Monday, July 20, 2009

Report: Reclaiming city streets for people

European Commission, Directorate-General for the Environment

One of the key issues affecting the quality of the environment and the
quality of life in our towns and cities is road traffic. Heavy motor traffic
means poor air quality, unacceptable levels of noise and a weakened sense
of neighbourhood and local community. Traffic also gives rise to high costs
for the economy through delays caused by congestion.

There are many traffic management techniques and approaches and any
given city will probably need to develop a package of measures to manage
traffic effectively. This new handbook sets out some case studies where road
space has been reallocated for other uses. New, attractive and popular public
areas can be created on sites that were once blocked by regular traffic jams.
If these are properly planned, they need not result in road traffic chaos,
contrary to what might be expected.

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