Submitted by Ethan Kent, Feb 22, 2008 11:03

The point of cities and transportation and pedestrian planning is to facilitate getting people to places people want to be in, not just moving us around unencumbered. Skywalks simply detract life from the downtowns and destinations they are supposed to bring us to.

I recently threw together the below argument to justify stopping a pedestrian bridge in Buenos Aires from being built. I came by the partially constructed bridge with city officials and they literally told the construction crew to stop working. Extremely satisfying!

The Case Against Pedestrian Bridges

Separating pedestrian and automobile access is an old and failed model for downtown development. No longer should our streets and downtowns be designed out of fear of the automobile where the goal is to move traffic through as fast as possible and pedestrians are forced to the interiors of buildings or to overhead walkways.

Pedestrian bridges send a strong message that pedestrians are less important than cars and that they should be forced to go out of their way to accommodate the speed and capacity goals of roadways. When a pedestrian or driver even sees a pedestrian overpass they understand that an engaging safe and friendly pedestrian environment is not a priority.

Conversely, when a driver or pedestrian see people walking on sidewalks, it sends a strong message about the safety and comfort of that environment. They are more likely to get out of their car and/or feel comfortable walking further in and contributing further to downtown social, cultural and economic life. Independently, pedestrian bridges can sometimes be justified, but when looked at in the context of greater goals for downtown they represent a major step in the wrong direction.

When downtown, cars should go slow enough to accommodate and respect pedestrians and provide for a better experience for drivers and passengers. Likewise, the design of a roadways should adapt to the community and to much greater pedestrian activity. In this way, a downtown should benefit from having a street come into it and the street should be designed to support the downtown community.

When pedestrians and vehicles need to share a street, there is a necessary amount of pedestrian and vehicular friction. This friction is evident in the greatest downtowns in the world with the highest property values and highest use. It should in fact be an indicator of success if a downtown had more pedestrian and vehicular friction, as this would indicate that pedestrians and vehicles want to be downtown, not move through it and leave it as fast as possible.

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