A Manifesto: Make Main Street A People-First Shared Street
To jump ahead, and just sign the manifesto, click here.
My wife Sarah and I had lived 20 years in Northern Virginia when I drew a circle on a map of the New York City area in the summer of 2010, and we began a search for a new place to live.
When we first visited Beacon, I instantly felt like it was home.
Especially Main Street. On Main Street, Beacon seemed familiar, comfortable, and built on an accessible human scale.
Main Street, Beacon, New York
We immediately stopped our search, signed a lease, and now own a home on South Cedar, near the Library.
And when I attended my high school reunion in 2011, I returned to Brookline Mass, an inner suburb of Boston where I grew up, and I realized why Beacon seemed so familiar.
This is Harvard Street in Brookline, a few blocks from my childhood home.
Harvard Street, Brooklin, Massachusetts
This is probably why I fell so fast for Beacon: it took me back to my childhood.
And aside from the buildings, what is similar in the pictures of Brookline and Beacon is that the majority of the space is devoted to cars, and pedestrians are restricted to the sidewalks and crosswalks.
It’s no longer the ‘60s, and it’s time to let go of any lingering nostalgia I have from the ways things were then, and even for the way things are today.
It’s time for us to think about a new Main Street, one that is more like the Main Street of the 19th century. One where people come first, and cars come second.
Jane Jacobs wrote in The Death And Life Of Great American Cities that
The simple needs of automobiles are more easily understood and satisfied than the complex needs of cities, and a growing number of planners and designers have come to believe that if they can only solve the problems of traffic, they will thereby have solved the major problems of cities. Cities have much more intricate economic and social concerns than automobile traffic. How can you know what to try with traffic until you know how the city itself works, and what else it needs to do with its streets?
The organization of Beacon’s streets today is based on the urban renewal that went on here in the ‘70s. Exactly the same efforts that Jacobs fought against in New York City, and which left us a mixed legacy. But it’s a legacy we can start to change.
And one of the first priorities should be to do this: we need to make Main Street a ‘Shared Street’.
'What is a shared street?', you might ask. Short version: A pedestrian-priority street.
The slightly longer version: A shared street is a low-speed, typically curbless roadway designed as a single surface shared among pedestrians, bicyclists, and low-speed motor vehicles.
Exhibition Road, London, UK
What exactly are the benefits of a shared street?
Freer pedestrian movement, while retaining bicycle, local vehicle, and delivery access.
Active use of space, like restaurant tables, street art, parklike landscaping and furniture, all mixed in with parking.
Reduced vehicle speed, which means a quieter, safer, more social and inviting street experience.
There are likely to be some immediate, knee jerk 'that will never happen' responses to the idea of a shared Main Street.
But some considerations to keep in mind:
Main Street fits the traffic engineering parameters: it is a good candidate for being a shared street, and the project could be implemented in stages.
A shared Main Street would be a great attraction for Beacon as an art and culture hub, and we could increase the value of one of our greatest assets.
We’ll have to raise and allocate funds, and that might take time and dedicated effort, both politically and culturally, but is achievable.
But it is fairly obvious that a shared Main Street would attract more people who want to live, work, buy, and explore in Beacon.
As you can see shared streets are found the world over.
New York City’s planning board recommends shared streets, as one of the many sorts supported there, and they have done innovative things along these lines, like the Times Square redevelopment.
Beacon currently has no shared streets, and no group is advocating for them, until now.
So perhaps we have an answer for Jane Jacobs:
Put people first, and take back Main Street from the cars.
Today, I ask you for your support, dedication, and whatever else it takes to help make this vision into a reality. No one person can do this, alone.
Perhaps it's fitting to start this during the Beacon centennial, when we are looking back on one hundred years of Beacon history.
Please sign the manifesto, here, and join with others who are committed to making Beacon even more safe, walkable, livable, and social than before: a city ready for the next hundred years.
