This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on Strong Towns member Will Gardner’s Substack, StrongHaven. It is shared here with permission. All images for this piece were provided by the author.

I get offended by signs like the one above. Who do you think I am, some kind of psychopath that would blithely run over kids, as long as those children weren’t related to me? Just racing through the side street, hitting a kid, and then somehow relieved when I realize (ala the MJ lyric) that the kid is not my son?

Assuming we’re not all psychopaths, shouldn’t the sign just say “Drive like kids live here”? Or, better yet, “Drive as if people live here (because they frickin’ do!)”?

As a speed deterrent, these signs likely have little to no impact. But they do indicate an unmet need: In the age of auto-dominated infrastructure, the people want their streets back. Out of desperation, they’ve put out these signs for motorists to see. Signs that plead for everyone behind the wheel to not be such a psychopath.

In too many U.S. neighborhoods, the streets belong first and foremost to cars. This was not always the case. Before U.S. cities were reshaped to prioritize the personal automobile, neighborhood streets were by default a place for kids to play and neighbors to convene. From Lydon and Garcia’s Tactical Urbanism:

Street fairs and bazaars, markets, block parties, and similar temporary events have brought life to streets for millennia, proving that our thoroughfares fulfill a rich social and economic purpose as much as a utilitarian one. Unfortunately, in the early 1900s the nascent traffic engineering profession, automobile manufacturers, oil producers, and insurance companies collectively hijacked our streets for a century of relentless motoring… At the dawn of the motoring age, crowded conditions and the lack of urban park space meant that streets were the principal place of play for children and the primary social space for adults. The introduction of the automobile to city streets clashed with this culture and quickly led to a spike in child fatalities, among other maladies.

Over the past century in most places in the U.S., rather than reclaiming streets for people, our society has decided to banish people, including kids, from our neighborhood streets. From street design that prioritizes car speed and convenience over human safety to brilliant ideas like running arterials and highways through neighborhoods, city planners and engineers and their state counterparts continue to design as if kids don’t live here.

Prioritizing cars over people in our neighborhoods leads to needless fatalities and diminishes our quality of life. Beyond their concerns about safety, most parents I know would love for their kids to be able to be more independent. For many of us, though, our built environment conspires against our kids’ independence.

Biking While Young

One Sunday, when my kids were five and seven, they told me and Mrs. G that they wanted to ride their bikes to church (5 blocks away) without us. They knew the route and were confident riders, so we agreed to let them ride on their own, meeting us at church for the start of the service. When the kids didn’t show up at the appointed time, Mrs. G and I took a deep breath and retraced their route back to the house. To our surprise, there they were, along with two police officers and a guy in a truck. Apparently, the guy had followed the kids in his truck out of “concern for their safety” and then called the cops when they raced back home to our empty house. When we explained that the kids had been on their way to church, the bemused police officer remarked, “I grew up in this neighborhood. We used to ride our bikes everywhere when we were kids!” Thankfully, Mrs. G and I avoided being arrested like these parents in Connecticut, who had the audacity to allow their kids (7 and 9) to walk to Dunky’s.

The Backseat Generation

Decades of planning, design, and development that prioritize cars over people have built an environment and a corresponding culture that stunts kids’ independence. In Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett highlight the work of Dr. Lia Karsten, professor of urban geography at the University of Amsterdam, who refers to many kids growing up as part of what she calls the “backseat generation.” The prioritization of cars in our neighborhood streets has led to a lack of places to play immediately outside of kids’ front doors. As a result, parents are more apt to shuttle their kids via car to playgrounds, programs, and other kid-safe places. According to the Bruntletts:

When this development is viewed from the perspective of the transport network, this means the ability to roam independently is replaced with supervised movement, often from the backseat of the family automobile. These additional trips, in combination with traffic being allowed to race through their neighborhood streets, have turned the places that children often frequent into metaphorical “islands.”

Here’s the pattern:

Our streets become less safe because cars —> parents drive their kids more places —> this increases car traffic in neighborhoods and makes streets less safe.

All of this adds up to many kids missing out on the independence that comes from being able to walk and bike around town on their own.

Breaking the…Cycle

Undoing years of misplaced priorities and bad design will take time, but I do see a lot of opportunities at the local level for places like the Haven to reclaim our streets for the people who live here. First and foremost, there needs to be a fundamental shift in how all of us—activists, citizens, voters, and local leaders—approach the challenge of street safety. This starts with the guiding principle that all of our neighborhood streets (any place people, bikes, dogs, etc. share space with cars) should be designed such that cars move at non-fatal speeds. By non-fatal speeds, I mean 20 mph or lower. Much above 20 and we see fatality rates from crashes (for drivers and pedestrians) increase by multiples.

Note that I want us to focus on design speed, not posted speed. Many of our neighborhood streets are already posted at 20 mph. Here’s Pleasant St., near where the Bike Bus embarks:

While the posted speed on this street is 20 mph, you’d be hard-pressed to clock any cars going much slower than 30 here. The design of the street induces faster speeds than the speed that’s posted. A few (amateur) observations about this street:

The street feels wide here, ironically due to the lack of parked cars on this stretch.
The street is unvaried and completely straight, inviting drivers to go into autopilot (aka “System 1” thinking)
The lack of street trees contributes to the feeling of having a forgiving clear zone. This is an unconscious cue that makes drivers more comfortable speeding.
Crosswalks before this spot and at the end of this block are faded, with pedestrians having to cross the full width of the street.
Stop signs at the end of each block induce drivers to accelerate after every intersection to regain speed.

Let’s say we wanted people to drive like their kids, or kids or humans lived here. Here are a few things we might try:

Create complexity! Anything that forces the driver out of System 1 will induce slower speeds.
Vary the pavement, using different materials (i.e., pavers, bricks) and paint in different places to signal crossings or to create more friction, making it uncomfortable to drive at fatal speeds.
Use trees, sidewalk bump-outs, or other barriers that force drivers to slow down and consciously negotiate.
Narrow the travel lanes for cars, possibly giving that additional space back to the sidewalk.
Raise crossings or at least paint crosswalks and intersections in ways that indicate that pedestrians take precedence.
Once speeds are effectively brought down through changes like the above, remove the stop signs (at least on this street, headed N-S).

One objection to these types of ideas might be that they’d make driving on this street more dangerous. But while it might make drivers at times feel like driving on the street is not as safe, effectively designing for slower speeds would likely reduce the risk of crashes while greatly reducing the risk that crashes would be fatal.

Another objection to these types of changes might be that they’d make driving down this street less enjoyable. It’s true that 20 mph, especially when you’re used to driving 30–40 in your neighborhood, can feel wicked slow. But often the frustration that we feel when we’re driving slowly has more to do with being forced to drive slower than the design speed of the road. I don’t feel pissed that I can’t drive 50 mph down the little side street I live on (not least because my kids and their stuff are usually taking up part of the street). Likewise, it’s often the experience of having to constantly stop and then accelerate that irritates us as drivers. Not convinced? Take a look at this neighborhood street in the town of Cuijk in the Netherlands:

I don’t think I’d feel frustrated having to drive 15 mph here! What’s more, I wouldn’t hesitate to let my kids (even when they were much younger) bike on their own down this street. Likewise, I’m pretty sure they still have plows and emergency vehicles in this town that manage to get where they need to go.

But Whattabout Da Knuckleheads?!

I can hear a couple of my no-nonsense-guy neighbors’ reactions to seeing this: “Look, that kinda street might work in Europe, but you need to realize, we gotta lotta knuckleheads here. Dem knuckleheads’ll blast through dehr n’ kill somebody.”

I think we overestimate the percentage of knuckleheads out there. A well-designed street like the one above encourages more people to be out in it and alongside it and puts more eyes on the street, further discouraging knucklheadery. After the design takes care of most people who might be induced to drive at fatal speeds, the few true psychopaths that do remain will stand out. That’s when enforcement, in the form of speed cameras, police giving tickets, etc., is an appropriate measure. See? I’m not opposed to posting speed limits and enforcing them! I just don’t think it’s useful (or fair) to do that until we’ve designed our streets for the speeds we want.

Furthermore, if more of our streets were designed effectively, then enforcement could be focused on the rare, true knuckleheads out there. Speed traps elsewhere in town could effectively deter the same speeder that might later race down your particular street. The design of many of our current streets, however, turns us all into knuckleheads when we drive. In current conditions, ticketing and enforcement risk being random at best and in some cases unfair, not to mention a waste of our officers’ time.

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’

I’m excited to explore further how we can make changes like these happen in our streets. I hope we can move the conversation away from, “We need to find the money for expensive signals and solar-powered speed signs,” toward, “How can we change the design of this street today to make it safer?” Hit me up if you want to test this kind of change from the ground up! Until next time, don’t be a knucklehead and for crying’ out loud, drive like people live here.

Silly Rabbit, Streets Are for Kids

Biking While Young

The Backseat Generation

Here’s the pattern:

Breaking the…Cycle

But Whattabout Da Knuckleheads?!

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’

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