Fixing The Great Mistake
Streetfilms—the New York based film crew dedicated to documenting livable streets worldwide—has a new series out called “Fixing The Great Mistake,” examining what went wrong in the beginning of the 20th Century when urban planning began catering to the automobile. In this episode, Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White talks about the widening of Park Avenue, replacing what had once truly been a park with the eight lanes of traffic that we know today.
That planning still impacts lives today—and not just of New Yorkers. Back in the 1930’s and 40’s, under the guidance and political muscle of master builder Robert Moses, the problem of increasing automobile congestion in New York City had a then-futuristic solution: build roads, bridges and highways of a scale and quantity never before imagined. Expressways were built encircling Manhattan, I-95 was bulldozed through residential neighborhoods in the Bronx, and the elevated off-ramps of massive bridges cast a pall over communities in Brooklyn and Harlem. What few people realize is that Moses was instrumental in bringing his auto-centric urban planning to cities around the country; indeed, around the world. Like most Amercian cities with a beltway cutting through downtown, Portland has Moses to thank for the blight of elevated highways like the I-405 outside our offices (as well as I-205, and I-5, and I-84…).
But exciting change is afoot. Just as New York led the way into the era of autocentric urban planning, they may be starting to lead a way out. With the recent closure of Times Square to traffic, the installation of separated bike lanes and the failed but historic effort to introduce congestion pricing, New York is beginning to reclaim some of its public avenues for livable streets. For more news from the sustainable street, check out Streetfilm’s ever growing library of inspiring stories at streetfilms.org.
(via Worldchanging)










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