Notice the density in the photo, not just the transit
Please notice the essential density behind the streetcar in this photo. These buildings sit in easy walking distance, and they *aren’t on top of a pedestal of a thousand parking spaces* — that’s really important.
When it comes to expansion of street rail, bike lanes, pedestrianized streets, etc., we’ll get the best return on those investments through an improved urbanism that de-centers automobiles in the entirety of our designs.
And we also have to include affordability at the front end of planning, as well as housing-security policies that prevent displacement, so that the new urbanism has an equitable, positive impact.
Simply overlaying these wonderful types of transportation on top of car-oriented urban fabric isn’t enough. We need to surround them with buildings that are designed to support those transportation modes.
When you see a photo like this one, don’t just look at the train and think: “we should build one of those in my neighborhood!” Notice that density too, and the walkable scale of the place. Your neighborhood needs to add that.
If my constant, obsessive posting about urbanism elicits any change in the way people think about development, let it be the message above
Image source (somewhere in Europe apparently):
