Livability is a concept that has enjoyed tremendous popularity in recent years. The Federal Highway Administration established a formal “Livability Initiative” and in 2010, published a guidebook to educate transportation planning and design professionals. But even with the enormous amount of data showing direct and tangible connections between street design and public health and safety (i.e. livability), bad design continues to show itself on a regular basis on our street networks. If good design promotes livability, then bad design must promote the opposite of livability…killability. City streets are intended for people of all ages and physical abilities. Let's design livable streets. Let's *reclaim* our streets! This presentation was originally given in a Pecha Kucha (20x20) format during the 2013 American Planning Association national conference.

1. the opposite of

2. Planners, don’t we love our buzzwords?
Livability is one of the most popular terms
across the fields of planning, design, and
engineering.

3. Planners, don’t we love our buzzwords?
Livability is one of the most popular terms
across the fields of planning, design, and
engineering.
Livability is a fancy way of describing
places where people can live long and
prosper.

4. Planners, don’t we love our buzzwords?
Livability is one of the most popular terms
across the fields of planning, design, and
engineering.
Livability is a fancy way of describing
places where people can live long and
prosper.
What happens when we don’t consider
livability when planning and designing
transportation infrastructure?

5. Another life lost on an American street.

6. ―what a senseless death,
caused by boneheaded
street design subsidized by
this poor person’s family!‖

7. This presentation isn’t intended to
dwell on the boneheads.
Well, not too much.
Professionals want the
senseless killing
to end.

8. Planners and engineers feel
just as unsafe
at the side of a road
as you do.
I think they want to make things right.

10. We’ve
been
conditioned
to think
that some
pedestrians
are ok
while
others
are
undesirable.

11. A person standing outside
converting a local street
into a highway is valued.
His daughter
crossing the street
to get to school
is a nuisance.

12. Minneapolis, 1920

13. This wasn’t always true in America.
People used to be free
in our public streets.
Streetcars were in the middle – you
EXPECTED people to wander
around the middle of a city street.
Modernist traffic models would
buckle under the projected rush
hour operations!

15. And look where we are today.
―Mission accomplished!‖ –Traffic Engineer
Level of service A.
Average vehicular delay…negligible.

16. And look where we are today.
―Mission accomplished!‖ –Traffic Engineer
Level of service A.
Average vehicular delay…negligible.
Average number of people willing to
walk across 8 to 10 lanes of
taxpayer funded streets like this…negligible.

17. But wait!
Transportation planners connect
land use and transportation!
They understand context!
Here’s the problem.
Humans
—even professional planners and engineers—
have a way of outsmarting common sense.
(You might say especially professionals.)
If a department of transportation
doesn’t think pedestrians or bicyclists belong,
they figure a highway design will keep people away.

18. (said every DOT everywhere)

19. The next image is an example of
typical American infrastructure labeled
livable transportation.
What makes it livable?
Usually crosswalks and wheelchairaccessible ramps are enough for
professionals to congratulate
themselves.

21. Transportation planners are praised for
providing multimodal accommodations.
Meanwhile, we somehow ignore the
fact that our community streets have
turned into high-speed racetracks.

22. The
experts
have followed
industry-approved
design manuals
and
outsmarted
common sense.

23. Killable Livable
20
40

24. When a car moving at 20 mph
hits a person walking,
that person has a 95% chance of survival.
When a car moving at 40 mph
hits a person walking,
that person has an 85% chance of death.

25. When a car moving at 20 mph
hits a person walking,
that person has a 95% chance of survival.
When a car moving at 40 mph
hits a person walking,
that person has an 85% chance of death.
Now consider how many streets you drive daily
are posted at 45 mph in densely populated
cities and suburbs.

27. Have you ever noticed
that public works employees or
street designers
insist on wearing helmets and reflective vests
when they make a field visit?

28. Pop-up retail, downtown
stores, street vendors…
these people
live and die by foot traffic.
They need a livable
transportation network in
order to thrive.
Cities are about exchange—
exchange among people,
not the motor vehicles they
sometimes drive.

29. Redemption

30. Redemption
Here’s one example
of how we can end the
status quo street design.
Roundabouts almost
completely eliminate fatalities
compared to stop lights.
And they reduce total crashes by 70-80%.

31. One
day
this
modernist
auto-scale
street design
will be a
short blip
in history.

32. 500+
28
0
agencies & local governments
support complete streets
states including Washington, DC
support complete streets
agencies & local governments
think they support killable streets

33. Those commitments mean something.
The next images show what can happen when
mindsets about city streets change.
Street improvements
can be as simple as
putting out some folding chairs,
a bench, and a cooler.

35. If departments of transportation,
public works departments, and
other professionals expect people to
be in and around streets,
then they’ll be more inclined
and pressured to design streets
for people.

36. Messaging is so important.
Look at that Sheetz sign.
Marketers know how to tell a
mouth-watering story.

37. Livable transportation infrastructure
needs more than just
informational signs about
calories burned.

38. Livable transportation infrastructure needs
more than just
informational signs about
calories burned.
We need mouth-watering
propaganda campaigns with an
irresistible message.

39. So what are you going to about it?
How will you reclaim your streets?
Get working on a
propaganda campaign.
Focus on a simple idea that
resonates with real people.

40. Let the traffic engineers have their
vehicular operation metrics.
Your common sense knows better
than computer models and rulebooks!

41. active
Reclaim your streets.

43. This young kid is not going to
remember vehicular queues at nearby
intersections.
He’s not going to remember that
he was walking and playing near
a major arterial.
He’s going to remember using up
an entire bucket of sidewalk chalk
with his brother and his dad.
The boy had fun on a livable street.

45. Here’s a picture of the past.
And I’m hoping in some ways
it’s a picture of the future.
Just with a bit more high-tech gadgetry…
…like maybe drivers having to push a button
in order to cross streets
filled with human beings.
You can make your streets livable again!

46. APA’s 2013 National Planning Conference