| |
|
| Planning for Quincy's redevelopment | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | UPDATES | |
 |
||||
|
UPDATES
DAY
3 STORIES
TOOLS NEEDED FOR SUCCESS:
|
|
TRAFFIC Wider sidewalks and narrower roads
|
 |
Urban planners insist that one necessity of a successful urban center is creating a space that is accessible to both cars and pedestrians. In some communities, that has meant widening sidewalks and narrowing roads, an idea that might seem preposterous to drivers accustomed to traffic delays.
“Sometimes it’s appropriate for a street to move cars as quickly as possible, and sometimes that’s completely inappropriate,” said Andy Wiley-Schwartz of the Project for Public Spaces, a New York-based nonprofit. “If you want people to get out of their car and shop, or to cross the street, they’re not going to be comfortable doing that on a busy street.”
Wide sidewalks have an added bonus: They make room for benches and sidewalk cafes that add life to downtown.
Experts agree that one idea that rarely works and should be shied away from is the pedestrian mall, where traffic is banned in a commercial area.
“People think if there aren’t cars it’s not successful,” said Robert Thoresen, who was city planner in Portsmouth, N.H., when that community undertook a revitalization effort. “If they don’t see any cars they think it’s dead.”
David Dixon, an urban planner with the Boston firm Goody, Clancy & Associates and the city’s consultant, thinks Coddington Street could benefit from being made more pedestrian-friendly. If done correctly, the city could create a campus-like feel in the corridor, which features Quincy College, the South Shore YMCA, the library and the high school, he said.
In preliminary drawings being reviewed by Mayor William Phelan’s redevelopment task force, Dixon also suggests the idea of new roads leading to and cutting through the Hancock parking lot, should that site be developed as housing.
For his part, Phelan wants to study the stretch of Hancock Street in front of city hall, where the Church of the Presidents sits on an island in a sea of traffic. He thinks one idea worth looking into is whether roadways can be rerouted to create open space between city hall and the church.
Any alterations in traffic patterns have to be examined closely, because small changes in one area can reverberate on several other streets, said Roy LaMotte Jr., the city’s traffic engineer. But he said anything is possible, and certainly worth looking at.
“Providence moved rivers to create the downtown environment there,” he said. “Trying to realign traffic would take a great deal of thought and study, but I think it’s within the feasible options.”
©
The Patriot Ledger ~ All rights reserved. | SPECIAL
REPORTS |
|
|
 |
