#SlowtheCars is our campaign to make streets safe and prosperous.
Learn to dispel the common myths you hear from transportation agencies with regard to safe streets. The guidance isn’t as sacred as they want you to believe.
Tragedy predictably occurs when our road designs combine high speeds and randomness.
As a cycling advocate, I avoid talking about the times when riding a bike in the city is scary, because I don’t want to deter would-be new riders from giving it a try. There’s only one problem with pretending I’m never afraid: it isn’t true.
I keep thinking about the efficiency of the human body. Each model year comes equipped with space-saving design, lots of leg-room, built-in entertainment features, and is bio-fuel-compatible with generally limited emissions.
Retrofitting an urban, neighborhood school to resemble a suburban campus is bad public policy. Doing it in the name of safety is incoherent.
Akron, Ohio is tackling its stroad problem, one oversized boulevard at a time. “Right-sizing” this neighborhood main street will make it safer and more inviting and hospitable for small businesses.
By overemphasizing vehicle Level of Service (LOS) we justify expensive, overbuilt streets that are dangerously inhospitable to people—just so drivers won’t be inconvenienced during peak travel times.
Why we need them, how to build them, and who’s already getting it done around the country.
If we want a city that’s financially healthy, we need to cultivate human disorder, rather than do whatever we can to minimize it.
Why Slow the Cars?
Strong Towns advocates for financial solvency and productive land use in American cities. Places that are built for people, using traditional development patterns, can help us achieve both of those goals. On the other hand, neighborhood streets with wide lanes, huge clearance zones and other dangerous design features cause thousands of pedestrian and car passenger deaths every year. Dangerous roads do not make productive use of our land or our lives. Furthermore, they depress investment in our cities by making our neighborhoods less pleasant places to be.
People are the indicator species of success. We know that pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods are more economically productive, healthier and safer. We need to build places where people want to be.
Are you an elected official who wants help making streets safer and more productive in your community?
Are you an engineer or planner who wants to start implementing real, no-nonsense approaches to safer, more productive streets?
Top Stories
3 dollars and cents arguments that definitively prove the need for people-oriented, walk-friendly places.
By overemphasizing vehicle Level of Service (LOS) we justify expensive, overbuilt streets that are dangerously inhospitable to people—just so drivers won’t be inconvenienced during peak travel times.
Why we need them, how to build them, and who’s already getting it done around the country.
By providing the language to explain why fast-moving "stroads" are so treacherous, we hope to empower cities to make them safer.
Michael Brown was stopped by police for walking in the street. A lack of sidewalks makes this the daily reality for many Ferguson residents.
Here are 5 ways to make the case for traffic calming, even to those drivers who really hate being slowed down.
The “safety features” built into our modern streets are often downright dangerous. It's time to use the forgiveness of slow speeds instead of forgiving design.
Here are 2 handy checklists to help you tell the difference between people-oriented and auto-oriented streets.
3 dollars and cents arguments that definitively prove the need for people-oriented, walk-friendly places.
What's a Stroad?
Strong Towns coined the term "stroad" several years ago to describe the over-built, over-wide streets you find in suburbs, towns and cities throughout America. A street is a platform for wealth creation, and a road is a high-speed connector between two productive places. A stroad is a dangerous hybrid of both.
We call this "the futon of transportation" because, like a futon, which is neither a good bed nor a good couch, a stroad is neither a good street nor a good road. Let's turn our stroads into streets or roads, and put our country back on a path towards being financially productive.
Read more about stroads and watch a video that shows why they fail.
(Top photo source: Michigan Municipal League)
Two simple photos show the difference between a street simply designated 20 miles per hour, and one actually designed to be safe. We can't regulate our way to safety.