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The Planners Who Never Think

Apr 13

2007

Back in January, the New York Times published an article claiming that New York City has become “the city that never walks.”

The writer, one Robert Sullivan claims to have “spent two years researching roads and transportation across the United States.” Yet somehow he has come to the conclusion that New York is no longer a pedestrian city.

The city that never walks? Flickr photo by Geff Rossi.

Sullivan thinks that New York should emulate, of all places, Albuquerque and Grand Rapids. He likes Albuquerque because they recently made their downtown more “pedestrian friendly” by converting one-way streets to two way. He likes Grand Rapids because they recently built a “new bus plaza that is part of a mass transit renaissance” (discussed here last week).

Once again, this is a case of judging planners by their intentions and not their results. According to the Census Bureau, about 21 percent of Manhattan commuters and 10 percent of New York City commuters walked or biked to work in 2005. The share riding transit to work was 59 and 55 percent, respectively.

The last time I was in Albuquerque, I walked for miles, yet only 3.0 percent of Albuquerque commuters walked or bicycled to work and another 1.6 percent rode transit in 2005.

In Grand Rapids, about 4.1 percent of commuters walk or bike and 2.4 percent ride transit in 2005. The transit center that Sullivan praises opened in 2004.

Sullivan believes that Albuquerque has become more pedestrian-friendly because planners say they made it more pedestrian-friendly. But is it? Numerous studies show that one-way streets are far safer for pedestrians than two way. The Albuquerque city council never consulted these studies or even knew to ask if they existed.

Sullivan believes that Grand Rapids has become more pedestrian- and transit-friendly because planners say it is. But spending a humongous amount of money on a transit center that few people use does not make your city pedestrian- or transit-friendly. (New York City, of course, already has the PATH stations that are used by hundreds of thousands of transit riders every day.)

If New York wants to stay pedestrian friendly, the best thing it can do is look at Albuquerque and Grand Rapids — and then run the other way.

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Reprinted from The Antiplanner