Friday, December 04, 2009

DDOT Door Hanger












4 comments:

Peter said...

too bad the hanger didn't say "walk, bike, transit, and vehicles" -- to give a sense of the priority we should be looking to achieve.

Ken said...

Though I agree that we can't have enough emphasis on the pedestrian and cyclist, especially in our community, I believe DDOT's language (see below) is fairly demonstrative on how the City and the community feels about reprioritizing the use of this right-of-way.

From DDOT's door hanger:

"Results and recommendations from the study will be used to develop a preliminary design for the District’s first sustainable green street to efficiently and safely move people via foot, bicycle, vehicle and transit. It is DDOT’s goal that this project be a community driven study that strives to attain an integrated infrastructure balancing the functions of mobility, safety, community, urban design, and water quality."

Peter said...

@Ken -- that's my critique -- that the hanger suggests 'vehicles' and then 'transit', not the opposite. it may be a small difference, and one could argue that it's largely meaningless, but i have a feeling these written things not only indicate where we are, but what we're ultimately looking to achieve. language is just super-important. maybe, in this case or in others, it's meaningless, but i doubt it.

there's a recent thread about 'Bus LOS' -- it's a great indication, in my view, how language shapes our thoughts, goals, processes, laws, etc.

Ken said...

Yeah I agree with your logic Peter in the language, hopefully that wasn't DDOT's intent. As hierarchical City transportation priorities are organized, I too believe the automobile should be knocked off it too-long standing pedestal and take its new priority-placement at the bottom of the heap.

Please consider attending one or more of the workshops and/or meetings to help aim this study/project in the right direction.

Thanks for the comments!