WHY GREEN STREETS?
December 2007
from Paige Doughty:
As a newcomer to the Cambridge area I was struck by how difficult it was to meet people in the city. In fact, these days, it can even be difficult to meet people in smaller communities. We are so disconnected from each other physically, even while we are more and more connected to one another electronically, it's hard to grasp what community means anymore.
Part of the difficulty I had meeting people in the city was due to the large number of people in the area. But partly the difficulty I had meeting people was a result of the lack of place for casual conversation to occur. Most of Cambridge's main thoroughfares and sidewalks are not welcoming to conversation; rather, they are flanked by roads, idling engines, and insistent honking. Sidewalk space is limited, bikes are secondary to cars on the road, and bike lanes have been added almost as an afterthought. The opportunity to stop for a chat is few and far between. Instead I found myself trying to get out of these noisy public places as quickly as possible.
As we make our ways hurriedly through our lives, our eyes fixed on where we are going, rather than where we are, community fades. The explosion of individual vehicle owners and the infrastructure that followed, has enabled community breakdown and increased isolation. But there are some really simple solutions, and transportation is one of them! Catherine O'Brien, author of Planning for Sustainable Happiness, researched and compared children's views of transportation with adults. She found that children walking, or biking to school, saw transportation as a time of "wonder, discovery, joy, and happiness," while commuting adults thought of transition times as "stressful or dispiriting." In cars, we don't have the opportunities to meet eyes with a stranger, say hello, or exchange a smile. In building a community that relies less and less on driving, and more and more on alternative and active transportation, we are not only nourishing our bodies and keeping the air clean, we are building a community infrastructure that allows for connections, conversations, and friendships. The Green Streets Initiative is a good start.
