In an effort to create a more livable city and combat global warming Seattle’s Mayor, Greg Nickels, announced three additional street closures that will take place on Sunday’s in August and September. This is the latest addition to the City’s Seattle Climate Action Now, “Give Your Car the Summer Off” plan.
In announcing the new closures the Mayor claims;
“Neighbors will have three to six hours to experience our streets in a new way and to see how livable a city can be when people drive less,” Nickels said. “This is our chance to experiment and to evaluate how these events work for people. And we’ll be fighting global warming at the same time.”
Certainly one can see how the closing of streets will provide neighbors with opportunities to explore new uses for City streets. However, using a street for an art canvass or other pedestrian indulgences does little, if anything, to combat global warming.
The patch work maze of street closures might actually cause more vehicle miles to be driven. A fallacy in the City’s action plan is that cars will simply stay off all other roads as a result of a few closures. Simply by closing streets the Mayor is not changing the need one may have to get from point A to point B. Instead the inconvenient closure will more likely result in forcing the same users to take alternative and probably longer routes.
The City has announced that this year’s street closures will help set the stage for 2009 and additional closures. Before the City adds to their current closure schedule it would be interesting to see the data that supports the claims that less vehicle miles are driven as a result.
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