Today, the trend in urban planning clearly is to pay more attention to pedestrian safety, pedestrian environments and a better balance between pedestrian and vehicular needs. Experts everywhere are speaking up and communities across the United States are improving streetscapes and pedestrian environments accordingly. Concurrently, more and more neighborhood groups are trying to convince their cities to protect historic and/or residential neighborhoods from rush-hour commuter through-traffic.

“ The tendency of many communities to equate wider streets with better streets and to
design traffic and parking lanes for free-flow traffic is a highly questionable practice.”
                                                                                    Walter M. Kulash

“ Too often, public sidewalks get short shrift, being dismissed as unnecessary or too costly.
This is a symptom of attitudes and priorities that show clearly that the constituency
remains feeble, compared with the constituency for cars.”
                                                                                    Roger K. Lewis

“ No studies or surveys are needed to show that the absence or inadequacy of sidewalks
poses a safety hazard for pedestrians, especially children. No new research is required to prove that a lack of sidewalks discourages walking and encourages unnecessary automobile travel, energy consumption and pollution.”
                                                                                    Roger K. Lewis

“ The National Cooperative Highway Research Program, which dictates policy on the evaluations of the nation’s street networks has been encouraging creative thinking to obtain a better balance of the use of our public rights-of-way.”
                                                                                    Louis Slade
                                                                                    Vice-President, Gorove/Slade Assoc.

“ Many cities are putting their streets ‘on a diet’…to improve the ability of their commercial districts to compete with suburban shopping malls.”
                                                                                    Louis Slade

“ I understand that in cities where the pedestrian environment has been improved…sales have been significantly increased and the increases in sales and property tax revenues easily justifies the cost of the capital improvements.”
                                                                                    Louis Slade
“ [If we were to start fresh, would we] plan and develop our cities in accordance with the needs and wishes of the people who live in them or for the convenience of the vehicles who pass through them?”
                                                                                    Anonymous Tammany Hall leader

“ Since at least the end of WWII…an oversimplified chronology would read something like this: the car helps to create sprawl; sprawl siphons people and political power away from the hearts of cities; the car returns to attack the city, which was never designed to accommodate so many; the city is forced to transform itself, ceding sidewalks to streets, trolley tracks to traffic lanes, parks to parking lots, whole neighborhoods to expressways.”
                                                                                    Randy Kennedy

“ Sidewalk width, curbs, corner curb radii, lane width, on-street parking, trees and lighting should encourage pedestrians’ confident movement. On ‘Main Street’, sidewalks around 14 feet typically work best.”
                                                                                    Victor Dover

“ Street trees usually are an essential building block to create such an environment. They provide shade for pedestrians and building, further establish the scale and rhythm of the street and contribute to slower more careful driving by making the street feel narrower.”
                                                                                    Victor Dover

“ The planting and maintaining of trees should be as integral a part of city planning as discussions about buildings, streets and sidewalks.”
                                                                                    Gary Moll
                                                                                    Vice-President, American Forests

“ Moreover, for many people trees are the most important single characteristic of a good street.”
                                                                                    Allan B. Jacobs

“ Street trees are a high-priority item on which to spend funds that could have a major environmental impact… Done well and maintained well, street trees are grand.”
                                                                                    Allan B. Jacobs

“ Trees provide a return on the investment because trees improve air quality, reduce energy costs and storm water run-off, increase property values and enhance the streetscape.”
                                                                                    Barbara Deutsch
                                                                                    Project Manager, Garden Club of
                                                                                    America Casey Trees Endowment Fund

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