We’re using our streets all wrong | Hard Reset by Freethink

We’re using our streets all wrong | Ewa Westermark | Gehl Subscribe to Freethink on YouTube ►► Up next ►► Do buildings have to be permanent? | Hard Reset The rise of the private automobile in American life and culture has dramatically changed how cities were designed, John Frazer, a mobility futurist, wrote for Forbes. Emerging from World War II, automakers became economic powerhouses, employing workers who suddenly could afford their own cars — rumbling manifestations of the freedom of the American Dream. Cities were designed around that dream. Frazer quotes University of Houston historian Martin Melosi, who said that roughly half of the space in American cities has been given over to roads, parking lots, parking spots, gas stations, traffic signals, and other things pertaining to cars. And at the same time, space for other forms of transportation — like sidewalks — were squeezed out. Even the sidewalks themselves are designed to resist