U.S. mayors like the idea of being less car-focused but hate the policies that could make it happen - FastCompany.com

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A new survey of mayors finds a big disconnect between what mayors want in terms of street design and what they’re actually willing to support to make it happen.

While cities across Europe are banning cars and radically redesigning streets, in the U.S., cars still take up a lot of urban space. Most U.S. mayors seem to agree that cities here are too dependent on cars—and many also believe travel for pedestrians and cyclists is unsafe on their streets—yet a new survey finds that they don’t actually support the policy changes, like such as parking prices or reduced speed limits, that would decrease car usage and make streets safer.

“It’s a positive that mayors recognize that cities have too many cars and are too reliant on cars, and there’s promising results, particularly in regards to bike lanes; mayors were willing to give up some parking spots and driving lanes to provide more bicycle safety,” says Katherine Levine Einstein, a Boston University political science professor and lead researcher on the 2019 Menino Survey of Mayors. “But I was really struck across the whole series of questions about largely their unwillingness to support or implement things that we in transportation planning know are evidence-based ways to make roads safer for vulnerable road users.”

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U.S. mayors like the idea of being less car-focused but hate the policies that could make it happen - FastCompany.com