New pedestrianism - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

New Pedestrianism is a more idealistic variation of New Urbanism

New urbanism

New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use...

in urban planning theory, founded in 1999 by Michael E. Arth

Michael E. Arth

Michael E. Arth is an American artist, home/landscape/urban designer, public policy analyst, advocate for the homeless, futurist, and author. He was a candidate for the governor of Florida in 2009 and 2010.-Art:Michael E...

, an American artist, urban/home/landscape designer, futurist, and author. NP addresses the problems associated with New Urbanism and is an attempt to solve various social, health, energy, economic, aesthetic, and environmental problems, with special focus on reducing the role of the automobile. A neighborhood or new town utilizing NP is called a Pedestrian Village

Pedestrian Village

A pedestrian village is a compact, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood or town, with a mixed-use village center, that follows the tenets of New Pedestrianism. Shared-use lanes for pedestrians and those using bicycles, Segways, wheelchairs, and other small rolling conveyances that do not use internal...

. Pedestrian Villages can range from being nearly car-free to having automobile access behind nearly every house and business, but pedestrian lanes are always in front.

To a large extent New Urbanism is a revival of traditional street patterns and urban design. New Pedestrianism also respects traditional town design, but seeks to further reduce the negative impact of the automobile, the use of which has increased dramatically since WWII. By eliminating the front street and replacing it with a tree-lined pedestrian lane, emphasis is placed on low-impact alternative travel such as walking and cycling. Pedestrian lanes are usually 12 to 15 feet (5 m) wide, with one smooth side for rolling conveyances such as bicycles, Segways, and skates and the other, narrower, textured side for pedestrians and wheelchairs. Eliminating the automobile street from the front allows for intimate scale plazas, fountains, pocket parks, as well as an unspoiled connection to natural features such as lakes, streams, and forests that may border or be included in a Pedestrian Village. A vast public realm is created that is free from the sight, smell, and sound of automobiles, yet automobiles are still served on a separate network.

New Pedestrianism has been proposed for Kisima Kaya, a new town in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, for Tiger Bay Village, FL as a solution to the homeless problem, and for new towns and neighborhoods that can be built anywhere whether as rehabilitation of existing neighborhoods, infill, edge-of-town neighborhoods, or new towns.

The automobile

To a large extent, NP is a reaction to the way in which the automobile has impacted the environment and reshaped the cities. Arth writes: “Our quality of life is dependent on achieving a spectrum of physical and psychological needs in a clean, safe, and beautiful environment that can only be accomplished with highly integrated urban design and planning. As long as vehicles, roads, parking lots, garages, and automobile-related businesses cover a significant portion of the landscape and determine the design of nearly everything else, most American cities will continue to be dysfunctional and degraded slumscapes, choked with traffic.”

Over six million motor vehicle related accidents result in almost three million injuries, and over 42,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. Worldwide, approximately half a million deaths occur each year from motor vehicle accidents.

Over-reliance on the automobile, coupled with the lack of a pedestrian-friendly environment, has contributed to two-thirds of adult Americans being overweight or obese.
Americans spend about $33 billion a year trying to lose weight. Degradation of the urban and rural landscape caused by sprawl also has wide-ranging negative effects on the environment and contributes to high maintenance costs to the infrastructure.

Most Americans spend as much of their income on transportation as on housing, with residents of more automobile-dependent cities spending as much as three times as much of their Gross Regional Product (GRP). People in Houston, Atlanta, Dallas-Ft.Worth spend about 23% of their GRP on transportation compared to 9% in Honolulu, New York City, and Baltimore, and 7% in Toronto. These statistics are from the late 90’s before the huge runup in oil prices, and do not include some of the hidden costs of oil consumption.

Energy

Oil production peaked in the U.S. in 1970 and today only 35% of oil consumed is produced domestically.
The U.S. has grown increasingly dependent on obtaining oil that lies in the states which are hostile to American interests. This is assumed by Arth and many others to have led to increased U.S. militarism in oil rich countries and a growing trade deficit. NP seeks to reduce oil consumption by designing neighborhoods and towns that require far less automobile travel. Most daily trips and recreation in a Pedestrian Village would be within pleasant walking or bicycling distance. New Pedestrianism asserts that it is necessary only to connect village centers to create a highly efficient public transportation system.

New Pedestrianism, in its ideal form, reduces the need for oil and other limited energy sources by reducing consumption and utilizing renewable energy. It is anticipated, especially as the cost of photovoltaic cells drops, that individual homes would be equipped with solar panels and solar water heaters, and that solar parks would harvest energy for the whole community. Reducing energy needs and moving away from oil dependency would presumably address health, social, economic, and environmental problems.

New Pedestrianism for the homeless

In January 2007, Arth proposed that a Pedestrian Village be built for the adult homeless in Volusia County, Florida, as a prototype for a national solution that would cost less than what he calls the “current Band-Aid approach to the problem.” Tiger Bay Village would be nearly car-free and provide six kinds of housing, ranging from multi-bed barracks in buildings that look like traditional two story homes, to Katrina Cottage

Katrina Cottage

Katrina Cottages are small residential shelters designed and marketed in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina . They were designed as a response to the inadequacies of the trailers issued to flood victims by the Federal Emergency Management Agency...

s. It would have a lake, swimming lagoon, pool, hiking trails, parks, community gardens and orchards. The residents would help build and maintain the village, and it would also serve as a permanent home for those with mental disabilities who are unable to reintegrate into outside society. All the needs of both temporary and permanent residents would be available on site, and the village would be located on a major bus route. Amenities would also include a labor service that would provide pre-screened workers to the public. The village was designed under a master plan, but the purpose and design of the buildings could be reassessed as it was built in stages over the years. The proposal fueled a national debate about what to do about the homeless while also garnering derision from some quarters by being called either a “resort for the homeless” or a “gulag reservation.” Arth has been careful to explain that this is not a solution for low income housing, which should be integrated into the community.

Michael E. Arth launched a website to organize support for building pedestrian villages for the homeless in early 2009, which also provides a great deal of information about the concept.

Aesthetics

New Pedestrianism replaces front streets with tree-lined pedestrian lanes that form a linear park system that directly connects all homes and businesses to each other, as well as to parks, greenbelts, plazas, courtyards, water features, schools, recreation, and other amenities. This presumably raises the value of all property because the public and private properties are no longer devalued by the appearance and danger of excessive automobile dependency

Automobile dependency

Automobile dependency is a term coined by Professors Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy to capture the predicament of most cities in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and to a lesser extent, large cities in Europe....

. A separate, tree-lined, street grid for cars also exists, but it is always relegated to the rear, and the pedestrian/bike grid as the primary transportation network ensures that unsightly, noisome traffic is vastly reduced on the rear streets. In Pedestrian Villages, density increases because buildings can be built close to quiet, car-free lanes without the need for huge setbacks that are typical in suburban sprawl. This, in turn, places more emphasis on building design, peaceful and intimate public spaces, and aesthetics that is scaled for pedestrians.

History

Like New Urbanism, New Pedestrianism has its roots in compact, mixed-use neighborhoods common in the United States (and elsewhere) during and prior to the first quarter of the 20th century. New Pedestrianism borrows and then expands upon earlier experiments in urban design that focused on separating pedestrians from vehicular traffic.

In a few beachside communities in Southern California, including Venice, California, "walk streets" were constructed around 1905 in a few blocks near the beach. Houses faced pedestrian lanes that ranged between 3 and 10 feet wide. Narrow alleys in the rear handled cars and parking. The canals in Venice, California, built during the same period, also had both sidewalks and canals in front of the houses.

Urban planners Ebenezer Howard

Ebenezer Howard

Sir Ebenezer Howard is known for his publication Garden Cities of To-morrow , the description of a utopian city in which people live harmoniously together with nature. The publication resulted in the founding of the garden city movement, that realized several Garden Cities in Great Britain at the...

and Sir Patrick Geddes were an earlier influence on the design of Radburn, New Jersey

Radburn, New Jersey

Radburn is an unincorporated planned community located within Fair Lawn, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.Radburn was founded in 1929 as "a town for the motor age"...

, built at the dawn of the automobile age in 1929. Radburn had pedestrian lanes in front and vehicular access at the rear on cul-de-sacs that protruded into large multi-use blocks. A study done in 1970 by John Lansing of the University of Michigan showed that 47% of its residents did their grocery shopping on foot, compared to 8% for a conventional subdivision nearby. He also determined that, overall, Radburn residents drove far less than in any other areas he studied. The Radburn plan has been copied in various forms in Sweden, England, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.

The San Antonio River Walk

San Antonio River Walk

The San Antonio River Walk is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath downtown San Antonio, Texas...

, also known as "Paseo del Rio," was initiated in 1929. In this case, the San Antonio River underwent flood control measures and was turned into a peaceful canal lined on both sides with lively pedestrian promenades, plazas, sidewalk cafes, restaurants, clubs, shops, hotels, and other attractions that are completely separate from any vehicles. The promenades pass underneath the roads since Paseo del Rio is one level below the street and vehicular access to buildings is one story above the river.

Village Homes in Davis, California

Davis, California

Davis is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area...

was founded in 1975 by Michael and Judy Corbett. The 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) subdivision has 225 homes and 20 apartments. Solar design and solar panels are utilized for heating. The homes have walkways passing through an extensive greenbelt system on one side of the houses with automobile access on the other side.

Some streets in the New Urbanist development of Rosemary Beach, Florida

Rosemary Beach, Florida

Rosemary Beach is an unincorporated master planned community in Walton County, Florida, United States on the Gulf Coast.A traditional new town development founder by Guy Chesterfield Sr. c...

also have boardwalks in front of some of the homes.

In 2005 New Pedestrianism was offered by Arth as part of the solution to the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Films and books about New Pedestrianism

New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism, produced in 2008, is a feature length documentary that tells the story of Arth's struggle to retrofit a crack slum into a Pedestrian Village while also explaining the philosophy of New Pedestrianism.

Democracy and the Common Wealth
Democracy and the Common Wealth
Democracy and the Common Wealth: Breaking the Stranglehold of the Special Interests is a 2010 book by urban designer, policy analyst and artist Michael E. Arth...

: Breaking the Stranglehold of the Special Interests, gives a comprehensive assessment of society and how New Pedestrianism fits into the overall scheme of things. There are also many illustrations and photographs, and a section called "Anatomy of a Pedestrian Village."

Examples

These are examples of New Pedestrianism-style pedestrian village