2024-12-22T03:15:12-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150151278/is-it-time-to-embrace-the-slow-city Katherine Guimapang 2019-08-13T09:42:00-04:00 >2019-08-13T09:42:08-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/78/78f139a1b79da4ee7cb98778218df34a.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Imposing tighter limits on leadfoots is a key part of the Vision Zero campaign for reducing traffic deaths and injuries, because of the dramatic safety benefits associated with reducing vehicle velocity. Does this add up to evidence that fast-paced Americans are ready to embrace the virtues of city life in the slow lane?</p></em><br /><br /><p>How fast is too fast? Cities like New York, Portland, Boston, and Washington, D.C. are initiating ways to regulate <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/83422/traffic" target="_blank">traffic</a> speeds and install better signage to aid in <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/509560/pedestrian" target="_blank">pedestrian</a> and <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/493/bicycle" target="_blank">bicycle</a> safety. With the high number of reported traffic-related deaths and injuries only rising, cities are starting to realize that lowering urban speed limits doesn&rsquo;t only benefit non-drivers.&nbsp;</p> <p>In a recent <em>CityLab</em> article, writer Andrew Small provides detailed information communicating the benefits that reducing speed limits can have for non-drivers, drivers, and the built environment, alike. One detail Small points out is how "perhaps urbanists shouldn't demand slow lanes or slow neighborhoods: They should ask for a slow city."&nbsp;</p> <p>With the rise of fast-paced micro-mobility on our streets and sidewalks, and the promise of zippy autonomous vehicles transporting products and people supposedly in our the future, it can be hard to imagine how a slow city might be a possibly come to be. However, Small points...</p>