JAPANESE SNAPSHOTS – #12 – STREETS ARE FOR PEOPLE, NOT JUST CARS

As I traveled around Japan for the month of October, I stayed in Tokyo, Shizuoka, Osaka, Kyoto, and the ancient capital of Nara, and in every one of these towns there were many pedestrian only shopping/dining/park areas. These lovely and vibrant open spaces had once functioned as busy streets filled with cars and had been transformed into peaceful walking and biking boulevards lined with stores, restaurants, and public art.

This is not an isolated phenomenon. You will find such pedestrian havens in cities around the world. And they have proven to be an unbridled success for business and the overall quality of life in every town where it has been tried. Charlottesville, Virginia and Barcelona, Spain — two completely different cities — immediately spring to mind. These non-motorized stretches help to build a true sense of community spirit and bring people together.

The new Mayor of my hometown, Annapolis, Maryland recently tried to install an “experimental” bike lane on Main Street, eliminating about fifty parking places for a month, and you would have thought that life as we know it was about to end. There were rowdy demonstrations and angry letters to the editor. Some business owners demanded a recall. And the general consensus was that parking is way more important than bicycle and pedestrian access.

I have argued for more than twenty-five years that the City Dock area along the Annapolis harbor should be pedestrian only. Get ride of all the parking (about 100 spaces) and the cars. Most people think I’m nuts. And maybe I am. But I have never seen any city in the world, large or small, allow parking to take over the prime waterfront destination in their town. And over the years, the City has paid several high-priced consultants to study the Annapolis waterfront and everyone of them has concluded that it should be a park for pedestrians and bikes. Frankly, it’s a no-brainer.

Seeing the Japanese close multiple streets in their cities to cars gave me an interesting perspective on the whole issue. And the Japanese have taken the concept even further by eliminating on-street parking altogether on almost every street to make more room for bikes and transit. They leave travel lanes and unloading areas for delivery vehicles and residents, but that’s it. To see a thoroughly modern and commercial nation like Japan outlaw on-street parking ENTIRELY and create pedestrian malls while happily thriving was an eye opening experience indeed.

These pedestrian/bike areas in Japan are vibrant social hubs. I found a diverse mix of services, not just t-shirt and sun glass shops. In fact, I saw no stores catering strictly to tourists. And business was booming. There were street musicians and people of all ages. The whole vibe was neighborly and hip. And it didn’t shut down at night when the cars went back home to the suburbs.