Complete streets

Before I start making my point about what I feel about streets and sidewalks and what I think is the problem of the day, I would like to acknowledge Alan Jacobs for ( Author of Great Streets) some of the figure ground plans showing the street patterns across the world.

Without a doubt, streets are just everywhere.And streets are often accompanied by sidewalks which is my main focus of study. Some consider streets as the medium for carrying vehicles from one point of the city to the other as quickly as possible while some consider streets as the most important aspect of a place which enhances the social character of that place. Both hold equal weight as both the functions are just as important.

Today we talk about complete streets, pedestrian friendly roads and walkable cities. So what are all these focusing on? Sidewalks, trees, well defined intersections and a thread that connects all these together in the best way possible.

This image does a great job in demonstrating the activities that happen on a street!

While most streets have side walks, trees, intersection, some are successful, while some not!

Some sidewalks are full of life while some have no purpose of existence. Infact a great downtown owes a lot to its streets and its sidewalks.

While we highly appreciate some sidewalks, we really dont know why the others exist? There are quite of lot of side walks that are seldom used. For instance, muncie hardly has any sidewalks and even among those which ones do we really use? Side walks are a big expense for every city but what is the payback?

These questions have been given a lot of thought and we have some interesting solutions:

Sidewalks in france are being used as dance floors to generte energy!