Comment 116195

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted January 20, 2016 at 17:01:01

Interestingly, when Haussman was re-designing Paris in the 19th century with the goal of improving attractiveness and mobility by replacing narrow medieval streets with broad avenues he specifically mandated that the right of way be equally divided between sidewalk and space for vehicles.

This means that even the wide busy avenues are still comfortable for pedestrians and have space for cafe terraces, trees, street furniture etc. It also improves conditions for people who live on the streets. This 50% rule seems like a simple design principle that yields good results.

How much space is given over to cares on streets like Main St at Hess? A rough calculation suggests about 80%!

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/179+Hess+St+N,+Hamilton,+ON+L8R+2T1/@43.2574054,-79.8782414,37m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x882c9b7ff0263fb7:0x7f4df929140ac58d!6m1!1e1

US cities often have much wider sidewalks downtown than Hamilton, and even a larger proportion of right of way dedicated to them. For example, Appleton Wisconsin has about 25% of its right of way to sidewalks and much wider sidewalks than Hamilton: 5m wide and even wider at intersections due to bump outs (even the sidewalks on James St N are only about 3.5m wide, and they are some of the widest downtown).

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Appleton,+WI,+USA/@44.2617074,-88.4072592,100m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x8803b682b903f6c9:0x9ca1d6a50675935b!6m1!1e1

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2016-01-20 17:13:34

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