Safe Streets, Livable Streets

The danger in supplanting the real measure of safety (i.e., crash frequency and severity) by surrogates arises when the link between the two is conjectural, when the link remains unproven for long, and when the use of unproven surrogates becomes so habitual that the need to eventually speak in terms of crashes is forgotten. (Hauer, a, p. ) Beyond simply acting as thoroughfares for motor vehicles, urban streetsoften double as public spaces. Urban streets are places where people walk,shop, meet, and generally engage in the diverse array of social and recre-ational activities that, for many, are what makes urban living enjoyable. And beyond even these quality-of-life benefits, pedestrian-friendly urban streets have been increasingly linked to a host of highly desirable social outcomes, including economic growth and innovation (Florida, ), improvements in air quality (Frank et al., ), and increased physical fitness and health (Frank et al., ), to name only a few. For these reasons, many groups and individuals encourage the design of “livable ” streets, or streets that seek to better integrate the needs of pedestrians and local developmental objectives into a roadway’s design. There has been a great deal of work describing the characteristics of livabl