Streetfight: handbook for an urban revolution

As New York Citys transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan managed the seemingly impossible and transformed the streets of one of the worlds greatest, toughest cities into dynamic spaces safe for pedestrians and bikers. Her approach was dramatic and effective: Simply painting a part of the street to make it into a plaza or bus lane not only made the street safer, but it also lessened congestion and increased foot traffic, which improved the bottom line of businesses. Real-life experience confirmed that if you know how to read the street, you can make it function better by not totally reconstructing it but by reallocating the space thats already there. Breaking the street into its component parts, Streetfight demonstrates, with step-by-step visuals, how to rewrite the underlying source code of a street, with pointers on how to add protected bike paths, improve crosswalk space, and provide visual cues to reduce speeding. Achieving such a radical overhaul wasnt easy, and Streetfight pulls back the curtain on the battles Sadik-Khan won to make her approach work. She includes examples of how this new way to read the streets has already made its way around the world, from pocket parks in Mexico City and Los Angeles to more pedestrian-friendly streets in Auckland and Buenos Aires, and innovative bike-lane designs and plazas in Austin, Indianapolis, and San Francisco. Many are inspired by the changes taking place in New York City and are based on the same techniques. Streetfight deconstructs, reassembles, and reinvents the street, inviting readers to see it in ways they never imagined.;A new street code -- The fight -- Density is destiny -- Setting the agenda -- How to read the street -- Follow the footsteps -- Battle for a new Times Square -- Stealing good ideas -- Bike lanes and their discontents -- Bike share : a new frontier in the shared economy -- Safety in numbers -- Sorry to interrupt, but we have to talk about buses -- Measuring the street -- Nuts and bolts -- The fight continues.