QOTD: Should People Reclaim the Streets?

Even as a committed car guy, I have to admit that the idea isn't terrible. Maybe it's because I grew up in an era where our lives as children wasn't super structured -- we could walk to the nearest park and we didn't have play dates. We just checked to see if our friends were free and if we could come over. We even did play in the street -- mostly street hockey, moving the goal when a car came. Just like in Wayne's World.

That said, while there definitely appear to be social benefits from making it easier for kids and their parents to congregate in the street, the folks who advocate for such things sometimes forget to factor in downsides. Such as how closing one street to create a pedestrian-friendly place can wreak havoc with traffic a few blocks over.

Infrastructure is a tricky thing. I love cars and I love driving, but I must admit that making too much of our suburban and urban infrastructure too car-centric has caused societal, if not environmental, problems. On the other hand, going too far in the other direction could cause unintended consequences.

I live in the city so I can have transit options -- I can drive, walk, take an Uber, take the bus, bike, or take the train. I like that my neighborhood is walkable -- one of the worst parts of living in the 'burbs was firing up the car to drive to the store and then killing the engine before it could even warm up, since the store was so close. Yet walking to the store wasn't a realistic option.

Conversely, I've been caught in some traffic snarls when a relatively lightly traveled side street shuts down for a block party.

I find myself drawn to places that are walkable without making driving from point A to point B difficult, and the social benefits described in the Atlantic piece seem real.

So my question to you is, how can we re-shape our infrastructure to improve life for pedestrians, playing children, and cyclists, without going too far and squeezing the flow of automotive traffic?

Sound off below.

[Image: Ivan maguire/Shutterstock.com]

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