Transportation and Urban Form
In this post, we will take a look at transportation infrastructure and street features which can impact urban form, and improve quality of life for the residents.
One of the easiest ways to make Cincinnati a happier city is by making it more walkable. Charles Montgomery’s Happy City explains that cities designed for people, not just cars, help build stronger communities and improve overall well-being. Studies show that walkable neighbourhoods lead to higher levels of social interaction, lower stress, and even improved physical health.
Expanding pedestrian zones, widening sidewalks, and adding more car-free areas —especially in busy spots like Over-the-Rhine and near UC’s campus, would make the city more inviting. Cities like Portland and Copenhagen have successfully turned streets into pedestrian-friendly social hubs by incorporating street seating, green spaces, and wide crosswalks. Cincinnati could do the same by adding more benches, improving lighting, and encouraging sidewalk cafés, making streets more than just traffic corridors.
A walkable city isn’t just about convenience, it’s about creating a place where people feel connected. If Cincinnati put pedestrians first, students, workers, and residents could move through the city more easily, connect with their community, and enjoy their surroundings without the constant frustration of traffic.
In Cincinnati, there is a general lack of spaces designed for people. This contributes not only to a poor quality of life, but negatively affects the beauty of the city. Due to the reliance on car-based transportation, chances are, many residents will go through their whole day going from one place to another, near fully disconnected from their environment. Designing human-scale places, and bringing them to the city would provide many benefits.
First, we could work towards removing vehicular traffic from the city center. Not only is vehicular traffic the antithesis of human scale, but it is a detriment to any beauty and aesthetics that may exist. One way to beautify a city, and bring to it a human scale, would be to increase the number of plazas, and reduce the number of open, wide streets built to accommodate traffic.
Second, we should build upon beautiful, historic buildings and areas, helping these existing buildings form human scale plazas and streets that bring people out of their homes into public life. Why not maintain the beauty and old town feel of Cincinnati, rather than pave over it with a big fat juicy highway? We can also add art, murals, monuments, and artistic features will not only draw people, but make the city more memorable as well.
Sitte argues that the reason ancient cities are still marvelled today is due to their harmony of beauty and functionality, an element that is typically absent in modern day cities. Making beautiful cities designed for people, rather than utilitarian cities designed for cars entices people to stay and explore, and improves the life of the residents.
In many cities, and especially suburbs, commercial establishments, and a productivity mindset have led to people spending less and less time in the places they are going. Only in the few large cities do Americans linger, absorb their environment, and participate in lost arts, like people-watching.
To make Cincinnati a happier city, we should focus on creating and revitalizing "third places," bringing Cincinnati more in line with the ideal vision of a city, as imagined by Charles Montgomery in Happy City.
Third places—such as parks, cafes, and community centers are critical for facilitating social interaction, building trust, and enhancing well-being. Cincinnati can start by investing in more accessible, inclusive public green spaces that encourage people to gather and connect.
For example, transforming underutilised areas into vibrant plazas or pedestrian zones can create opportunities for spontaneous interactions, which are crucial for building a sense of community. By prioritising walkability and mixed-use development, Cincinnati can bring these spaces to underserved, neighborhoods. This can reduce social isolation, and promote equity. Community initiatives like gardens, parkettes, are examples of third places, which encourage residents to engage with their surroundings and each other.
Montgomery also emphasises that shared spaces can foster empathy and cooperation among diverse groups. Cincinnati can leverage its cultural heritage and diversity by creating third places that celebrate inclusivity and connection. Events like street festivals, outdoor markets, or cultural performances in public spaces can bring people together, breaking down social barriers and fostering unity.
For instance, the success of Over-the-Rhine’s Washington Park shows how well-designed public spaces can become hubs for community engagement. Expanding such initiatives to other neighbourhoods, while ensuring these spaces prioritise human interaction over commercialisation, can amplify their impact. By designing welcoming, non-commercial spaces with ample seating, green areas, and public art, Cincinnati can cultivate a culture of inclusivity, making it a city where people feel happier, more connected, and invested in their community.
Historically, Cincinnati had a expansive Streetcar network, stretching all across the city. In the middle of the 20th century, the city made the short-sighted decision to remove nearly all the streetcar tracks, to make way for personal cars. Today, only in a few places can you find streetcar tracks, though paved over.
Re-implementing this form of transportation would make it easier for people to rely on transit to access social spaces, jobs, education, or health facilities, and areas such as OTR, Downtown, and Clifton. It could also reduce the number of people that feel the need to drive. If the implementation of a streetcar route is planned into a street redesign, space can be better reallocated to transit or pedestrian spaces. With a new streetcar system, the lines could be planned to converge near major gathering places in Cincinnati. This could better bring the community together, and heighten the importance of such spaces, and increase the demand for plazas, green spaces, or many other opportunities.
Of any one thing that may strike someone when they visit Cincinnati, I (Fenley) would argue that it would be how few parks there are, and their low quality, in addition to the general lack of greenery in the streetscapes.
One way to solve this problem could be to convert streets into linear parks, to add more greenery to the city.
Based upon general practices of urbanism, most specifically City Beautiful concepts, and those of Ebenezer Howard, I have come up with a concept for a Vine-Walnut Street transit-way and linear park. This would see walnut street converted to a linear park with a gondola, and vine street converted into an exclusive busway with larger pedestrian areas.
This would bring together plans for *Metro BRT, the streetcar, new concepts for a Urban Gondola system, and would help to further the development of the banks, and improve routings for entertainment and sports venues in the area.
Vine street would be reconfigured to be only two bus lanes, with weight sensors or buttons for the lights going north south, so that the lights can have pedestrian priority as default, helping the two co-exist.
On Walnut street, the entire road surface would be completely removed, and replaced with vegetation, facade to facade. A smooth asphalt bikeway would allow for increased access by bicycle, and an aerial tramway above would allow for new connectivity with Cincinnati's hills.
A project like this would improve the quality of life for downtown residents, as they would now encounter greenery in their everyday lives, and experience the greenery on their commute as well.
What do you think Cincinnati can do to improve its urban form to be more human scale?
What do you think Cincinnati should do to improve its parks and green spaces to be greater in number and be more cohesive?
Written by Wade Hayden, Matthew Sayers, Logan Kiser, Myles Edlund, and Fenley Jones
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