DANGEROUS BY DESIGN

PROTECTING UTILIITES FROM CARS TAKES PRIORITY

OVER PROTECTING HUMANS FROM BEING RUN OVER

This is the “I know I’m doing a bad thing” approach to sidewalk design.

Government plants streetlights on sidewalk.

So vulnerable pedestrians are shoved closer to dangerous Miami traffic.

Location is Coral Way, a designated scenic (but apparently unsafe for pedestrians) corridor. 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

REALTORS® understand the importance of Universal Design.

In Illinois, the Heartland REALTOR® Organization used a $15,000 housing opportunity grant from the NAR and partnered with the city of Woodstock, Ill., the Woodstock Community Unit School District 200 and Illinois REALTORS® to build a prototype model home.

It will incorporate Universal Design elements that will be used as a national model to educate communities about building with “Universal Design from the ground up.”

Upon completion, tours of the home’s features will be promoted to the public.

The prototype is being used to ignite interest in new inventory for homes that are designed to allow aging in place.

The project has drawn interest from AARP and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

More aggressive policing of blocked sidewalks and bike lanes is a simple policy change.

Calming traffic can be achieved with restriping and simple redesign. Visitability simply requires a change in code.

Paying for retrofitting housing for accessibility can be folded into standard economic development incentives that virtually all cities offer.

Transit training can be refocused to ensure drivers are serving disabled passengers safely.

Adding elevators to century-old transit systems is expensive, but there are billions in federal dollars available for this.

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

In less dense cities, the problem often is a lack of accessible/protected-from-the-elements bus stops.

And if a bus driver is not well trained in deploying lifts or in safely using tie downs for those in assistive mobility devices, the benefits of rapid transit are destroyed for the 80 million people with a disability in the United States.

Without transit, multiple generations cannot connect to exchange ideas, gather healthy food, keep fit or break the boundaries of isolation.

Simply taking away benches along streets, in an ill-intended attempt to reduce use by homeless people, can prevent an elderly person from staying healthy by walking a half dozen blocks to the library, grocery store or neighborhood shop.

People cannot age in place if their housing, sidewalks, transit, parks and civic buildings exclude them.

Children cannot safely move about the community independently if sidewalks are blocked by parked cars, bike lanes are blocked by delivery trucks and streets are too dangerous to cross because of speeding traffic.

 

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

Transit must be frequent and accessible.

Author Anna Zivarts’ research has proven that up to one-third of people do not drive.

When Driving Is Not an Option -- Steering Away from Car Dependency is the Island Press book by Zivarts.

Transit can provide mobility for people too young to drive, too old to drive, unable to drive or unable to afford a car.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of older subway stations in New York and elevated trains in Chicago do not have elevators for access.

This makes essential transit off limits not only to wheelchair users, but those who cannot walk tons of steps because of respiratory or pulmonary issues, bad joints or even young children who can’t negotiate stairs.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

When it comes to housing, less than one percent of it is move-in ready for a wheelchair user—and most of that is in multifamily buildings.

Eleanor Smith created Visitability, a concept for accessible housing and for creating a community where people with disabilities can visit their neighbors, a huge factor in creating a cohesive multigenerational neighborhood.

It simply requires a level entrance, accessible bathroom on the first floor and space to maneuver around a kitchen.
It still allows all kinds of unique details and multistory, single-family homes.

Cities that have enacted Visitability have NOT seen a decrease in housing development despite pushback from builders.

Creating accessibility in multifamily buildings can begin with an entrance not obstructed by bikes or scooters, a large elevator and a roll-in/walk-in shower instead of a tub.

Most hip hotel chains aimed at savvy young business travelers have walk-in showers instead of tubs.

This means Universal Design can equal high design, NOT dreary old hospital architecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

The late architect, planner and leader Ron Mace created Universal Design as an approach to places and products that make life easier and more inclusive to everybody.

While Mace used a wheelchair for mobility, he very intentionally did NOT call his creation disability design or wheelchair access design.

That’s because a barrier-free built environment works for everybody.

Wide sidewalks with no speed limit signs or utility poles plopped down in the center of them serve everybody of every age.

A street with curb ramps and level entrances to buildings makes life inclusive for people with mobility disabilities but it also makes life easy for those pushing strollers.

A crossing time longer than the standard 30 seconds—to make it safely past four or six lanes of traffic—saves the life of a child who hesitates or bolts away from mom as much as it provides more protection for a wheelchair user rolling to work.

Some cities are raising crosswalks, so they are level with the sidewalk on both sides of the street.

This not only makes it easier for the one in four people that have some level of disability, but it also forces speeding cars to slow down and obey a stop sign or red light.

WHEN CITIES VALUE VEHICLES AND PARKING MORE THAN HUMANS

DANGEROUS, NEAR MISS, WOULD BE TRAGEDIES HAPPEN DAILY

I saw a person who uses a wheelchair for mobility almost hit by a car because this oversized truck blocked the sidewalk.

The illegally blocked sidewalk forced everyone to go out into the dangerous street to finish their journey.

This is at 1619 Pennsylvania Avenue, footsteps from Lincoln Road pedestrian mall.

The City of Miami Beach must ticket and tow vehicles that block pedestrian access.

I WILL BE BURYING MY WIFE IF WE DON'T STEP UP ENFORCEMENT

 ON CARS ILLEGALLY PARKED ON THE SIDEWALK AND ON CURB RAMPS

We live in the very urban part of Miami known at Little Havana.

But our problem is relevant to anyplace where police tolerate cars illegally parked over sidewalks and curb ramps.

You see, in almost all of America, we still value cars 10 to 1 (maybe 100 to 1) over human lives.

A person would never park for the night out in a moving travel lane, because they know they would be ticketed and towed.

Cities care about cars being able to speed down the pavement – even in residential neighborhoods – unobstructed by cars parked in the way of the through lane.

But when those cars park over the sidewalk – forcing wheelchair users, children on bikes, elderly folks, moms with strollers and others out into the speeding traffic…nobody cares.

So long as the parked car isn’t blocking traffic, all is well and good. No one cares that an extremely vulnerable (because they are sitting at a low height that drivers do not see) wheelchair user is likely to get killed in traffic, because there safe path of travel on the sidewalk is blocked dozens of times in just a few blocks.

I have reached out to elected officials. They tell me if they start ticketing, people will be in an uproar. If they have cars towed, they will lose votes. Great to know that keeping the voters happy rates far and above my wife’s quality of life…and the very real possibility of her losing her life.

Cops are cowboys and thrill seekers. They join the force because they want to capture bad guys. They cannot be bothered to do their job (one they can retire from with full pension and benefits at age 50) and place warnings, then tickets, then order towing if cars blocking curb ramps and sidewalks.

Once, I posted a rant on the NextDoor social media platform. A caring police commander offered to meet with me over coffee at my house.  He really seemed to care. I think, for a few days after, there may have been fewer cars violating the safe sidewalk space.

But now, I think we’re two area commanders removed from that reassigned police official. And things are worse than ever.

And the illegal parking activity – which forces my wife to back track, find a driveway graded well enough that she doesn’t fall out of her wheelchair using it, go out into traffic (where the average selfish brute drives 50 mph in a 30 zone) whizzing from behind her, then slow down and hunt for another not-too-steep driveway to return to the sidewalk. Only to repeat this dozens of times on the way to the bus stop just blocks from our 1922 home.

If she is lucky, she is late for the bus, or drenched in rain, because she had to take so much extra time because the safe sidewalk is violated with offending cars. The day she is unlucky, I will lose my partner of more than three decades…my reason for living…my love…my soulmate…just so some jackasses can have their extra parking space.

In some cases, it’s just laziness. There is a woman who lives very near us and has a deep driveway and only 1 car. But she has a fence around her yard and evidently parking on the sidewalk is more convenient then hopping out of her car to open and shut the rolling gate on her fence at her driveway.

In most cases, the illegal parking is created because of other illegal activity. People have, without building permits or zoning clearance, illegally converted their garage and half their driveway into a spare bedroom or family room. They have 3 to 4 unrelated adults in a small house, so one car blocks the sidewalk, another parks over a curb ramp and two are in the driveway where they belong.

So the city’s blessing their illegal activity puts my wife in harm’s way. Seems like the priorities are correct, right?  BS.

Oh, and often time’s it’s even worse. People convert garages and build illegal additions to create illegal rental units. With faulty electricity, plumbing and construction – that could injure or kill a tenant, they make income enough to buy a boat. The City of Miami endorses this illegal activity by never cracking down on all the cars parked on sidewalks – because a little single family house now has as many (illegal) units at an 8 unit apartment building and no on-site parking.

If the City of Miami, if my neighbors in Little Havana, if society as a whole gave a rats ass about human beings and equal for mobility for all – people would be scared to death to illegally park in ways that block sidewalk and curb ramps. But my city, neighborhood and society do not care. 

A fender blocks a lane of morning rush hour, the cars are towed out of the way in no time, so the all mighty automobile can gain its rightful place among three lanes of break neck one way traffic into downtown. 

But expect a growing City, one that takes pride in its diversity, to give a crap about safe paths of travel for all pedestrians, especially those using wheelchair who cannot roll up into a yard to get passed a park car – forget it.  Not my job, not my priority, not in my nature to have enough guts to hack off a few potential voters, even if it means doing the right thing.

It is, nothing short of disgusting.

In Miami, Cuban Culture, No Passport Required

The New York Times Loves Calle8 -- Can we please redesign it for pedestrian safety.

By COLLEEN CREAMER 

APRIL 7, 2016

An excerpt: 

As night approached so did the lure of Little Havana’s night life. Ball & Chain, I discovered, is a gorgeous, lush modern stab at a classic Cuban nightclub with napkin-over-forearm service.

The mojitos here are a near-perfect blend of rum, lime, club soda, fresh mint and sugar, and the tapas are flavorful and Cuban inspired.

During the 1950s, the club brought in headliners like Billie Holiday, Count Basie and Chet Baker.

It closed in 1957, and reopened in 2014 to rave reviews.

That night, the bar was packed with millennials, the back of the club having transformed into a tropically decorated open-air patio, and the Pineapple Stage animated with Latin jazz.

Full story -- click here

THE PEOPLE DESERVE A SAFE CALLE OCHO

SOUTHWEST SEVENTH STREET ALSO MUST BE REDESIGNED FOR PEDESTRIANS

The Calle 8 corridor is an authentic destination.

It is not a series of traffic lights on a speedway for commuters.

Residents, merchants, artists, visitors of Little Havana should no longer have to leap out of the way of dangerous one-way highway-like traffic.

We deserve a Main Street/Complete Street.

It is unjust for the core city to subsidize sprawl with our main streets and neighborhoods scarred by "highway-ization."

We support Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez's MPO resolution at today's (Nov. 19) meeting.

It's the first step in a long process to return safety and humanity to SW 8 & SW 7th streets after a half decade of highway hijacking.

A recent FDOT safety study shows that at least one pedestrian dies in an automobile collision on SW 8th Street -- between SW 27 and Brickell avenues each year.

These are our mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, wife, husbands, neighbors, friends, doctors, barbers, pastors, vets.

We must calm traffic. Now.