Potent
regenerative impacts for our many urban districts, towns and hamlets can be expected
from local policies and programs to designate and nurture “mobility hot
spots" (MHS). These governmental actions do not need billions of dollars.
A simple change in local attitude will suffice.
MHS
is a proposed land use designation for walkable districts that offer public access
to zipcars, bike racks and rentals, taxis (within or robocars), bus stops eg Bridj,
gathering points for ride-sharing networks, etc. These are all co-located. Each
mode of transportation has its own dynamic. Some require government financial support;
others can come from existing public works (streets, sidewalks, etc.) budgets but
redirected to reinforce MHS objectives. Other modes are profitable.
Government’s
critical role is to coordinate and synchronize all this. For example, why not
provide free wi-fi access to the public at MHSs?
Pedestrian
Is Community-Friendly
The
creation and maintenance of MHSs requires cooperation from highway and police
authorities. This is not easy, for it challenges long-standing Eisenhower
policies that highways are king and road vehicles go right up to and into every
facet of our lives. Can local policy create pedestrian friendly, landscaped and
maintained districts and tame the traffic therein?
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| Swedish (Christer Lindstrom) and Swedish-American (Ron Swenson) thinking collaborated at PCC8 last September at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. |
Who
better to help Americans at this re-orientation than Swedish designers --
architects, civic space creators and animators, district managers and transport
officials? Dozens of them have already registered for PCC9 -- the 9th
Podcar City conference this fall (Nov 4-6) in Silicon Valley.
Learn more at www.podcarcity.org/siliconvalley.
