Street reclaiming is a global, bottom-up movement to reclaim our neighborhoods from the automobile. David Engwicht, inventor of the Walking School Bus and author of Mental Speed Bumps: the Smarter Way to Tame Traffic, views traffic as a social problem, not a design problem. Instead of looking to local government to solve it, we need to see it as a social and community problem we all play some role in creating.

Moving Away from the Culture of Blame

Up until now we have all approached traffic problems with the idea that someone else is to blame for them – either city officials or drivers from other neighborhoods. According to Engwicht, this is typical of the “culture of blame” mentality prevalent in modern society. When people actually sit down and analyze the source of all the cars on their street, they usually discover that the neighborhood is responsible for about one third of the traffic.

Thus his first suggestion for neighborhood traffic calming is for neighbors to commit to reducing their own car use (by walking or cycling for short trips). His second is for people to take steps towards transforming their neighborhood into a “living room” (a shared social space), instead of a “corridor” to get to someplace else.

The “Living Room” Analogy

He stresses this is something neighborhoods can start to do on their own by following two broad principles: 1) deliberately blurring the boundary between private and public space, as many European countries (particularly Holland) do; and 2) using intrigue, uncertainty, and humor as mental speed bumps. As Engwicht has repeatedly observed, the moment drivers note social activity on a street, it introduces intrigue and uncertainty and they automatically drive more slowly.

Engwicht recommends street reclaiming activists follow five basic steps (based on the collective experience of neighborhood activists all over the world):

1. Reclaim your street as a socializing space

• Move some of your normal activities closer to the street (e.g. reading your book in your front yard or on the sidewalk – working on painting, refinishing, and other do-it-yourself projects in your parking space instead of your garage or basement).
• Supervise children playing on the sidewalk or in the roadway
• Walk your kids to school
• Walk to local destinations and greet people you encounter
• Hold a Traffic Taming Street Party

 

2. Move Gently

• Drive within the speed limit and encourage your neighbors to put Pace Car bumper stickers on their cars (available from www.traffictamers.com).

• Teach your kids to walk or cycle.
• Reduce your own car use to a minimum.

3. Intrigue travelers by engaging them in the social life of the street.

• Wave to motorists.
• Put something intriguing in your front yard or parking space

• Blur the boundary between your private home and the street (take down your front fence and curtains – as Engwicht describes in Mental Speed Bumps, European communities do this commonly to maintain the street as a social space).

4. Create “Linger Nodes” – to facilitate social life in your street, increasing intrigue and uncertainty.

• Create a socializing node on your private land (seating, drinking fountain community notice board, sculpture, etc) or on the sidewalk.
• Encourage local businesses to connect with the street by placing an activity outside their premises.

5. Evolve your street from a Corridor into a Room

• Build the social life of the street.
• Put “furniture” and “art” in your room.
• Work with your city on design elements that make your street feel more like a room (for example a landscaped entryway, a ceiling made of flags or banners, and walls created from furniture or art).

I encourage Street Reclaiming activists to email photos of their efforts. I promise to post them: [email protected]