Streets
The pavement is infrastructure, and it is measured badly
Footways carry more trips than any other mode in most cities and receive a fraction of the assessment.
Amara Nwosu
Transit writer, Street to Sky
Amara writes about transit networks, frequency and the unglamorous business of headways.
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21 articles
Climate & Cities
Cities were drained, and now they are being un-drained
A century of piping water away as fast as possible turned out to be the wrong strategy. Reversing it is slow.
Streets
Street geometry sets driving speed and the sign only asks
Drivers choose a speed from what the road looks like. The posted number is a legal statement about a decision already made by the…
Streets
Signal timing rations the day and pedestrians get the remainder
Every second of green given to one movement is taken from another. The arithmetic of that split is rarely published and almost…
Streets
Connectivity, not distance, decides whether people walk
Two homes the same crow-fly distance from a shop can face walks that differ by a factor of three. The difference is network shape.
Streets
Winter maintenance shows what a city thinks its network is
Gritting routes are published documents that reveal, street by street, which parts of the city are considered essential and which…
Streets
Road noise comes mostly from tyres and electric cars will not fix it
Above walking-pace speeds the dominant sound is rubber on aggregate. Removing the engine removes the smaller part of the problem.
Climate & Cities
Street trees die of compacted soil, not of thirst
A tree planted into a hole surrounded by structural roadbase is planted into a container. Most urban tree failures are decided…
Climate & Cities
The buildings that matter in 2050 are already standing
New construction is a small annual addition to a stock that turns over slowly. Emissions from buildings are a retrofit problem.
Climate & Cities
Insulating a building can make it overheat
Fabric improvements were designed to keep heat in. In a warming climate they also keep it in during the summer.
Climate & Cities
Air pollution is a kerbside phenomenon measured city-wide
Concentrations fall away sharply within metres of a busy road, which means where you stand matters as much as which city you are in.
Climate & Cities
Cool surfaces work and they come with a glare problem
Reflective pavements lower surface temperature by sending radiation back. Some of it goes back into the faces of people walking…
Climate & Cities
District heat networks are a street works problem in disguise
The technology is well understood and the pipes have to go somewhere, and that somewhere is under streets already full of…
Climate & Cities
A heat plan is about finding people, not cooling buildings
Heat deaths concentrate among people who are isolated, immobile and indoors. The response is a contact list before it is a…
Climate & Cities
Clay soils shrink and cities crack along the tree line
Subsidence damage in dry summers is a soil moisture story, and the arguments about it usually end up being arguments about trees.
Streets
A crossing that takes too long teaches people to cross elsewhere
Waiting time at a signal is a number somebody chose. Pedestrians respond to it much as drivers respond to a light that never…
Streets
Pavement clutter arrives one department at a time
No single decision fills a footway with poles, cabinets and bollards. Each item was approved separately by people who never met.
Streets
Shared space removes the kerb and moves the negotiation to eye contact
A level surface promises a street where everyone gives way. That promise depends on who can make eye contact and who cannot.
Streets
Guardrail was installed to protect pedestrians and now herds them
Metal railing along a kerb was a safety measure with a clear rationale. Cities have spent years discovering what else it does.
Streets
Gradient decides who can use a street, and maps rarely show it
A route that looks direct on a plan can be unusable if it climbs. Slope is the accessibility variable that almost no navigation…
Climate & Cities
Shade is a public health measure with a maintenance bill
Getting out of the sun is the most effective thing a hot city can offer on a street. Providing it reliably is harder than it sounds.