so much for its art world critique, although interesting, but for the main piece of evidence he marshalls. A roundabout / rotary intersection in Holland designed by traffic engineer Hans Monderman. Scanlan uses it to illustrate the function of public shaming / humiliation / pressure in enforcing order on our streets and intersections. With incidentally has much better results for this particular traffic rotary then signs, curbs, signals, lanes -- all of which are nonexistent in Monderman's design... Gotta love those Dutch.
Got me wondering about how something even as remotely innovative as this would work in a city like New York, whose biggest crime is its homicidal motorized traffic. Partly due to context, and partly due to culture, I have no doubt something even close to this would be a tremendous failure. It might work in parts of the city where pedestrians, cyclists, and cars/trucks are more or less equivalent in number, e.g. LES. But most of the city is segmented by broad Avenues that serve as numbing speedways, where vehicles set an Indy pace to make the next light - or Bob's business meeting. Most cross streets are choked with delivery trucks, cabs, and maintenance vans. Have you ever seen a car pulled over, much less a truck, for anything other than a bomb check? How about a traffic violation? Its hardly humiliating to mow over a pedestrian or run a red light here, there is Business to be Conducted Folks! Surely the narrowing of streets and the lowering of curbs, both part and parcel to this approach, would be helpful in certain areas, but that’s about the extent to which New York could implement or innovate with this type of approach... We could start by putting CCTV cameras at stoplights. Perhaps by enforcing, ahem, speed limits? Use proven traffic calming measures. Get rid of Bloombergs horrible crosstown turn lane scheme in Midtown. How about decreasing at least a lane or two on one of the Aves. Perhaps, just perhaps we could put some bikes lanes in, enforce them. Enforce the bus lanes as well, and most importantly of all, follow the lead of London's Mayor Ken Livingstone and put in our own congestion charge; which John Massengale details quite nicely here. The congestion charge has been a massive success in London and in my recent experience there a brilliant success, politically and experentially. Aaron Naparstek has a nice piece on biking in this metropolis. In many ways I can't think of a more shameless Western city than New York at the moment, when it comes to circulation and transportation. Its ridiculous how quickly you can get 'around town' here, which has in turn made whole swaths of the city 'flyover country', and others, oversaturated novelty destinations. Its time to see the effects traffic is having on the city culture, as well as our health.
Posted by jmarston at July 13, 2005 03:19 PM