Sunset Highland Neighborhood

Could this be about Pinellas County as well?

Feb 17, 2008

Urbanist: County is too car-friendly


PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 12/07/07

MARINELAND -- Widening roads and developing more parking spaces are not solutions to traffic congestion they're the problem.
Urban designer Dom Nozzi of Richmond, Va., said this week that when conditions become more favorable to cars, they become less favorable to people, wildlife, bicycles, rapid transit, pedestrians and the environment.
"Cars come before the environment in a car-based society," he said. "I want to see cars behave themselves and not dominate our world."
In a talk Wednesday to about 100 people at the South Anastasia Community Association meeting at Whitney Lab, Nozzi said that between the years 1980 and 2000, the population of St. Johns County increased by 140 percent to 123,135. However, during that same period, the number of vehicles jumped by 323 percent, numbering 161,550 at present.
"Cars now outnumber people in St. Johns County," he said.
Nozzi displayed photographs of European cities that feature walkable streets, architecturally beautiful buildings close to the road, apartments over stores, trees along sidewalks, people shopping and families walking,
In contrast, photographs of a few American cities showed giant parking lots downtown, boxy buildings set far back from the road, zero trees, no one outside and streets that would be uncrossable by pedestrians.
"The public realm in America is probably the worst in the developed world," Nozzi said. "Americans are leaving the public realm to watch television and lead vicarious lives."
District 2 County Commissioner Ron Sanchez, one of the attendees, said he enjoyed Nozzi's presentation but doubted that it applied to the reality of St. Johns County.
"You've got to make roads," Sanchez said. "Do we want development to come in and then try to build the infrastructure? Or do we want to build the infrastructure first?"
Nozzi earned a degree in environmental science from State University of New York at Plattsburg and a master's in planning from Florida State University. He was senior planner for Gainesville since 1986 and has written two books, "The Road to Ruin: An Introduction to Sprawl and How to Cure It," and "The Car is the Enemy of the City," which will be released next year.
He believes cities should be "festive, vibrant, sociable places" and claims that widening roads actually increases traffic, not decreases it. That's because the wider road attracts motorists already using alternative routes to avoid congestion, and because people using buses or bicycles would switch back to driving a car to work if they thought the road is less congested. Narrower roads slows them down.
"You cannot build your way out of congestion," he said. "A lot of cities are saying, 'Let's move away from a car-happy imperative.' Atlanta is talking about building 23 lanes (on Interstate 75). That kind of thinking just creates a larger residential market and more sprawl."
Nozzi advises county residents to elect people with courage and vision.
"We have a lot to correct. Congestion is our friend. Transportation is destiny," he said.