🚦 Rethinking Streets: Safety Over Speed #412

This audio recording features Chuck Marohn from Strong Towns presenting a conference session to transportation professionals in Kansas. He argues that the design of roadways often prioritizes driver speed and creates an environment that fosters frustration and aggression, contributing significantly to crashes. Marohn advocates for a shift in focus towards designing safer streets that account for all users, drawing parallels to Disney’s intentional design for managing crowds and the medical field’s morbidity and mortality conferences for learning from adverse outcomes. He introduces Strong Towns’ “Crash Analysis Studio” as a method for understanding the multiple factors contributing to traffic incidents beyond driver error, emphasizing the need for cities to take proactive, low-cost measures to improve safety and to prioritize safety over speed and volume in street design. The session concludes with a discussion on the broader implications of transportation policy on community development and time management, and an announcement of a new Strong Towns toolkit for regulatory reform aimed at increasing housing availability.

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