1. Back to the Future Great Streets for America
Norman W. Garrick
University of Connecticut

2. Great Streets!

3. Great Streets: Ocean Springs

4. Great Streets: Connecticut Ave

5. Great Streets: Hauptbahnhof Strasse

6. Great Streets: Kings Street

7. This question is really embedded in a larger context
What is a Great Street?
This question is really embedded in a larger context

8. What is transportation for?
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City

9. Transportation is for creating and sustaining Strong, Vibrant, Healthy Communities

10. Great streets create great cities - Re-urbanism

11. Jan Gehl, Life between Buildings
To be able to more about easily and confidently, to be able to linger, to be able to take pleasure in spaces and city life, and to be able to meet and get together with other people these are fundamental to good cities today, as in the past
Jan Gehl, Life between Buildings

12. Broadway, Chicago

13. Six Rules for Good Streets
Good streets function as part of a complete network
Good street networks are made up of different types of streets that serves different functions
Good streets are multifaceted integrators
Good streets are safe and comfortable for all users
Good streets are places
Good streets know that they are there to serve the city: not the other way around

14. 1. The Network

15. Pierre L’Enfant’s Washington, DC
Connecticut Ave
Pierre L’Enfant’s Washington, DC
Dupont Circle

16. James Oglethorpe’s Savannah, GA

17. Anywhere America
Atlanta, GA

18. The street network serves as the bones of the city
The framework on which everything else depends

19. Who is in charge of creating the street network for today’s cities?
Today there is nobody professionally charged with determining
what the street network should look like
We have abandoned this important task to
the happenstance of where the highways are routed
and the whim of individual developers

20. The Evolving Street Network
1400
1900
1950
1970
Adapted from Stephen Marshall, Street Patterns

21. Dead-worm Subdivision Long, winding roads that go nowhere
Dead-worm Subdivision Long, winding roads that go nowhere. Delores Hayden, Field Guide to Sprawl

22. Zoomburg A place growing even faster than a boomburg
Zoomburg A place growing even faster than a boomburg. Delores Hayden, Field Guide to Sprawl (Jim Wark, Ariel Photos)

23. But this benefit comes at a huge cost to the community as a whole
One advantage to this type of street layout is that there is negligible traffic on local streets
But this benefit comes at a huge cost to the community as a whole
The same effect can be achieved from a properly designed street network

24. Paying the Piper Inefficient traffic flow
Fractured, formless urban fabric
Monochromatic places and economic arrangements
Walking, biking, transit rendered ineffectual as transportation

25. Street Network Type and Congestion
Severe Congestion
Urban Network
Pre-1950’s
Post-1950’s
Adapted from Stephen Marshall, Street Patterns

26. Expanding the City in Davis, CA
2000s Covell Village
1970s South Davis
1900s Downtown
Expanding the City in Davis, CA

27. 2. Different Streets Types: Different Function

28. The Old Way of Network Design
The old style street networks worked well because each street was carefully designed for a specific function
Primarily residential streets were designed so that they would get relatively little traffic
Streets differed not only in terms of their cross-section, but also by their location in the network and their continuity

29. The Streets of Prenzlauer Berg
Schoenhauser Allee
The main street
Prenzlauer Allee
The second main street
Pappelallee
A neighborhood shopping street
Raumerstrasse
A neighborhood “living room” street
Goehrener Strasse
A residential street

30. Schoenhauser Allee The main street

31. Schoenhauser Allee The main street

32. Schoenhauser Allee The main street

33. Schoenhauser Allee The main street

34. Prenzlauer Allee The second main street

35. Pappelallee A neighborhood shopping street

36. Raumerstrasse A neighborhood ‘living room’ street

37. Goehrener Strasse A residential street

38. Greigenhagener Strasse A residential street

39. 3. Street are Multifaceted Integrators

40. The Function of a Street
Streets are integrators: they bring together people, places and things
First and foremost, they must pamper and serve people on foot
They work best when they integrate rather than segregate different modes of travel
They must tie the city together: they must never be separator

41. Great Streets: Connecticut Ave

42. 4. Streets Must be Safe and Comfortable for All

43. Not all Street users are created equal
There is a strong argument giving priority to non-motorized travelers
Why?
They are cheaper to serve
They much more efficient
They don’t pollute
They don’t deplete resources
They don’t take up so much space
They are not armored
They tire more easily
They bring life, energy and vitality to cities

44. Speed is Critical

45. 5. Streets are Places

46. Streets are Places It is not enough that streets be context sensitive
Streets must be fully integrated into the context: their design must be context based
The most memorable streets are ones that convey a complete sense of their location

47. 6. Good Streets serve the goals of the city

48. This gets back to the question of .. What is transportation for?
Good streets support
Economic vitality
Social interaction
Desirable quality of life
Health
More access for less mobility

49. Lingering on Broadway

50. What next?

51. Lovers of streets unite!
To create more cities that people want to linger in