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What are the streets in your neighborhood like? Are the sidewalks wide and accessible? Do speed bumps help curb heavy-footed drivers? Are they well-lit, full of vendors, and friendly to cyclists? If not, do these questions sound like foolish fantasies? Well, with a little work, all of these things can become a reality in even the most car-centric cities. The Livable Streets Initiative is making it happen, but they need your help.
To begin, we need to establish the difference between a "livable street" and one that only encourages driving. GOOD Magazine has identified 10 improvements that can transform any street into one that encourages walking and cycling and helps build community. These include:
1. Encouraging vendors to set up shop on the block, transforming the street into a destination rather than an impediment
2. Erecting pedestrian street lamps to make walking the sidewalks at night safer and more appealing
3. Installing curb extensions, reducing pedestrian crossing times
4. Setting up permanent bus and cycling lanes, making these modes of transportation more efficient and safer
5. Installing textured sidewalks, which increase pedestrian visibility and act as natural speed bumps
6. Planting trees on sidewalks and city streets, which has been shown to improve business and make traffic safer
With the majority of the world's population living in urban environments, these simple improvements are quickly becoming necessities. Doing so is about the quality of life of city residents, but it is also important for reducing our dependence on oil and building a more sustainable and responsible future. As GOOD Magazine implores: "streets can and must be more than just places for the movement and storage of private motor vehicles." Instead they can, indeed must, be at the center of sustainable urban planning and innovation.
What You Can Do
Changing urban planning policy can be a tough road to travel. The best place to start is with the Livable Streets Initiative. Livable Streets describes itself as an:
Online community for people working to create sustainable cities through sensible urban planning, design, and transportation policy?[providing] free, open source, web-based, resources to citizens working to create a greener economy, address climate change, reduce oil dependence, alleviate traffic congestion, and provide better access to good jobs in healthy communities.
Not only do they provide the information you need through their blog, films, and wiki, but a means for organizing like-minded activists in your community. With all these resources, there is no reason to wait. Join the Livable Streets Initiative and get started making your city less of a crossroads and more of a community.
Don't forget to vote for GOOD Magazine in TreeHugger's Best of Green: Culture and Celebrity.
Don't forget to vote for the Livable Streets Initiative in TreeHugger's Best of Green: Cars and Transportation.
