It’s difficult to visualize the damage that downtown freeways have caused our cities. For many, these highways have always been there, providing economic development and efficient travel into cities from the suburbs. Their role as a cornerstone of racial segregation, and their destruction of municipal budgets and the urban fabric has left our collective memory. […]
Read more about "Transportation Connection (Pt. 6) – Neighborhood Preservation"
Roads themselves are often overlooked in our urban land use pattern, even though streets and sidewalks can make up almost 80% of the public space in cities. In fact, in downtown Milwaukee, nearly 40% of the total land is devoted to road infrastructure. Most of these streets are necessary to create a complete transportation network. […]
Read more about "Transportation Connection (Pt. 5) – Highways as a Land Use"
Part 4 of the transportation connection will explore street width preferences, which have an outsized impact on our land use patterns.
Read more about "Transportation Connection (Pt. 4) – Local Ordinances"
As Wisconsin has become more auto-dependent, local ordinances have responded to accommodate vehicles. Working under the surface, our regulations have helped mandate a land use pattern that is conducive to vehicles at the expense of all other forms of travel. Often overlooked, zoning codes and municipal ordinances like mandatory parking, minimum lot sizes, and street widths have shaped and now […]
Read more about "Transportation Connection (Pt. 3) – Minimum Lot Sizes"
As Wisconsin has become more auto-dependent, local ordinances have responded to accommodate vehicles. Working under the surface, our regulations have helped mandate a land use pattern that is conducive to vehicles at the expense of all other forms of travel. Often overlooked, zoning codes and municipal ordinances like mandatory parking, minimum lot sizes, and street […]
Read more about "Transportation Connection (Pt. 2) – Mandatory Parking Minimums"
Wisconsin communities have been perpetually changing. Before European settlement, indigenous populations lived in villages with complex trading networks. Early Wisconsin cities were compact centers of commerce. Now we live in sprawling communities supported by massive highway infrastructure. Throughout our history, development has been dictated by our ability to travel. In the era of horse and […]
Read more about "The Transportation Connection (Pt. 1) – The Relationship between Transportation and Land Use"