The Strengths of Temporal Use
Every Saturday in the summer, downtown Missoula becomes a pedestrian paradise. Traffic is slowed, streets are blocked, and the Saturday Markets come alive. Pedestrians, vendors, bicyclists, and street musicians take over a small portion of the downtown and the auto is displaced.
The same thing happens a half-dozen times a year when a parade occurs - everything slows down and the community gets together for an event that reclaims the public street. Bike races, festivals, marathons, and concerts all represent healthy but temporary uses of streets.
While a few snow flakes are flirting with the idea of falling tonight, it seems an odd time of year to muse about parades and summer markets, but I think that sustaining the energy of a farmers’ market can become a year-round idea. With the bickering about Hillview Way carrying on, why not open the street to children with sleds for a few hours after each new snow fall?
From a people-moving standpoint, streets can have temporal uses as well. Highway lanes can become bus and carpool lanes, or even reverse direction during the busiest times of day. Streets such as 5th and 6th Streets in Missoula could become one lane each with a giant cycling lane. During special events when the volume is needed, the configuration could revert to a two-lane setup, with cyclists sharing the right-hand lane.
The benefit of time-based street uses is that they can be implemented incrementally. If programs are successful, they can be expanded. For example, Missoula could move to a car-free downtown one morning a week. If people enjoyed biking and walking in the streets, and if businesses approved the change, it could be expanded to include two mornings a week!
Tags: Temporal Uses
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:16 am
huh, beyond carpool lanes, I hadn’t really considered temporal use. Some of these ideas have potential. It seems that the main issue would be communicating clearly to all users of the changes. Perhaps street signs could also be malleable in some way. Maybe, also, as internet becomes more ubiquitous, there will be better ways to pass this information along (wireless connected GPS units?)
The incremental change value is worth considering too. While, we are not at the place where a car-free downtown would work yet, why not inch our way toward it and see how far the public would want it. I would vote for Sunday to give it a shot. Kind of a slower day ,business-wise, as it is.
I wonder it any towns do something like this already ?
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:28 am
the most noteable examaple is Bogota, Columbia, with a car-free city on Sunday mornings. Estimates are that +/- 2 million people (25% of the city) hit the streets and socialize or exercise on bikes. An article on the subject by Ken Kruckemeyer.