Comment 91475

By j.servus (registered) | Posted August 28, 2013 at 12:58:49 in reply to Comment 91454

"Worse" refers to other values, too, besides safety. On safety, I have nothing to add to Ryan's observations.

But comfort counts for a lot, too. One-way thoroughfares make for faster moving traffic, which is louder and more intimidating to pedestrians.

Then there is convenience. Pedestrians are also transit users, and, as I mentioned, one-ways make it harder to use the bus. HSR stops are close together--perhaps 150 meters, in my estimate--for a good reason; but the point is defeated when the East and West lines are 450 meters apart, as King and Main are at Barnesdale. One-way thoroughfares privilege the convenience of thru-traffic over local users. They push pedestrians and cyclists out of their way. They push bicyclists on to the sidewalk. They force local drivers to loop back to destinations.

Then there is commerce. Your points about commerce are well taken, but of course pedestrian and bike traffic are both depressed by one-way thoroughfares. So, consequently, is a lot of casual and adventitious commerce. Because, as Ryan mentioned, two-way streets cause drivers to go more slowly and be more aware of their surroundings, they will tend to notice shops along their routes. For similar reasons, they will find it easier to plan a route that takes them by a particular shop. Again, since I always prefer to walk along King rather than Main, I will never stop into a convenience store on Main for a snack and a bottle of water. I will seldom walk by, and therefore seldom call to mind, say, a barber shop on Main (if there is one) rather than on King.

I could see a limited use of one-way street design in residential neighborhoods for the purpose of preventing thru-traffic (i.e., by alternating the direction of the street). But for urban arteries, I don't like them. Until I lived downtown, I did not have a real apprehension of the extent to which one-way thoroughfares privilege the convenience of suburban commuters over the livability and vitality of urban neighborhoods.

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