This is a shocking report from Smart Growth America on traffic fatalities in the US. Since 2010, the number of pedestrians struck and killed has increased by almost 75%. As of 2022, this number sat at just over 7,500 fatalities per year:
Here are also the top 20 most deadly metro areas:
Not surprisingly, these hot spots tend to be in the south, as opposed to in older northern cities. And that's because these tend to be car-oriented places. As the name of the report suggests, they are "dangerous by design." If you optimize for cars, it means you're making trade-offs in other places.
Charts: Smart Growth America
It has become fairly common to blame Uber (and ridesharing in general) for increased traffic congestion. I hear it all the time: "If only there weren't so many Ubers on the road, traffic would flow more freely." While there are studies suggesting that "deadheading" miles do have a negative impact and that Uber can draw people away from public transit (that's bad), I think it's important to consider the bigger picture here. So let's try and do that today.
Firstly, let's think about who traffic congestion directly impacts (indirectly it's everyone). If you're a pedestrian, you don't care about traffic congestion. In fact, maybe you gain satisfaction from seeing other people stuck in it. (There's even a German word for this feeling.) Similarly, if you're riding the subway, taking any form of transit on its own right-of-way, or riding a bike, you likely also don't care about traffic congestion. It doesn't directly impact you.
Where you do care about congestion is if you're in something like a bus that is stuck in traffic or if you're driving. In the former case, you're probably thinking, "hey why can't these people take the bus like me. Then we'd have less traffic!" And in the latter case you're probably thinking, "if only there weren't so many Ubers and bike lanes, then I wouldn't be stuck in traffic!" Ironically, this is arguably the biggest segment of people who feel they are being impacted by Ubers.
Secondly, let's think about how Uber vs. driving might impact traffic congestion differently. In both cases, I would think that the majority of use cases involve one person (excluding drivers in the case of Uber) going to their desired destination. So from a raw space per person perspective, they both take up a similar amount of urban space.
The differences are that the Uber likely had some amount of deadhead miles. In other words, it spent time driving around looking for its next passenger. And it likely targeted already busy areas because that's where it was more likely to find someone. Individual drivers don't do this. They go from point A to point B.
However -- and this is a big however -- drivers do require parking once they get to where they're going. Ubers don't. This both takes up more space and oftentimes requires some amount of circling around. This is a significant difference and it begs the question: which is worse? Deadhead miles or all of the parking that cars generally require? I would argue the latter.
Where I'm going with all of this is that I think the criticism of Uber is misdirected. It doesn't get at the real underlying problem. If traffic congestion exists, it is because they are too many cars for a finite amount of road space. This includes the people who choose to drive themselves around. In fact, you could argue that they're the most impactful to cities. The way you solve this is simple: you price congestion and you encourage alternative forms of mobility.
Everything else is just a distraction.
Last year, I wrote about how Salt Lake City wants to build a new linear park around its downtown. That post can be found, here.
Fast forward to today, and the city's Department of Economic Development has just published a new comprehensive 215-page study that supports turning Main Street into a pedestrian promenade.
Specifically, the area running from South Temple to 400 South, and including 100 South from Main to West Temple:
This is a shocking report from Smart Growth America on traffic fatalities in the US. Since 2010, the number of pedestrians struck and killed has increased by almost 75%. As of 2022, this number sat at just over 7,500 fatalities per year:
Here are also the top 20 most deadly metro areas:
Not surprisingly, these hot spots tend to be in the south, as opposed to in older northern cities. And that's because these tend to be car-oriented places. As the name of the report suggests, they are "dangerous by design." If you optimize for cars, it means you're making trade-offs in other places.
Charts: Smart Growth America
It has become fairly common to blame Uber (and ridesharing in general) for increased traffic congestion. I hear it all the time: "If only there weren't so many Ubers on the road, traffic would flow more freely." While there are studies suggesting that "deadheading" miles do have a negative impact and that Uber can draw people away from public transit (that's bad), I think it's important to consider the bigger picture here. So let's try and do that today.
Firstly, let's think about who traffic congestion directly impacts (indirectly it's everyone). If you're a pedestrian, you don't care about traffic congestion. In fact, maybe you gain satisfaction from seeing other people stuck in it. (There's even a German word for this feeling.) Similarly, if you're riding the subway, taking any form of transit on its own right-of-way, or riding a bike, you likely also don't care about traffic congestion. It doesn't directly impact you.
Where you do care about congestion is if you're in something like a bus that is stuck in traffic or if you're driving. In the former case, you're probably thinking, "hey why can't these people take the bus like me. Then we'd have less traffic!" And in the latter case you're probably thinking, "if only there weren't so many Ubers and bike lanes, then I wouldn't be stuck in traffic!" Ironically, this is arguably the biggest segment of people who feel they are being impacted by Ubers.
Secondly, let's think about how Uber vs. driving might impact traffic congestion differently. In both cases, I would think that the majority of use cases involve one person (excluding drivers in the case of Uber) going to their desired destination. So from a raw space per person perspective, they both take up a similar amount of urban space.
The differences are that the Uber likely had some amount of deadhead miles. In other words, it spent time driving around looking for its next passenger. And it likely targeted already busy areas because that's where it was more likely to find someone. Individual drivers don't do this. They go from point A to point B.
However -- and this is a big however -- drivers do require parking once they get to where they're going. Ubers don't. This both takes up more space and oftentimes requires some amount of circling around. This is a significant difference and it begs the question: which is worse? Deadhead miles or all of the parking that cars generally require? I would argue the latter.
Where I'm going with all of this is that I think the criticism of Uber is misdirected. It doesn't get at the real underlying problem. If traffic congestion exists, it is because they are too many cars for a finite amount of road space. This includes the people who choose to drive themselves around. In fact, you could argue that they're the most impactful to cities. The way you solve this is simple: you price congestion and you encourage alternative forms of mobility.
Everything else is just a distraction.
Last year, I wrote about how Salt Lake City wants to build a new linear park around its downtown. That post can be found, here.
Fast forward to today, and the city's Department of Economic Development has just published a new comprehensive 215-page study that supports turning Main Street into a pedestrian promenade.
Specifically, the area running from South Temple to 400 South, and including 100 South from Main to West Temple:
As part of the study, they highlight a number of successful case studies from around the world, including 16th Street Mall in Denver, Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne, and Queens Quay here in Toronto.
In the case of Denver, they cite the one-mile stretch as single-handedly generating over 40% of the city's total downtown tax revenue! And in the case of Toronto, they refer to Queens Quay as a global destination. (Toronto readers, do you agree?)
Like most city building initiatives, this vision is will take years to realize. But it's interesting to note that, of the eight design alternatives included in the study, there is already one clear preference within the local community -- option B.
Option B is a pedestrian/transit mall, but with multi-use trails. In other words, it is a no-cars-allowed alternative that would still allow bicycles and scooters. Here's the street section:
If you'd like to download a copy of the full Main Street Pedestrian Promenade Study, click here.
As part of the study, they highlight a number of successful case studies from around the world, including 16th Street Mall in Denver, Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne, and Queens Quay here in Toronto.
In the case of Denver, they cite the one-mile stretch as single-handedly generating over 40% of the city's total downtown tax revenue! And in the case of Toronto, they refer to Queens Quay as a global destination. (Toronto readers, do you agree?)
Like most city building initiatives, this vision is will take years to realize. But it's interesting to note that, of the eight design alternatives included in the study, there is already one clear preference within the local community -- option B.
Option B is a pedestrian/transit mall, but with multi-use trails. In other words, it is a no-cars-allowed alternative that would still allow bicycles and scooters. Here's the street section:
If you'd like to download a copy of the full Main Street Pedestrian Promenade Study, click here.
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