Streets Are Social And Economic Engines, Not Just Car Routes

Streets serve vital economic and social functions. Only in the 20th Century did the designers of streets place priority on the movement of motor vehicles—often to the exclusion of economic and social purposes of thoroughfares.

Engineers will tell you exactly how many cars and trucks are expected to use a thoroughfare—but they rarely explore, with precision, the economic development potential of a complete street. They can't tell you how design will affect land values. They often don't keep track of how many pedestrians or bicyclists use a street, let alone predict future non-automotive travel.

To function well, traditional cities, towns, and neighborhoods must be walkable, diverse, and mixed-use. Street design either hinders or enables success. Too often it hinders, because complete streets—thoroughfares that offer freedom in travel mode—are viewed as exceptions, as "pilot projects." In cities and towns, streets for people should be—in a real sense they are—the rule. They are the baseline, the minimum expectation.

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