‘Better Block’ slows down Oak Street for a more pleasant urban experience

For the last several years, I have helped lead the volunteer-based tactical urban design group Better Block KC. We have temporarily transformed different streets and intersections to show how they may be better utilized and safer for all. These transformations are done with extremely small budgets, a handful of volunteers and several hours’ time.

They allow the community to instantly experience new street designs, providing for experimentation and adaptation that cannot be found with most infrastructure projects. To date, we’ve temporarily transformed Grand Boulevard, Main Street, Broadway Boulevard, 18th Street, Troost Avenue — and now Oak Street.

On Sept. 30, we installed the nation’s first ever “mobility lane” along southbound Oak Street between 17th and 19th Streets. This lane, designated for use of bicycles, scooters, rollerbladers and skateboarders, not only provides a safe place for those modes of transportation, but it also protects pedestrians and motorists.

The intersection of 18th and Oak Streets has been plagued by high-speed car crashes, including a building and a bike share station that were badly damaged by speeding automobiles. Earlier this year, this stretch was restriped with the hopes of calming traffic. Unfortunately, numerous car wrecks continued.

This temporary demonstration, which will last until Oct. 27, has been praised around the U.S. and has even garnered positive attention in Europe. But I know it hasn’t gone without criticism (though almost all the complaints I’ve heard have come from out-of-town commuters).

While traffic flows beautifully at our demonstration for 23 hours a day, we are observing some “stacking” during the morning and afternoon rushes. During the evening of Oct. 5’s First Friday, a backup extended for almost two full blocks, which caused commuters to spend about two minutes in traffic between Truman Road and 19th Street. This was during one of the busiest times we’ll ever see — but all the while, it provided a safer experience for pedestrians, bicycles, scooter riders and motorists during one of most dangerous times of day.

Isn’t asking commuters to spend an additional two minutes in our city worth providing 24/7 safety for all users — including motorists?

Over the last several decades, traffic engineers have designed our cities to allow for the quickest and highest amount of automobile travel. However, cities were not always built around minimizing commute times. In fact, for thousands of years cities were built at a human scale to be easily traversed by foot. Only in the last 60 years have we wrecked entire neighborhoods and torn down glorious historic buildings to prioritize the automobile over all other forms of transportation. While this initially provided a great amount of freedom and ease, this hegemony of automobile infrastructure has led to exorbitant levels of congestion and pollution, unprecedented levels of obesity and heart disease, and tragic levels of depression and social isolation.

The cost? Slower traffic speeds.