Comments on: Twice the Volume, One Third the Space http://www.howwedrive.com/2008/11/17/twice-the-volume-one-third-the-space/ Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:40:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: jon seward http://www.howwedrive.com/2008/11/17/twice-the-volume-one-third-the-space/#comment-2810 jon seward Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:44:49 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=418#comment-2810 This graphic is instructive, but somewhat misleading. What it truly shows is that pedestrians are very spatially efficient. It would be an error to say that space should be allocated simply on the basis of the ratio of users of various types. And at some point there is such a thing as too much room for pedestrians, but we aren't there yet. IIRC, Holly Whyte, in CITY, mentioned a section of Lexington Ave on the Upper East Side with an eight foot effective width processing either 3,000 or 8,000 peds/hr. And doing a fine job of being a sidewalk/streetscape. I wouldn't consider that an idealized outcome. But it does show how flexible pedestrians are, and it also suggests that there is value to certain levels of pedestrian congestion or propinquity. Christian, I agree. Atrios also touches on the subject relatively frequently, though it's hard to say what level of discourse he manifests from it. This graphic is instructive, but somewhat misleading. What it truly shows is that pedestrians are very spatially efficient.

It would be an error to say that space should be allocated simply on the basis of the ratio of users of various types. And at some point there is such a thing as too much room for pedestrians, but we aren’t there yet.

IIRC, Holly Whyte, in CITY, mentioned a section of Lexington Ave on the Upper East Side with an eight foot effective width processing either 3,000 or 8,000 peds/hr. And doing a fine job of being a sidewalk/streetscape.

I wouldn’t consider that an idealized outcome. But it does show how flexible pedestrians are, and it also suggests that there is value to certain levels of pedestrian congestion or propinquity.

Christian, I agree. Atrios also touches on the subject relatively frequently, though it’s hard to say what level of discourse he manifests from it.

]]> By: Christopher Monnier http://www.howwedrive.com/2008/11/17/twice-the-volume-one-third-the-space/#comment-2704 Christopher Monnier Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:06:12 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=418#comment-2704 There was a good discussion about vehicle throughput vs. people throughput on Matt Yglesias' blog <a href="http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/11/people_not_vehicles.php" rel="nofollow">here</a>. There was a good discussion about vehicle throughput vs. people throughput on Matt Yglesias’ blog here.

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