{"id":14922,"date":"2015-06-14T13:03:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T19:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=14922"},"modified":"2015-06-14T13:03:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T19:03:58","slug":"whats-right-about-right-sizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=14922","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Right about Right-sizing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wouldn&#8217;t it be great if there were a simple way for Boulder to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions;<\/li>\n<li>support local businesses;<\/li>\n<li>strengthen social bonds in the community;<\/li>\n<li>reduce living costs for the most needy;<\/li>\n<li>improve human health;<\/li>\n<li>and reduce air and noise pollution?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_14925\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/nbroadwaysm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14925\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14925\" title=\"nbroadwaysm\" src=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/nbroadwaysm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/nbroadwaysm.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/nbroadwaysm-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/nbroadwaysm-400x533.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14925\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">3-lane north Broadway<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We&#8217;re in luck: there is.\u00a0Encouraging biking and walking does all these things, and more.\u00a0Biking and walking are clean, healthy, and free (or nearly so).\u00a0People who shop by bike or foot spend more at local businesses than people who shop by car.\u00a0And people biking or walking have more social interaction, and more positive social interaction, than people driving.<\/p>\n<p>The city&#8217;s proposal to right-size portions of four streets (Iris, Folsom, 55th, and 63rd) will encourage biking and walking by calming traffic, providing ample bike lanes, and giving more space between cars and sidewalks.\u00a0 Though it\u2019s somewhat counter-intuitive, it will do this with little or no delay to cars\u2014because most motor vehicle delay happens at intersections or when vehicles are turning. The proposed right-sizing would leave intersections largely unchanged and would actually make some turning movements more efficient.<\/p>\n<p>All of the street segments in question were designed during the post-war heyday of the automobile, when traffic engineers and city planners made it their first priority to move more cars faster.\u00a0The unexpected consequences were more pollution, more car crashes, urban sprawl, and\u2014ironically\u2014more traffic congestion.\u00a0In hindsight we can now see that a still earlier model made for a better, healthier, and stronger city. Before the dominance of the car, it was common to walk to the store, bicycle to a friend&#8217;s house, or take a streetcar to work.\u00a0Street right-sizing is another small step toward restoring that people-centric model.<\/p>\n<p>City Council will be considering the proposed street right-sizing at a special meeting on Monday, June 15 at 6pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wouldn&#8217;t it be great if there were a simple way for Boulder to: reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions; support local businesses; strengthen social bonds in the community; reduce living costs for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":14925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1018,1019,236,669,970,1017,1016,125,1020,953,25],"class_list":["post-14922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-55th","tag-63rd","tag-bicycles","tag-bike-lane","tag-broadway","tag-folsom","tag-iris","tag-pedestrian","tag-right-sizing","tag-road-diet","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14922"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14953,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14922\/revisions\/14953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}