Snow-covered roads show us the way

The effect is meaningful, though, because every part of a street where snow accumulates is shown to be basically wasted space that could be better used for something else. That could be more sidewalk, or trees, or a bike lane, or seating at a sidewalk cafe. Whatever. We’ve given over so much of our public space to cars over the years, any excuse to take some back is worth trying.

Some people love winter, but it’s a safe bet no one likes snow cleanup.

It’s some consolation when we’re predicted to get up to a foot and the storm only produces a few inches, and we can all sympathize with Ryan Hanrahan and other forecasters that predicting winter storms is crazily hard. That forecasts are as good as they are feels something like a miracle.

There are some bright sides to a snowstorm’s aftermath, though. For instance, you can take note of how wide our streets are, how a better-designed streetscape might look and how much space we waste that could be better allocated.

Just pay attention to all the places cars actually drive. They don’t take up nearly all the space the road has to offer.

The key is to watch before the plows have cleared everything away. Look at where the tire tracks are, and notice how they don’t cover nearly as much ground as they’re given. Sometimes entire lanes will go unused in a storm’s aftermath, which could serve as an indication that the extra travel space isn’t all that necessary. Whether we go that far or not, it’s easy to see where changes could be made.

There’s a word for this sort of thing, though it’s sort of an unfortunate one. A “neckdown” is a term that describes extensions of a curb that cut the size of a road at an intersection, which makes it easier for pedestrians to cross the street and pushes cars to slow down. When that narrowing effect happens naturally in the aftermath of a snowstorm, it’s called a “sneckdown.” Maybe we can workshop something better.

The effect is meaningful, though, because every part of a street where snow accumulates is shown to be basically wasted space that could be better used for something else. That could be more sidewalk, or trees, or a bike lane, or seating at a sidewalk cafe. Whatever. We’ve given over so much of our public space to cars over the years, any excuse to take some back is worth trying.

It’s not a perfect experiment, for a few reasons. For one, people drive slower on snow-covered roads, which affects how much of the road they take up. But we might look at that as something worth encouraging. Road design is so focused on getting cars quickly through an area, even one that’s shared with other users, that it puts everyone at risk.

Like the majority of Connecticut residents, I drive most places. I don’t like slow traffic any more than anyone else. Driving through New Haven, for instance, with its constant slowdowns and crosswalks and all the rest, is no fun.

But it’s not supposed to be. Creating spaces where people want to live and work, and also spend time when they’re not working, means people will be out on the streets, even on snowy days. Towns all around the state, large and small, many with very little in common with New Haven, are at least nodding toward that kind of development, which was once considered an old-fashioned downtown.

That kind of neighborhood can’t work in the same space as roads designed for cars to speed through with minimal delay.

There have to be priorities other than moving cars through an area as fast as possible. Everything can’t be an interstate. Movements have grown to limit the speed of cars through cities and towns, with accompanying benefits for safety — the difference for a pedestrian getting hit by a car going 15 mph vs. one going 40 mph is likely to be catastrophic. Especially with cars on American streets growing bigger and heavier every year, the pedestrian safety crisis is real and only getting more severe.

There are better ways. Just as adding lanes to a highway doesn’t improve traffic flow (best-case scenario, it stays about the same), there’s reason to believe that shrinking roads, including the number of lanes, can have a positive effect on traffic, even if it seems counterintuitive.

What we can’t do, or shouldn’t, is continue a set of policies that is making life more dangerous for pedestrians and other drivers while not exactly curing the problem of slow traffic. For all the advantages cars are granted, it’s not so easy to drive in most of Connecticut.

Give back some of that street space, and everyone benefits. Let the slushy streets guide us there.