Fixing the Great Mistake: Autocentric Development

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Fixing the Great Mistake: Autocentric Development

"Fixing the Great Mistake" is a new Streetfilms series that examines what went wrong in the early part of the 20th Century, when our cities began catering to the automobile, and how those decisions continue to affect our lives today.

In this episode, Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White shows how planning for cars drastically altered Park Avenue. Watch and see what Park Avenue used to look like, how we ceded it to the automobile, and what we need to do to reclaim the street as a space where people take precedence over traffic.

What up Buttercup?

I am down with the teachings of Paul Steely White.
Jon

Really enjoyed this one in particular. I look forward to more in this Fixing the Great Mistake series. Thanks!!!
http://cartky.org Dave in KY

Is that Matthew Modine?
http://ibikelondon.blogspot.com MarkA

Bravo! This is a superb film; the fact that he is sitting on all that remains of the Park on Park Ave tells you everything you need to know about how wrong things have gone and how hungry the world is to fix this kind of thing. Superb.
sebastiao

New York should look more closer to what other cities are doing concerning this issue, some cities of south and central america, asia and europe can inspire you...
Lee Goode

It was a great mistake to let cars take over and it's good to see that we're beginning to realize this. Now, how do we convince everybody else?
Joakim Bjerhem

Great film - It's all quite simple. But let's not forget the importance of density - We need increased density in the suburbs to make public transport economically feasible! Increase density, increase public space and fewer car lanes and we've solved it all, in Stockholm as well as New York City
ga73

Awesome video-- I just wish the rest of the United States can understand how great it is to live in a place like New York City which is slowly taking back the city. I live in a place that is progressive (Ithaca in upstate NY) and kinda understands the importance of fewer cars, but the instinct is always to defer to making things more car-friendly.
bansheecle+

Great piece/love the effort! Just a fyi - 1:04 in the video, that's an aerial view of Terminal Tower complex in downtown Cleveland.
http://www.streetfilms.org/ Elizabeth Press

bansheecle+ thanks for the good eye. Video has been updated. I should have looked closer at the opening sequence of the Arteries of New York. http://www.archive.org/details/Arteries1941
http://www.vision42.org Roxanne Warren

A perfect little film -- it says it all!
http://www.vision42.org Roxanne Warren

A perfect little film -- it says it all !
Jim Denny

I believe you're mistaken in regards the NYC administration's efforts to make the City more bike friendly. I've ridden in the City since 1981 and what the City does for bicyclists is just tinsel and white wash. Bike lanes in Manhattan are ignored by drivers and pedestrians and not enforced bu the police. They give a false sense of security to bicyclists.
Making street areas into pedestrian areas seems more an effort to make the City more "European" and cater to tourists, which is still the #1 industry in the City, and less about making the City more habitable for bicyclists and pedestrians.
If the City was trying to make the City less friendly to vehicles why did it not pass the bridge toll idea of balancing the budget? Instead pedestrians need to pay for it - the extra 50-cent tax on all taxi rides. It's not the vehicle that's being taxed, it's the pedestrian who doesn't have a car and needs to hire a taxi.
If the City wanted more people to ride bikes why did they do away with 95% of the bicycle parking in NYC? Because they wanted more space to park cars. TA has stated that the City removed all the sidewalk parking meters because they found that more vehicles would fit in a block without the meters as a guide or limit.
Gon't think these new "pedestrian/bicyclist friendly" initiatives are anything other than ways for the City to make money. There hasn't been a decrease of motor vehicles in NYC but there has been a decrease in bicycles in the past two years.
http://www.coastalsurvey.com Rob

Right on! Car-centric development is dead and doesn't know it yet. Every bike lane and greenway built in this city points the way to a smarter future.

Small cities all over the US and around the world look to NYC for innovation. We should show them how it's done.
Lou Rubin

Paul is a true visionary who is helping make the world a better place. I bicycle EVERY day and it is the most beautiful way to live in harmony with the world and the city.
kari

Paul Steely White you are one awesome man. Great video. I think if everyone hopped on a bike and remembered how much fun it is to ride them, the world would be a better place.
Frank Kalinski

This is an open invitation to the City of Detriot, a city that has been destroyed by the automobile. We are now de-populating vast areas of "Motown" because we can not support them with basic water, sewer, police and fire services.

And now we want to build a light rail line with very limited stops on Woodward Avenue but the working poor and those that don't have the ability to drive can't get a bus.

We still have a two bus systems here in the "D". One in the City and one in the suburbs. A strange monument to our troubled past.

But its a blank slate! You need to come to the Detroit area and see the width of the roads: use Google Earth on Highland Park, MI between Six Mile and Manchester streets where the original Ford plant still sits vacant: 8 lanes wide!
http://www.nycewheels.com Bert

I agree, Paul Steely White - you are one awesome man..

If you could figure out how to clone yourself, like 10 times, we would be living in an even more significant, wonderful city very soon.

Keep up the great work, love your videos.
I always post them on our blog at: http://site.nycewheels.com/blog/tag/transportation-alternatives/
mary beth kelly, Upper West Side Streets Renaissance

Thank you, Streetfilms and Elizabeth for yet another terrific video which really gets the enlightened word out so well! Well done, Paul Steely White!
Jingles

At LAST!!! Someone has seen the light and is spreading the word that PEOPLE COUNT. Our village is in the process of a traffic calming streetscape project. The intention is to do just exactly what is presented in this video.
http://www.carfreebaltimore.com Mark

Excellent. City streets should become the living rooms of neighborhoods once again.
Bertie Phillips

You da man!! Steely this is a really great ~ terrific movie. Keep me posted. Bertie

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