In a follow up to Bicycle City, we discuss an older, but no less relevant book--Street Fight by Janette Sadik-Khan. The title may be misleading for those in the planning profession, but it truly is the story of a fight over space in the streets. Space for not only cars, but pedestrians and bicyclists too. So many years were devoted to building six lane in town "highways" that our cities have become inhospitable places for individuals that either have to or choose to walk or bike to get around. While working as the Transportation Commissioner in New York City, Janette changed the way not only New Yorkers, but cities across the U.S. thought about who our streets should be designed for.
The poster child for turning space back over to pedestrians covered in this episode and the book is Times Square's transformation from congested roads to people-first spaces. It wasn't just about adding lawn chairs—it was a statement, a proof of concept that has since spurred economic growth and improved quality of life. Dive into the heart of urban revolution with us, where advocacy meets action, leadership strides forward, and the role of planners in political realms is not just envisioned but enacted.
Show Notes:
To help support the show, pick up a copy of the book through our Amazon Affiliates page at https://amzn.to/4c2KnQU or even better, get a copy through your local bookstore!
To view the show transcripts, click on the episode at https://bookedonplanning.buzzsprout.com/
Episode Artwork via Curbed New York
Follow us on social media for more content related to each episode:
In a follow up to Bicycle City, we discuss an older, but no less relevant book--Street Fight by Janette Sadik-Khan. The title may be misleading for those in the planning profession, but it truly is the story of a fight over space in the streets. Space for not only cars, but pedestrians and bicyclists too. So many years were devoted to building six lane in town "highways" that our cities have become inhospitable places for individuals that either have to or choose to walk or bike to get around. While working as the Transportation Commissioner in New York City, Janette changed the way not only New Yorkers, but cities across the U.S. thought about who our streets should be designed for.
The poster child for turning space back over to pedestrians covered in this episode and the book is Times Square's transformation from congested roads to people-first spaces. It wasn't just about adding lawn chairs—it was a statement, a proof of concept that has since spurred economic growth and improved quality of life. Dive into the heart of urban revolution with us, where advocacy meets action, leadership strides forward, and the role of planners in political realms is not just envisioned but enacted.
Show Notes:
To help support the show, pick up a copy of the book through our Amazon Affiliates page at https://amzn.to/4c2KnQU or even better, get a copy through your local bookstore!
To view the show transcripts, click on the episode at https://bookedonplanning.buzzsprout.com/
Episode Artwork via Curbed New York
Follow us on social media for more content related to each episode:
This episode is brought to you by JEO Consulting Group. Jeo is a full-service firm offering engineering, architecture, surveying and planning to clients throughout the Midwest. Since JEO's beginnings in 1937, they have grown to more than 12 offices across Nebraska, iowa and Kansas. With over 250 employees, they provide innovative and cost-effective solutions for both public and private sectors. The JEO team of professional engineers, architects, surveyors, planners and financial experts all work in concert with skilled technicians and support professionals to exceed their clients' expectations.
Stephanie Rouse:
You're listening to the Booked On Planning planning podcast, a project of the nebraska chapter of the american planning association. In each episode, we dive into how cities function by talking with authors on housing, transportation and everything in between. Join us as we get booked on planning. Welcome back, bookworms, to another episode of Booked on Planning. In this episode, jennifer and I are discussing our takeaways from Janet Sadekhan's 2016 book Street Fight Handbook for an Urban Revolution. The book chronicles her forward thinking and effective strategies at making New York City streets more livable and safe for the community. After talking with Dan Pietkowski for our Author Earth episode, this book came to mind as his ideas for car light cities in action. While her approach wasn't centered on the bicycle, it did play a major role in creating more vibrant neighborhoods. I found the book to be incredibly inspiring when I read it a few years back, prior to getting into transportation planning, and it really changed the way that I looked at streets in my own cities.
Jennifer Hiatt:
And Stephanie, you had mentioned this book a while back as possible episode book, so I was actually really excited to jump into it. As we all know, placemaking and transportation often go hand in hand, so I was excited to learn more about what New York City had done to create their vibrant plazas. I'm sure transportation system revitalization is a big conversation in most places, but it certainly has been the majority of the conversation in our projects lately. I think that one of the most inspiring aspects of Sadiq Khan's story was how well and how quickly the majority of the departments bought into the Plan NYC concepts. While I recognize that there were plenty of street fights throughout the process, they were primarily with the NIMBYs and the naysayers and not interdepartmental, or at least that's what it seemed.
Stephanie Rouse:
Yeah, which is a huge step in the process to getting some of these major projects out there. Yeah, getting beyond the problem of traffic, sadiq Khan demonstrated how New York City completely retooled the way their transportation department operated. By looking at who was using the space, they could plan not just for cars, but for pedestrians and bicyclists too. A quote from the book ties right into the episode we recorded last year with Veronica Davis on her book Inclusive Transportation Make sure you go check that out if you haven't listened yet which says rebalancing the street to favor the most efficient means of travel along. It is the greatest form of transit inequity. It's taken almost eight years for this way of thinking to finally take center stage in the transportation conversation.
Jennifer Hiatt:
I was actually just listening to our Bicycle City podcast this morning a little late on that. But I was actually just listening to our Bicycle City podcast this morning a little late on that. But I was thinking about how Dan mentioned that Minneapolis got a $25 million grant and they were able to put bike and ped forward thinking people in their departments as well, and that's what made such a big difference. It just reminded me of how CityCon was able to get her team put in place in that same way.
Stephanie Rouse:
Yeah, it's interesting. You would think that you'd get a big grant. You'd want to just go out and build right away.
Jennifer Hiatt:
But they really set the stage, foundationally by making sure the department was operating correctly to be able to push through projects long term for me from the book was that transportation is one of the few professions where nearly 33,000 people can lose their lives in one year and no one in a position of responsibility is in danger of losing their job. And this idea is woven throughout the stories and examples used in the book. Over and over again, the book points out that we're just like living with the fact that we will lose people to traffic deaths. A stark statement to the fact that in just over 100 years because I just looked it up and actually the first automobile was built in 1890 or 1880, something like that it's not been that long ago and we've just ceded our streets to the automobile we had thousands and thousands of years before, and now we've had 100 years of the car and we've allowed one industry to dominate our expectations. Not just who controls the street, but in many cases, who actually controls life and death.
Stephanie Rouse:
Yeah, and what's unfortunate is in the US we place such a primacy on protecting vehicles, whereas other communities they're looking at traffic deaths as unacceptable, and hopefully a lot of our Vision Zero communities are kind of changing that narrative to focus more on people and not cars. The desire lines or, less formal term, cow paths or worn paths that show where people actually walk, were useful tools in building paths that would actually be used in New York. In one example, the cow paths cars left in the snow showed a small rectangular space untouched by vehicles that could be turned into a pedestrian island, increasing the safety at the intersection. And every time it snows here which is less and less each winter, sadly I always make note of those little islands of snow, hoping to one day take advantage of a road project to claim that space back for pedestrians.
Jennifer Hiatt:
Yeah, I stay in Nebraska for the snow. It's just getting less and less of a reason to stay. I couldn't help but think of O Street, especially east of 17th Street here in Lincoln. So for those who are not familiar with Lincoln, o Street is a major arterial and a state highway that's not particularly pedestrian friendly, to say the very least, and I see people crossing at dangerous spots all of the time and standing on one of the like the one, there's one median island in this whole stretch because actual crossings are so far apart, and this book gave me some great ideas of ways that we could potentially reconfigure O Street one day hopefully maybe, if it's not a state highway someday. And I was also struck by how quickly and relatively cheaply New York City was able to implement a lot of their changes. It was just oftentimes with some paint and barrels, and they were able to implement a lot of their changes. It was just oftentimes with some paint and barrels, and they were able to create like what are now truly iconic locations.
Stephanie Rouse:
Yeah, they really demonstrated the quick build concept with a lot of their projects, starting small and then building upon that and actually doing some permanent builds once they proved the concept, which is something that a lot of communities are really taking advantage of. And Lincoln's starting to catch on and we just completed a quick build guide to help with some projects moving forward, while New York seems like they have it all together when it comes to innovative ideas and pushing the livable city narrative. The book highlighted how creating the changes wasn't easy. The transportation department saw incredible backlash, as you already pointed out, with the NIMBYs and opposition to many of their changes, something that every city faces. But instead of cowing to the vocal minority, the department, after plenty of public engagement, moved forward with their plans, which had the backing of significant amounts of data on the benefits that would result from the projects. If they tried to go get unanimous support, it would have taken almost twice as long and thousands of dollars more to complete.
Jennifer Hiatt:
And we all understand how important public input is to the success of most projects, but in these projects it was actually vital.
Jennifer Hiatt:
I mean, it's vital for almost all projects, but here specifically. First of all, the city was able to respond to people claiming that they had had no say by showing the massive amounts of public input done and the many opportunities that people had to participate in. But, more importantly, it actually protected the city from lawsuits. Specifically, when Sadiq Khan was implementing the city bike program, her department had put together a playbook showing all of the public feedback and how the strategies for implementation were actually based on that feedback. And every lawsuit that was brought against the city for the city bike program was dismissed and often judges actually cited that playbook for the reason and we all know that the fastest way for a city to go down in a lawsuit is by not following the process or acting in an ultra virus or beyond the scope of their authority. So being able to show the process that you followed and the enabling legislation that gives the city that authorization to take such action will protect you the majority of the time when you're now trying to take these radical steps.
Stephanie Rouse:
So one of the major projects Janet covers in her book is the transition of Times Square from a car-dominated space to a pedestrian-dominated space, and I visited Times Square in high school back before the conversion. Sadly, I have not been back to see the change since then. Someday I'll get there. The conversion increased safety and pedestrian activity, giving more life to a once traffic clogged space. What struck me was how cheaply the project started out. As we mentioned, quick build. They used traffic construction barriers to shut the street down to traffic and throughout hundreds of $10 chairs, and it was an immediate success. So often our projects are slowed to a snail's pace and don't even get started because we're going straight to the high dollar permanent construction projects. That is a real challenge to fund.
Jennifer Hiatt:
One of my favorite pictures from the book was the picture of just all these like cheap lawn chairs out on Times Square. Everybody should pick up a copy of the book and check that out. And the first time I visited Times Square it was actually while it was under construction for the transition. I have been back since and since I didn't see Times Square as a car forward area, I can't picture Times Square as anything other than the pedestrian space that it's become. Picture Times Square as anything other than the pedestrian space that it's become.
Jennifer Hiatt:
And Janet makes a point in the book that once you establish a new normal, people generally don't want to go back, and I actually, in continuing to read the book, could not believe that Bill de Blasio wanted to rip up the plaza and turn it back over to cars because a few people were hustling for tips. That just seems crazy to me and I was heartened to hear that the public actually really pushed back against the idea. Janet makes the point that she was all ready to fight for the preservation of Times Square and she didn't have to, because by that point people had come to really love Times Square as it was and I would really like to see a bit more of move fast and break things. As frustrating and silly as I sometimes find needing to launch a pilot project to get anything done, it seems the only way that we move forward with a lot of our projects, especially in the world of transportation, where we have such rigid documents like the MUTCD and our engineers' very cautious approach to change.
Stephanie Rouse:
Ah, like any public project, street debates are rooted in emotional assumptions about how change will affect a person's commute, ability to park, perception of safety and the bottom line of local businesses. Rarely do residents care about the data, which is what matters when making educated decisions about the future of our cities. City Business owners are outraged at bike lanes in front of their stores replacing parking, but, as Sadiq Khan demonstrated in her book and I've read over and over in various studies, businesses in this situation were actually performing better with more pedestrian and bicycle amenities in front of their spaces.
Jennifer Hiatt:
I have to admit that when I was in planning school, I never would have believed how much time working in economic development would actually be spent arguing with people about parking. Of course there is a difference between large, denser cities like Minneapolis or New York City and places in the Midwest like Lincoln, but there is no denying that our more pedestrian forward areas are our most economically successful as well and statistically. People who visit shops and grocery stores by car, they might spend more in that one visit, but they'll only make that one visit, whereas people who walk or use other forms of traffic they will most likely make more frequent visits because they can't carry as much and ultimately will spend more money over time and plus. I don't know about you all, but I do my window shopping on foot, not driving by, so I'm more apt to just stop in for an impulse buy if I'm walking than if I'm driving.
Stephanie Rouse:
Yeah, and I think that's been proven the case with a lot of different people. One of my biggest takeaways from the book was that, no matter what city you live in, someone will always try to argue that your idea for improving walking and bicycling is bad because your city is not quote insert whatever bigger city. Here In Lincoln, we can't build bike lanes because we're not Portland. People were against bike lanes because New York City was not Copenhagen, and while living in Minneapolis and apparently still to this day, residents fight more density because they aren't New York City, despite the stabilization of housing prices, the city is seen, given all the additional housing built to date. But, as we touched on in the conversation with Dan in our last episode, it all comes back to effective advocacy and outreach efforts that coordinate a new message, one that resonates with the quiet majority rather than letting the loud minority take over the conversation.
Jennifer Hiatt:
And one of my biggest takeaways is that we need braver political figures who are willing to weather the naysayers and fight back against capitulating. Sadiq Khan wouldn't have been able to do what she did without the support of Mayor Bloomberg, and we need more leaders who are willing to be a part of the street fight for a better way of living. As Sadiq Khan says, when you push the status quo, it pushes back harder, and we need planners and political leaders who are willing to take the hit and move forward anyway.
Stephanie Rouse:
We need more planners and political positions.
Jennifer Hiatt:
Hey, that's a thought. We hope you enjoyed this conversation on Street Fight Handbook for an Urban Revolution. You can get your own copy and support the show by clicking the link in the show notes to take you to our direct affiliate page. Remember to subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts and please rate, review and share the show. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time on booked on planning. Thank you.