On Sunday, April 22, Earth Day, I went to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, to hear a talk by Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives (TA) in New York City. Young, charismatic, and energetic, White is a national leader on issues related to getting us out of our cars and using transit, bikes, and our own feet.

His talk was titled “Reclaiming Urban Public Space to Lessen Environmental Impacts and Maximize Human Happiness.” He began by discussing the environmental advantages of densely populated urban environments, then declaring his interest in our streets, “the spaces between our buildings.” Only recently have streets been given over to cars, he said. 

White referred repeatedly to two of his heroes, Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, and Jan Gehl, a Danish architect and urban designer credited with making Copenhagen one of the most pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly cities on the planet. Both Penalosa and Gehl have done much to make cities less dependent on automobiles, White said. White shared these quotes from Gehl:

“We make the city and the city makes us.”

“If you plan for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and space, you get people and space.”

White also praised Donald C. Shoup’s book, The High Cost of Free Parking.

White spoke about many of the activities that TA is undertaking to “reprogram street space” in New York. These include everything from petition drives and protests to academic studies. The group was started in 1973, White said, has 5,500 members, hundred of volunteers, and a $1.4 million budget.

He said that he is often asked, “Why are you so anti-car?” He claims TA is “anti-traffic.” The more traffic you have, the more accidents you have, he said, and the lower the quality of life. Three hundred people die on New York City streets every year, he said, and 10,000 are injured. TA has also done a study, “Traffic’s Human Toll,” showing that people who live on streets with light vehicular traffic are happier than those who live on high-traffic streets.

White was excited about the announcement by the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, that the city plans to implement “congestion pricing” - charging cars $8 to enter parts of Manhattan. White said a similar policy had been successful in London.

Regarding cycling, White said that TA is against laws requiring cyclists to wear helmets, since such laws reduce cycling rates. He also said that when more people cycle, accident rates go down - what he called the “safety in numbers” effect. Cycling can also make transit much more accessible for people.

Coincidentally, White is the son-in-law of Dan Bergeson and Tripp Ryder of Northfield, Minnesota. I was surprised to see Dan at the talk and to learn of his relation to White. There’s talk about having White speak in Northfield some time.

After White’s talk, there was a panel discussion featuring Twin Cities cycling advocates, including Steve Clark of Transit for Livable Communities and Russ Stark of the Midway Transportation Management Organization. Clark spoke about the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program in Minneapolis and Stark about St. Paul’s 10-year bicycle transportation plan. Stark said that he’d like to see the Midtown Greenway, currently only in Minneapolis, go into St. Paul. He also spoke about his group’s efforts to create a better bike trailer - one that could convert from trailer to shopping cart and back again.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Biking/Walking, Environment and Ecology, Urban Design.