Rethinking Intersections So They Can Become the Defining Gathering Places in Downtowns and Neighborhoods
Intersections can and should be special places in every community. By definition, they are where people's paths cross as they come from different directions, and because of that, they are places where chance encounters and serendipitous meetings can happen. They represent a part of the street where we can see down side streets and thus deeper into surrounding neighborhoods, allowing us to explore the city more in depth. They are the spots where people must wait in order to cross to the other side of the street, pausing their trek for a few seconds or minutes of reflection.
All of these features make intersections important parts of the urban landscape that require special treatment in order to live up to their full potential. If they do, they can become vibrant hubs of social and commercial life. Indeed, in many places they already are. In cities like Paris and Barcelona, intersections are prime real estate for the best restaurants, shops, and cafés and are some of the liveliest spots to hang out at.
Two vibrant corners in Paris
Back to the Future
The place where key roads meet used to be considered the heart of every town. Now, these places are more often than not just noisy, soulless intersections that people try to get away from as fast as possible. With the destruction of town cores in the service of vehicle throughput, community life has dramatically suffered.
Camden, Maine and Woodstock, Vermont
To reverse the dominance of car culture in our cities, we need to go "back to the future" by moving our focus away from designing for cars and toward designing for people again. This can be achieved by widening sidewalks and narrowing car lanes, slowing car speeds, and activating corners through interesting and attractive destinations that draw in pedestrians. In this way, we can take back intersections from traffic and return them to communities.
Doing so will also fundamentally change the way transportation fits into our communities. Intersections have the ability to define the communities around them. If they prioritize traffic throughput, that reflects on the surrounding area, reducing community and social activity because the presence of cars – with its associated sounds, risks, and smells – pushes people away. On the other hand, intentionally making the intersection a place where people want to spend time repositions it as a gathering place that has the ability to reconnect neighborhoods and reclaim our communities, creating revitalized neighborhoods and downtowns.
“To” Not Through – The Potential for Intersections to Become Destinations
Starting in the 1920's, every community has been subjected to a car-centric transportation agenda that has destroyed neighborhoods and decimated downtowns. As car companies and lobbies gained power, they systematically stripped away social and historic community values to make more space for vehicles, exercising more ownership and control over how people used their communities.
By making "improvements" to streets and intersections over time which usually just meant expanding them, they ended up creating what we call "Killer Intersections" – oversized, dangerous intersections which are so hostile they kill social and commercial life in their vicinity, not to mention introducing danger to the area, creating a wasteland where once there was a destination.
NYC and Delray Beach
The opposite of a Killer Intersection is what we call a Shared Space Intersection, or a "Social Intersection." That is is how we describe an intersection where everyone, from pedestrians to cyclists, feels welcome, safe, happy, and at ease. Social Intersections that incorporate shared space are intersections intentionally designed to attract social life and activity through outside seating, destinations like cafés at the corners, reduced traffic speed through the intersection, etc.
With a predominance of car centrism, we would put the ratio of good to bad intersections at one to a hundred.
Transforming Killer Intersections Into Social Intersections
Corners are where pedestrian and business activity takes place, whereas intersections are where cars and people must interact. We spend time on the corners before or after we cross the street, but the intersection is the part we have to traverse to get to the other side and continue our journeys. It is where we cross paths with vehicles and traffic. As such, it is important that these places are designed to be safe and put us at ease, creating as little disruption to our experience of exploring the city as possible.
Paris and Delray Beach
Buenos Aires
On most intersections in modern cities, people have to constantly have their guard up. They are usually quiet and tense as they wait for a safe moment to cross. At a busy or chaotic intersection, people grip tightly the shoulders of their children or clutch their baby carriages, closely monitoring the cars zooming by.
On the other hand, when you see people chatting, looking at each other, and laughing before crossing the street, it indicates that the intersection is a relaxed and safe place where they feel they can let their guard down. This is the kind of intersection that is suited to cities full of people on foot.
When people don't even feel the need to look around while walking into the street, it means they feel they are in no danger. That is the kind of environment we want to foster at intersections in populated areas. Wherever there are many people, as in the center of cities/towns in commercial districts, streets should be designed to keep them safe. Fast moving cars have no place there.
Three "People-Friendly" Intersections
There are few intersections in modern cities where people feel at ease. Usually, the ones that do have most or all of their corners activated with interesting or attractive destinations, transforming the intersection into something more like a public square with a unique and vibrant energy. This leads it to that intersection being recognized as "the" place to go in the neighborhood when people want to connect.
Three social intersections on three different continents have become vibrant public places that define their city and neighborhoods – in Paris, Buenos Aires, and Delray Beach – offering great examples of shared space that other cities can follow. Let's take a look.
1) In Delray Beach All Four Corners of the Intersection are Activated
This intersection in Delray Beach, Florida is one we often call our favorite. That's because it creates a unique environment of relaxation and social connection that we have rarely seen at other intersections. This is achieved by several key design features.
The streets here are quite narrow and the cars consequently drive slow, putting people at ease. Furthermore, all four corners are activated with various interesting uses like popular restaurants that have outdoor seating, street performers, and benches. This intersection does not feel like a daunting place dominated by cars, but rather like a place where you can relax, connect with the community, and enjoy yourself.
2) In Buenos Aires's Palermo Neighborhood, the Intersection is Like a Public Square
This intersection in Buenos Aires' Palermo neighborhood holds several lessons for how to make sure streets serve people on foot, not just motor vehicles. The most important insight to take away from this example is the value of expanding the sidewalk to stimulate more life on the corner, which also narrows the street and encourages motorists to drive more safely.
The extra sidewalk space allows impromptu socializing and cafes with outdoor seating to flourish. The corners of blocks are cut off, making the intersection look more rounded and giving it the feel of a public square. Entrances to buildings are right on the tip of the corner, opening onto both streets at the same time and thus activating all sides of the intersection simultaneously.
The absence of stoplights and signs at intersections also helps slow down traffic (as Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman recommended). This is because drivers shouldn't be relying on something external to tell them how to move; instead, they must pay extra attention to their surroundings. They must slow or come to a stop and process all the activity going on before carefully pulling into the intersection.
If you look closely, you can see that the curb is at the same level as the street, rather than being elevated. This makes the corners and the intersection blend into one, creating a shared space. This is further helped by the cobblestones which make the street feel like a pedestrian area.
Street corners in Buenos Aires' popular Palermo neighborhood foster a lively social life
The fact that cars, pedestrians, and cyclists all peacefully coexist and respect each other's presence at this intersection results in people feeling more comfortable and choosing to spend a prolonged time there. The intersection's design creates a environment that allows cafes and restaurants to stretch their seating further and further out. This makes the intersection feel like a public square, alive with conversation and laughter at all hours.
3) Paris' Rue de Buci is a Social Hotspot
This intersection on Rue de Buci provides ample space for people to spontaneously meet, socialize, and enjoy a memorable experience together. The roadway allows access to both pedestrians and vehicles, although few motorists drive here because the number of people strolling and the narrow width of the street slows them to a crawl. A colorful mix of shops, cafes, hotels and other businesses makes it a place that draws people in to explore and linger.
The corners here are often "double-loaded," meaning there are amenities on both sides of the pedestrian walkway, making it feel comfortably enclosed and increasing the amount of things to see and do.
At intersections like this that are calm and full of pedestrian activity, people feel comfortable engaging in social life. Since they are not focused on the movements of cars, they can focus on each other. It also helps when there are wide sidewalks as they increase the available room for seating, kiosks, and external shop displays that attract foot traffic and hanging out.
Food carts are a great way to implement double loading and extend the interesting offerings of the intersection even further out.
Rue de Buci is such a beloved street because it is dominated by activities and uses that encourage socializing, shopping, and perusing. Cars, while allowed through, are not frequent visitors there because the street is not designed to be comfortable for them. In their absence, shops and social areas have expanded and taken over the area, creating a thriving urban ecosystem that draws people in.
Making it Happen and Creating the Main Street of the Future
Every community needs great intersections that encourage and facilitate social and commercial life. And these kinds of pedestrian-friendly intersections can be created, even if they were originally car-centric. There are a variety of ways to change the design of an intersection so that it can facilitate social and business activity rather than just the passage of cars. Buenos Aires, Delray, and Paris demonstrate the effectiveness of such people-friendly design features and by applying them, they have managed to create intersections that are magnets for foot traffic and community life.
Vibrant intersections of this sort are the key building blocks to great streets, Main Streets, that become the backbone of communities. Piece by piece, intersection by intersection, we can recreate these vital public spaces that car culture took from us.
We believe that every community can and should aspire to attain great intersections. Here are some ways to do so:
- Wider sidewalks and corners so there is more space for social and business activity
- Corner businesses that stimulate social life like cafés and restaurants, especially ones with outdoor seating
- Corners that are shaved off or "chamfered" with the door of the building located there, allowing foot traffic to pour out onto both streets
- Curbs that are at the same level as the street rather than a few inches higher, which creates a sense of "shared space"
- "Double-loading," meaning that there are activations on both sides of the pedestrian walkway to engage passersby and get them hanging around
- No stoplights so that drivers are forced to slow down and pay attention to their surroundings more closely
- Narrow streets to encourage slower driving and fewer cars
Transforming intersections into squares can lead to towns and cities recovering from decade of value erosion caused by car dominance. These transformations can be the catalyst for "going back" to a future where community life thrives – a game changer in how we structure cities and urban life. The three communities in Delray Beach, Paris, and Buenos Aires show how it can be done and their example should be followed around the world.
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Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
Fred Kent
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