tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3300947294999806492.post3861292256382605300..comments2023-11-22T05:26:44.399-05:00Comments on Crossing the Lines: Thoughts on Old UrbanismSteve Stofkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14825368520377993845noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3300947294999806492.post-91366777499371818962011-08-11T09:07:19.312-04:002011-08-11T09:07:19.312-04:00Agreed on the untapped land value...however, what ...Agreed on the untapped land value...however, what I was pointing out is that 50 feet seems to be, experientially, the cutoff when a street starts to be <i>too</i> wide. I have no argument that street rights-of-way in most parts of the country can be (at least) halved. Outside of a handful of "grand boulevard" key arteries--streets such as Philadelphia's Broad Street--street standards in this country need to have a maximum of 50 feet for residential roads and 60 feet for dense commercial roads--the current standards are just plain old overdesigned.Steve Stofkahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14825368520377993845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3300947294999806492.post-89837163093025725312011-08-09T23:06:04.389-04:002011-08-09T23:06:04.389-04:00The street narrowing idea is one I've talked a...The street narrowing idea is one I've talked about a lot as well. Josh Mahar had a nice post a few months back on this topic that you may have seen where he crunches some of the numbers:<br /><br />http://citytank.org/2011/04/28/reversing-haussmann-an-exploration-of-street-narrowing/<br /><br />I really don't think there is a functional need for any city to have more than 30 percent of its area devoted to rights-of-way -- even the imperial capitals of Europe with their extravagantly wide, for-show boulevards weigh in at 25 percent. Even 15 percent feels just fine if street widths vary and if provision is made for high-quality public spaces. For the typical American gridded city of 40 percent ROW coverage, given typical downtown land values, there's a gold mine sitting right under the pavement.Charlie Gardnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07317335121565650040noreply@blogger.com