Life in Pittsburgh ... With a Lot Less Car in It - The 12 Step Program

This blog is fervently committed to the design method over rational planning methods for considering how to deal with land use, transportation, and placemaking issues because the design method allows for innovation and creativity while the straight up rational planning method is somewhat static.

Bob Firth is a designer in Pittsburgh who has done a lot there over the decades, including designing the city's wayfinding signage system. In May, he had a piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about focusing cities, in this case Pittsburgh specifically, not on the car but on people, place, and more sustainable forms of transportation.

Now, I don't agree with his reasoning for each of the steps necessarily, but they are a good starting place for discussion.

The 12 steps:

1. Face it: Rail trails and river trails are boring. [my counter -- there is something to be said for serenity and trails are one of the backbones for a complete and integrated parks system]

2. Notice that a strip of bike lane paint is not a lot of protection from a two-ton SUV with a texting driver.

3. Join 1,465 other cities* and start doing car-free Sundays on selected arteries in the summer.

4. Then summon the courage to do something big: Take one lane of Fifth Avenue from Bigelow to Penn and curb it off permanently for biking and roller-blading.

5. Do something about all the drivers who drive like they're going to explode if they have to wait two more seconds for a pedestrian. [in the write up he mentions California, seemingly a paradise where cars stop for pedestrians, but he fails to mention the reason this is so is strong laws with high fines complemented by serious enforcement.]

6. Make it a high development priority to blanket the city with outdoor hang-outs with lots of shade and with lots of moveable chairs and tables (the ones that are really easy to steal).

7. Host a worldwide design competition for a radically cool looking outdoor portable toilet. (Then sprinkle them all over the city.)

8. End the practice of keeping transit buses hidden from potential riders. [he's right. The Port Authority bus stops don't have schedules or maps.]

9. Figure out how to make transit for errands and weekend family adventures enticing.

10. Promote "Life with a Lot Less Car In It" as the great city-living pleasure. [this should be the first entry in the list.]

11. Govern the city like walking and biking actually matter: Next time we get a big snow, treat key walking and biking rights of way as the equal of key traffic arteries.

[this should be the second entry in the list.]

12. Remind everyone: plan ahead for a spike in the price of gas.