Street Closures Research Articles

The economic valuation of train horn noise: A US case study

This paper provides a property value-based estimate of the dollar cost of train horn noise in a residential neighborhood in a small town, Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania, US. Residential property values are found to decrease by about $4800, or 4.1%, per 10 db of added noise exposure, for an aggregate total of $4,088,799 in 2004 dollars. The primary study was supplemented with information from a neighborhood survey. Dollar value estimates of train horn costs could prove useful in facilitating balanced benefit-cost analyses of horn noise abatement policies such as quiet zones, wayside horns, underpasses, or street closures.

Area-wide urban traffic calming schemes: a meta-analysis of safety effects

This paper presents a meta-analysis of 33 studies that have evaluated the effects on road safety of area-wide urban traffic calming schemes. Area-wide urban traffic calming schemes are typically implemented in residential areas in towns in order to reduce the environmental and safety problems caused by road traffic. A hierarchical road system is established and through traffic is removed from residential streets by means of, for example, street closures or one-way systems. Speed reducing devices are often installed in residential streets. Main roads are improved in order to carry a larger traffic volume without additional delays or more accidents. The meta-analysis shows that area-wide urban traffic calming schemes on the average reduce the number of injury accidents by about 15%. The largest reduction in the number of accidents is found for residential streets (about 25%), a somewhat smaller reduction is found for main roads (about 10%). Similar reductions are found in the number of property damage only accidents. The results of evaluation studies are robust with respect to study design. There is no evidence of publication bias in evaluation studies. Study findings are found to have high external validity.

Japanese national policy towards the automobile

This paper discusses Japanese policies to minimize the social costs of car use. The government has not been against the use of cars, but the cumulative effect of policies has been to discourage it. The background to policy is described: Japan's historical lack of roads for wheeled vehicles and the notion that private use of cars is luxurious and wasteful. Despite rapid motorization, vestiges of Japan's lack of experience with wheeled vehicles and the hesitancy of the Japanese to use the car like their American counterparts have created a particular attitude to it. In developing policies to reduce the social costs of car use, Japan has produced regulations over the years which affect the use and types of vehicles. Driver's licence tests are difficult and the prerequisite driving practice is expensive. These regulations present obstacles to potential users as well as improving safety standards. The vehicle inspection system also helps control the social cost of cars. Japan requires biennial inspection of private cars. The costs of this and standardization of testing have increased the cost of car ownership as well as ensuring proper safety and emission standards. Inspection discourages owners from holding onto vehicles for long periods, thus addressing the issues of safety, environment and energy by promoting newer, cleaner and more efficient vehicles. Taxation may also affect levels of use. Lower taxes for light vehicles may be one explanation of their popularity in Japan. In a country where space is at a premium, parking and garage regulations have been effective in controlling motor vehicle use. The availability and cost of parking in Japan is discussed, together with employee parking policies which provide a glimpse of the use of regulations to control commuter behaviour. However, to conclude that Japanese national policy simply has sought to limit car use would be incorrect. The popularity of cars has grown despite governmental policies and convenient public transport. What is commendable about national policy is that when policies to discourage use have not had the desired effect, complementary efforts have been made to resolve the problems. Traffic cells, street closures and pedestrian precincts in new suburban malls are examples of how Japanese society is seeking to live with the motor vehicle. (Author/TRRL)

Rural islam and change: Case study: Cholistan

This paper investigates how public space can leverage disruptive changes in urban environments which compel sustainable urban transformation. We draw on three recent cases in New York City (Times Square in Manhattan, Jackson Heights in Queens and 596 Acres in Brooklyn), where activation of public space radically changed the function and identify of apparently stable urban systems by giving rise to nascent ‘urban commons’. As healthy commons are indicative of cultural and institutional practices aligned with sustainability, we examine how innovative social and institutional practices can form in urban environments, and compel more sustainable ways of living. Drawing on resilience theory as a framework, our analysis focuses on the contextual conditions and mechanisms that enabled new public spaces to form; the processes by which ‘commons practices’ developed; and the way these urban commons influence urban systems more widely. We find that rigid urban systems can be ‘loosened’ by iteratively prototyping urban interventions (such as temporary street closures). These actions create fertile, low-risk, experimental conditions in which stakeholders can cultivate and consolidate shared resources and custodial commons practices. The formation of these ‘communities of practice’ is essential for the advocacy and protection of new commons as they begin to scale and challenge dominant urban system configurations. We conclude by describing how urban commons must scale vertically and horizontally within wider urban systems to support transformation towards sustainability. Upon identifying a range of challenges to this process, we suggest that the distributed replication of small public space interventions may offer the most pragmatic path towards promoting and normalising commons practices, as it can seed a groundswell of grassroots social innovation. In turn, these activities may lay the cultural foundations for traditional institutional stakeholders and urban authorities to play a more progressive and enabling role in urban transformation.

Neighborhood Traffic Controls

The issues associated with traffic control in residential neighborhoods are examined. Reasons for the increase in activity in implementing neighborhood traffic control measures are presented. The principal areas of citizen concern -- the level of traffic volumes on local streets, high vehicle speeds, and parking shortages -- are described. Techniques and implementation strategies that have been applied by traffic engineers include access prohibition using regulatory signing, the use of physical barriers, (street closures, diagonal diverters, street narrowings, traffic circles, and turn control using channelization), and residential parking permit programs. The importance of establishing procedures that can be utilized by the traffic engineer to develop a process for dealing with citizen's requests is examined. Language: en

NSW street closures

NSW street closures

Carbon monoxide in the urban atmosphere: hazards to the pedestrian and the street-worker.

The carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations encountered by pedestrians and workers in the streets of a large metropolis were monitored by a reliable and sensitive portable detector (the Ecolyzer). Up to 1,000 observations per day were collected for several months during the summer and fall of 1973. The CO levels ranged from 10 to 50 ppm (varying with wind speed and direction, atmospheric stability, traffic density, and the height of nearby buildings). Much higher average concentrations were found in such adverse sites as poorly ventilated underpasses and underground garages. Street closures for a pedestrian mall reduced levels on the mall to around the general urban background withoug large increases in readings on adjoining streets. Many street-workers have little medical supervision, and for this reason the urban eight-hour CO ceilings may be a more appropriate air quality target than the usual industrial figure of 50 ppm. However, even the latter is sometimes exceeded on busy city streets.