Access Streetfight: Handbook For An Urban Revolution Imagined By Janette Sadik-Khan Shown In Hardcover
much as I can appreciate that what she was doing in her time was progressive, I really struggle with her self aggrandizing tone, The minutiae of NYC politics and press was also not that interesting to me, But I think she made some great points! And was responsible for a lot of the things I think of when I think of my time living in New York This is a book about the work of New York citys Department of Transport betweenandunder the leadership of Janette SadikKhan.
SadikKhan is very focused in her work, which is why I believe she succeeded as a leader, This book is mainly about her work during her time as commissioner and focuses on how she improved New Yorks streets whether by creating bike and bus lanes, bike stations, or opening streets and creating plazas.
All in all this is an okay book, Its hard to follow at times because it lacks structure, Also Im not sure theres anything here that you wouldnt be able to read in the the NYC street guide manual sitelink nyc. gov/html/dot/downloa . I agree with one of the reviewers, SadikKhan was clearly uninterested in writing this book,
Its unfortunate through because I felt that a clear instructive more academic writing would have enhanced the discussion, I would have really liked to know how the DOT implemented their community outreach program, If you've never read a modern urban planning book and this is available, read it, It covers the basics of bus, bike, and auto, Know that the title is misleading, This is not a "handbook for urban revolution, " It's not a handbook at all, It's simply a list of Janette SadikKhan's accomplishments in changing the design of parts of New York, They're big accomplishments, but calling this a handbook is nothing but marketing,
If you have limited time for modern urban planning, read Jeff Speck or Sam Schwartz, You'll get more out of their books, If you want to know about urban planning as it involves SadikKhan and her projects specifically, read this, It's not a bad book and SadikKhan should have the right to extol her accomplishments, Unfortunately, during parts of the book I felt like that was all she was doing, Streetfight is a book by Janette SadikKhan who was the transportation commissioner for Mayor Bloomberg in New York City between, The book describes her efforts to radically redesign the streets of New York and the political battles it entailed,
Following World War II, the U, S. and much of the rest of the world engaged in redevelopment of transportation systems to prioritize moving vehicles, In the process, they destroyed neighborhoods and made streets hostile to pedestrians and cyclists, Efforts to reverse this in recent years has been met with misplaced NotInMyBackyard NIMBY opposition and a reliance on outdated street design standards,
Dense cities with pedestrian and bike friendly streets are far more environmentally friendly than suburbs or rural areas, in part because they are more energy efficient both in heating multifamily buildings instead of single family homes and because of transportation systems allowing for more biking, cycling, transit and fewer vehicle miles driven.
One of Mayor Bloombergs early transportation actions was to produce a comprehensive, long range transportation plan for New York City, The first initiative coming out of the plan was to implement congestion pricing for vehicles travelling into Manhattan, something that had proven very successful in reducing traffic congestion in some European cities.
The New York state legislature, however, blocked the effort,
SadikKhan knew that adding capacity such as more lanes to road systems in an effort to curb traffic congestion causes people to drive more called “Induced Demand”, resulting in just more congestion that the measure was intended to reduce.
Instead, investing in transit, bike and pedestrian infrastructure and redesigning streets to narrow lanes, install curb bulbouts, install pedestrian island refuges at crosswalks and other measures called “traffic calming” measures can improve pedestrian and biker safety and improve public enjoyment of the street, while not impacting and even improving vehicle traffic flow.
By observing pedestrians to see how they use a street so called Desire Lines, i, e. where do they cross the street even if there isnt a crosswalk, where do they try to walk even when it is unsafe etc, a city can just use paint to conform the street to how people want to use it and reduce car space for more pedestrian space, In this way, a city can radically transform a public space for little money,
One of SadikKhans transformative efforts was to redesign Times Square, Traffic lanes were removed in favor of more pedestrian plaza space, It was very controversial, but it actually improved traffic flow, reduced pedestrian injuries, increased pedestrian use, increased property values and became a hugely popular redesign of the iconic square.
Borrowing successful ideas from other cities and partnering with the public and with private entities produces better results, New York City borrowed several ideas from other cities, including closing certain streets to cars several Saturdays in the summer for walking, biking and other activities and installing well designed pedestrian way finding signs around the city.
The city partnered with businesses to care for new plazas and with artists to turn street infrastructure into works of art,
SadikKhans early efforts to install protected bike lanes and traffic calming measures on select streets created a backlash from people claiming it would cause traffic congestion and reduce safety.
In fact, data proved them all wrong, showing the redesigns were a huge success by almost every measure, whether it be safety, pedestrian and cyclist use of the street or traffic flow.
Bike share programs work if they are extensive enough with good bike lane infrastructure, They can provide good connections to destinations when paired with transit and even with driving, New Yorks bike share program was extremely successful and significantly increased the amount of biking in the city,
As more people bike, their visibility on the street increases, drivers see them more and learn to expect them, anticipate their movements, slow down and drive more cautiously.
This knockon effect helps make pedestrians safer as well, So there is safety in numbers for cyclists and pedestrians on a street, But mandatory bike helmet laws dramatically reduce the number of people who bike, eliminating the safety in numbers effect, There is no data that suggest that bike helmet laws reduce injury or death, Instead of helmet laws, cities should focus on redesigning streets to make the safer of cyclists regardless of helmets,
Buses provide transit service at a fraction of the cost of trains, but speed is key to their success, Providing buses with a dedicated bus only travel lane, having passengers buy tickets in advance at the bus stop before boarding and having curb extensions so passengers can board buses without the bus having to pull out of the travel lane are key to creating a successful rapid bus system.
This is what New York did to great success,
These improvements are not just good for pedestrians, cyclists and traffic flow, they are also good for business, Redesigning streets for bikes and pedestrians improves business because it draws more people to the street who spend time and money on the street, Data shows that pedestrians spend more on a street over time than drivers,
Parking is expensive, but the cost is hidden from drivers because it is recouped in the cost of housing or retail products, Parking encourages people to drive, causing congestion, and spreads out a city making it less walkable, It is best to charge for parking and build less of it to offset these negative impacts,
A lot of the planning/urbanism books Ive read focus more broadly on urban design with only a few chapters dedicated to transportation, It was enjoyable to read this book that zeroes in on transportation issues and provides real world examples of how data following street redesigns prove critics wrong about the impacts of removing
vehicles as the central focus of our city streets.
Worth a read for ideas on how and why to redesign city streets where you live, Spending most of my adult life working on the cultural and infrastructure change of our transportation system in Pittsburgh, this book was validating to say the least.
NYC streets, under her reign, changed so dramatically and gave advocates across the country a new way to think and talk about what our cities can be, almost creating a new language.
Needless to say her work made everyone else's job much easier by mainstreaming the idea that built environments are meant to be altered and change with the times, and that the default carcentric design is not the best use of space or the best we can do.
I've personally seen how the things that happened in NYC have changed Pittsburgher's minds and gave people outside of the "advocates" a toolkit that they never new they had.
The book itself is a quick read, part memoir, part treatise on why cities need to be focusing on making everything but the car as safe, comfortable and convenient as possible.
I appreciate how quotable the book is, filled with one line zingers that will no doubt be showing up for years on blogs and newspaper comments sections.
You get a sense of her personality as the book changes directions on the drop of a dime, going form one subject to the next, sometimes without any reason.
It makes me imagine that this is fairly similar to what she's like in real life, and a bit of what it might have been like to work under her.
As a memoir, I geeked out about the behind the scenes decision making of a Transportation Commissioner in New York City, The concept of this department having its own PR team is itself incredible, This is one of those things among many other things like traffic engineers that smaller cities simply don't have, so her argument that "any city can do this simple" kind of falls flat.
I'm not saying that cities shouldn't try, it's just that it's a heavier lift when you don't have a PR team or advocacy group or teams of planners and engineers to have your back.
It was difficult to not recognize that she may also be using the book to solidify her legacy and have the last word on her controversial stint.
But that's OK, that's why people write books, and honestly, the book was inspiring and interesting enough for a general audience that it might just help other places outside of NYC and SF drink the Kool Aid.
However, I'm still grappling with her topdown approach, doing what's best for the community, despite what the community may want, or think they want, While I appreciate a goodguy strongarm now and again, it's easy to see why her tactics can be compared to the tactics of Robert Moses, who's projects she claims to be reversing.
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