Closer to stores: Look at the graphic in the article/visit SF. The first floor of many of these buildings are small retail stores (bodegas/boutiques/bars). Plus, these people who used to drive into the city to buy things? Now they live there. They walk to stores.
jalopurbanist
jalopurbanist
Uhh, there were small ladder trucks in my link too. And obviously our trucks are massive right now, but it’s not like we can’t gradually change our fleet to serve a changing society. SF has the smallest fire trucks in the country, and while they’re still massive compared to Europe, the point is that they’ve adapted…
She’s not suggesting this specifically for you, Tim-who-lives-in-Texas. She’s suggesting this for cities that already have high urban density, but are willing to trade wide car-dominated streets for narrow, people oriented streets.
Wow, the first positive response to this article. Though judging the reaction from other people, there’s never going to be enough public support for this to happen.
Well one benefit would be an increase in housing supply, something SF is sorely lacking right now, thus resulting in lower rent. Though obviously green spaces like gardens/parks would be pretty cool as well. Either way, just less car-dominated spaces (parking/driving lanes).
They could just make the infill housing a little bit skinnier to accommodate the existing trees? So in the diagram, instead of 38 feet of new housing, maybe just 30 feet?
Uhh, having skinny streets would *increase* real estate supply, thus lowering rent. And gentrification? Can’t just throw these keywords around without backing them up; neither the author nor the primary source mention race/class, though increasing housing supply would likely make rent more affordable, not less.
It’s not like Europeans/Japanese don’t have fire trucks...
Yeah, but that’s not the point of this article. What you’re saying makes sense, but they’re not super relevant to the topic of increasing urban density and smart urban growth.
“It’s not like the cars just vanished along with the lanes.”
He addresses it here: http://narrowstreetssf.com/fire-trucks/
Uhh, did you even read the article you posted? “Speeding kills more New Yorkers than drunk driving and cellphone use at the wheel put together.”