Chintaown lot to become community garden

Thanks to Vincent for this one....

timescolonist.com

 

As you know, I am a big fan of community gardens, particularly for unused urban spaces -- rooftops, lawns, under-utilized park space, and vacant lots.

Well, Victoria is the example this time around -- about time!

From the Times Colonist:

A neglected lot littered with trash and weeds in Chinatown could become the site of downtown Victoria's only community garden. 

Hidden behind a Chinese herbalist store on Fisgard Street, a 75-square-metre fenced-in lot with buildings on three sides and a parking lot to the east is sitting unused. With plenty of natural light shining through the parking lot, it is an ideal setting for a garden.

The space hasn't been used in years and is littered with an assortment of junk.

Amy Wilson and Joey MacDonald... want to convert the space into a garden. [L]andlords have given their permission to turn the lot into a garden.

"Being that there is nothing downtown [in terms of a community garden], and we have this space that is covered in oyster shells for some reason, there is no reason for this not to be a garden," MacDonald said.

Wilson and MacDonald have been looking for people in Victoria's well-networked gardening community who might be interested in helping develop the space.

If all goes well, the site will be cleaned up and garden plans will be developed over the winter, with garden boxes and soil going in next spring. Wilson and MacDonald hope to grow fruits, vegetables and ornamental vines, and have a picnic area where the community can gather.

There were eight community gardens in Victoria as of April 2009, according to the city's website. There were three in Fernwood, two in James Bay, two in Victoria West and one near Bay Street and Quadra Street -- but none downtown.

Those interested in getting involved with the planned garden can e-mail admin@oliocooperative.ca.

 I expect that this trend will continue, but one would hope that it would pick up momentum a little faster.

Any underutilized spaces that you would like to see used as a community garden, in Victoria?

Associations for the Preservation of Small Farming

 virtualfarmer.wordpress.com

I was reading about 'environmental' initiatives in Europe and came across the below. Seems like a great idea to me:

AMAPs

3,500 families in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) region belonging to Associations for the Preservation of Small Farming (Associations pour le Maintien d’une Agriculture Paysanne, or AMAPs) have undertaken to buy fresh produce directly from local farmers for one season; they pay – in advance – a price set in conjunction with the producer. There are now 200 of these associations, first set up in Provence in 2001, and they are continuing to expand. Alliance Provence Paysans Ecologistes Consommateurs was set up in 2002 to federate the AMAPs and publicise the concept in the PACA region.

Local fair trade. “Consumers have a guarantee as to the traceability of the produce, all of which is grown according to organic principles,” says Daniel Vuillon, the founder of Alliance Provence. The (local) distribution system requires little transportation, a factor in pollution. The produce is sold without any packaging. By relocalising the economy and making small farms sustainable, “the AMAPs are, in a way, involved in local fair trade,” says Philippe Chesneau, vice-president of the PACA regional council with responsibility for employment and spatial policies.

Alliance Provence is supported by the regional council, which is contributing 50,000 euros in 2005, equating to 40% of its budget; the rest comes from département councils. This has helped preserve 60 farms. “Creating jobs by conventional means costs 10,000 euros per post. With the AMAPs, the cost is 800 euros per job,” says Philippe Chesneau.

Vancouver community garden built in one day

More news out of Vancouver and its goal to be the 'greenest' city. Excerpts from this Vancouver Observer article.

vancouverobserver.com

 

A private-public partnership involving 70 volunteers turned two vacant lots near Commercial Drive E. into a large community garden in one short day.

The garden will be a combination of edibles ­ fruits and vegetables ­ as well as decorative perennials like sage, daylilies, coreopsis, and flowering trees donated by Canadian Tire. All Fiskars-donated garden tools, with characteristic orange handles, are left behind for future gardeners.

Say what you want about the corporate involvement, but I doubt this would have happened, otherwise.

"This is a welcome new food producing garden in Vancouver,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “It's great to see the private sector get involved in local food production. ­This is exactly the kind of creative partnership we want to be fostering. Vancouver is keen to reach our goal of becoming the world¹s greenest city by 2020, and new community gardens like this one are a great way to get us there.”

The garden will be left to the use of the community and local non-profits, including Mosaic:

Local residents and members of MOSAIC, a non-profit organization serving immigrants and refugees, will also be able to obtain individual plots in the new garden... The Mosaic community will use the garden as a way to introduce its volunteers, exchange students, new immigrants and refugees to the people and communities around them. “It is an opportunity for them to interact and mingle with other people in the neighbourhood and also to contribute new and different cultural traditions related to food and gardening.”

Victoria is overdue for some more community gardens. I would love to see some private-public partnerships to make this happen.

Your thoughts?

Vote on how to make Vancouver the 'Greenest' city

 talkgreentous.ca

As mentioned in the previous post, Vancouver's ambition is to be the 'greenest' city in the world by 2020. Good luck with that...

Nonetheless, the City just launched a large public-engagement campaign to solicit ideas on how do achieve its goal.

The idea-sharing system allows you to vote on good ideas.

So, have a quick look and vote up any ideas you like. Even if you are a Victorian, this could very well have provincial ramifications.

Click here to see and vote on ideas.

Please, do not vote for 'greener' cars, electric vehicles/transit, better appliances, or any other faux green initiatives.

New physically-separated bike lane in Vancouver

Vancouver is aiming to be the 'Greenest City in the World' by 2020. I don't think they have a hope in Heck of convincing anyone of this, without exponentially increasing their 'modal share' of cycling.

That said, the new two-way, physically-separated bike lane on Dunsmuir Street is a great start.

I hope Victoria can follow suit, soon -- perhaps on Shelbourne or the Johnson Street Bridge, to start.

A look at the Dunsmuir Street two-way bike lane separating cyclists and motorists. 

From Vancouver.ca:

The experience of other cities suggests that perception of safety is essential to attracting more people to cycling and that separated bike lanes are perceived to be safer and more satisfying to cyclists than cycling next to traffic. The City of Vancouver is moving forward with separated bike lanes on existing bike routes in the downtown to connect key destinations, such as the central business district.

Cross-section of the road diet:

Walking the walk. Well done, Vancouver.

Montreal Gazette on Helmet Legislation

Thanks to Ryan at The City Cyclist for sharing this link
----------

copenhagencyclechic.com

Well, we all missed talking about helmet legislation, so it's a good thing that the Montreal Gazette printed this article. Here are some excerpts:

More than half of the population of Quebec say they are avid cyclists, but a Statistics Canada survey reveals that the majority of those do not wear helmets when on a bike.

Helmet use, according to the survey, was highest in Nova Scotia (66 per cent), the province with the strictest helmet law. Despite this, Suzanne Lareau, president of Velo-Quebec, said that number is proof that helmet laws are ineffective.

"It's startling that in provinces that hand out fines for not wearing helmets, we're not seeing 80 or 90 per cent of people wearing helmets. It seems like the laws are not working," she said.

Lareau said wearing a helmet is a personal choice and that fining those who don't wear a one might dissuade people from using an environmentally friendly method of transportation.

"We're not against wearing helmets but we are against a law," Lareau said. "We're against the idea of penalizing people for riding their bikes, for doing physical activity. These are people who are using a transportation method that's good for the environment, that's good for their health."

Patrick Morency, a public health specialist in Montreal's health and social services department, said that while helmets can help prevent injury, a more comprehensive road safety strategy is necessary to reduce the number of injured cyclists.

"What's killing cyclists in Montreal or seriously injuring them is vehicles -and the bigger the vehicle, the worse the injury," Morency said. "Generally, cyclists that are killed are either hit at a high speed or by a large vehicle - and in those cases a helmet might not help much."

Lareau said that better cooperation between cyclists and motorists is the key to preventing accidents.

"What does wearing a helmet actually do? It might reduce the chance of injury in case of an accident, but it doesn't prevent accidents," Lareau said. "We need to work on strategies to improve bike safety, like lowering speed limits in the city and sharing the road. That would be more effective than implementing a helmet law and then saying, 'My job is done.' "

Related:

Bike Helmet Laws -- stoopid

Not for the Faint of Heart: Helmetless cycling images

City wanted $630,000 for a streetcar study: Student does it for $987

I love this:

(Summary taken from planetizen.com)

Daniel Jacobson, an undergrad at Stanford, developed a thorough study recommending everything the City of Oakland would need to build, run and finance a streetcar through its downtown.

The concept of a streetcar connecting Jack London Square with the newer infill development in the Upper Broadway area has been batted about for a few years, but never in this much detail. The city has already collected $300,000 for feasibility studies with little results, while Jacobson's study reportedly covers all the bases and more.

Chip Johnson reports that Jacobson spent only $987 on his study, which included travel expenses for research trips to Portland and Seattle:

"That's pretty cost-effective, especially when you consider that Oakland city officials paid $300,000 for a streetcar feasibility study in 2005 and applied for an additional $330,000 in feasibility funds this year.

"I could have done it cheaper, but I decided to treat myself to a couple of $12 meals," said Jacobson, almost apologetically."

Community garden, woman, and children to deter crime

Posting frequency is being effected by 'real' work and a little event in South Africa.
--------


I enjoyed this video featuring a Grizzly Man-like urban advocate in San Francisco, nicknamed 'Mad Viking.'

The Mad Viking is using a community garden in order to attract neighbours, including woman and children, which is then deterring crime at an underutilized yet beautiful hill-top park.


Victory of the Mad Viking, San Francisco from Spots Unknown on Vimeo.

Any places in Victoria where this strategy could/should be implemented?

Support a Two-lane Trial for Johnson St. Bridge!

As you may know, I am a huge fan of pilot-testing progressive urban change. For example:

Don't be Afraid to Experiment
Hey, Victoria: Go Back to Kindergarten
Bureaucracy vs. Balls

So, it will come at no surprise that I am a BIG fan of this:

The people at johnsonstreetbridge.org are currently advocating a two-lane trial (click for full description of proposal) for the JSB. Meaning, they are advocating that the City of Victoria pilot tests a two-vehicular lane + two-bicycle lane + pedestrian walkway conversion of the existing jsb, before moving ahead with other options -- e.g., building entirely new bridge.

This is worth supporting!

Please, sign the petition and show your support for progressive (sensible, cost-effective, logical, etc.) methods of progressive change in your city.

Sign the petition!

Mandatory Green Roofs in Copenhagen

inhabitat.com

Well, here is a story about something other than cycling from Copenhagen:

As of last month, all* new buildings in Copenhagen are required to have green roofs!

From inhabitat.com:

As part of its overall strategy to become a carbon neutral city by 2025, Copenhagen has become the first Scandanavian city to adopt a policy that requires green roofs for all new buildings *with roof slopes of less than 30 degrees. Copenhagen presently has 20,000 square meters (over 215,000 square feet) of flat roofs. It is hoped that as much as 5,000 square meters of new development each year will be covered with vegetation.

Vegetated roofs, or green roofs, provide several benefits for buildings and their surroundings. They can absorb as much as 80% of rainfall, helping to reduce stress on stormwater systems. They help reduce urban temperatures (the “heat island effect“). And, they protect roof membranes from the sun’s UV rays and the greatest temperature swings, such that roof membrane life is extended as much as double that of an unprotected membrane.

Cool. I'm predicting a trend...

Skyscrapers and Skylines (pt 2): Unhealthy and Overbearing

This is a continuation of Part 1 and will now need at least a pt. 3.
----- 

I am generally a proponent of tried-and-true best practices rather than the latest technology or symbol of 'progress'. I am in favour of doing what we should do rather than what we can do.

Case in point: The seminal architecture, design, and planning text A Pattern Language offers a comprehensive guide to traditional architecture and planning -- rooted in centuries of trial-and-error approaches to human settlements and conventional wisdom(s) -- whose central focus is the welfare of its inhabitants, which cannot really be said for modern(ist) architecture.

 Contrasting priorities.

That said, this post uses A Pattern Language as the primary source for a case against tall buildings. Many other sources corroborate what is presented; yet, I am sticking to one source for brevity and ease.

From 'Pattern 21: 4-Story Limit' in A Pattern Language:

High buildings have no genuine advantages, except in speculative gains for banks and land owners. 

They are not cheaper, they do not help create open space, they destroy the townscape, they destroy social life, they promote crime, they make life difficult for children, they are expensive to maintain, they wreck the open spaces near them, and they damage light and air and view. 

But quite apart from all of this, which shows that they aren't very sensible, empirical evidence shows that they can actually damage people's minds and feelings.

.... [Research] shows a direct correlation between incidence of mental disorder and the height of people's apartments. The higher people live off the ground, the more likely are they to suffer mental illness.

A simple mechanism may explain this: high-rise living takes people away from the ground, and away from the casual, everyday society that occurs on the sidewalks and streets and on the gardens and porches. It leaves them alone in their apartments. The decision to go out for some public life becomes formal and awkward; and unless there is some specific task which brings people out in the world, the tendency is to stay home, alone.

Sounds familiar!

The chapter goes on to present studies showing the lack of peer interaction and unaccompanied play of higher floor vs. lower floor children (drastic difference), as well as increased (double) crime rates for high-rise projects vs. adjacent walk-up projects. And...

Mothers are more anxious about their very young ones, when they can't see them in the street below, from a convenient kitchen window

There is higher passivity in the high-rise because of the barriers to active outlets on the ground; such barriers as elevators, corridors; and generally there is a time lapse and an effort in negotiating the vertical journey.

TV watching is extended in the high-rise. This affects probably most adversely the old who need kinesia and activity, in proportion, as much as the very young do.

Two [studied, adjacent NYC] projects ha[d] the same overall density, and their inhabitants roughly the same income. But Newman found that the crime rate in the high-rise was roughly twice that in the walk-ups.

In sum, A Pattern Language promotes a 4-story limit for urban buildings with the occasional exception -- but never for human habitation. That said, I agree with the authors in that it is "the spirit of the pattern which is most essential" -- not the hard rule. (Slightly) taller buildings, when done well, can accommodate dwellings. 

A favourite example of a city (similar in size to Victoria) that I have visited and that embodies this rule is Erfurt, (East) Germany.

Skyline:

Four-story Limit:

Occasional high places:

All human-scaled:

Before you say it does: Age has nothing to do with our draw to or the creation of such human-scaled environments. Well, it does a little, in that the historical built environment did not use synthetic materials, which are generally needed beyond app. 6 stories. Therefore, with the advent of such materials, an era of engineers and architects saying 'look what I can do' with no thought for the people inside was ushered in.


Anyways... we'll leave off with two more quotes.

First, urbanist and architect Constantine Doxiades in Peter Blake's Form Follow Fiasco:

My greatest crime was the construction of high-rise buildings.

[H]igh-rise buildings work against nature...

High-rise buildings work against man himself, because they isolate him from others.

High-rise buildings work against society because they prevent the units of social importance -- the family, the neighborhood, etc. -- from functioning as naturally and as normally as before.

And, an old Scottish children's song::

To fling a "piece," a slice of bread and jam, from a window down to a child in the street below has been a recognised custom in Glasgow's tenement housing....

The Jeely Piece Song
by Adam McNaughton 

I'm a skyscraper wean, I live on the nineteenth flair, 
On' I'm no' gaun oot tae play ony mair,
For since we moved tae oor new hoose I'm wastin' away,
'Cos I'm gettin' wan less meal every day,
Refrain
Oh, ye canny fling pieces oot a twenty-storey flat,
Seven hundred hungry weans will testify tae that,
If it's butter, cheese or jeely, if the breid is plain or pan,
The odds against it reachin' us is ninety-nine tae wan.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We've wrote away tae Oxfam tae try an' get some aid,
We've a' joined tegither an' formed a "piece" brigade,
We're gonny march tae London tae demand oor Civil Rights,
Like "Nae mair hooses ower piece flingin' heights."

Pt. 3 will explore what I intended to here, including the case for wayfinding and the human 'need' for high places.

Deer and Rabbit 'Problem' -- Help!

Dear Almost Anyone from the Past, Present, or Future,

In 2010 Victoria, we are having a major problem with too many nearly-tame, incredibly-edible, nutritious herbivores wandering around in our yards and fields.

The problem is that they eat our plants and flowers, damage our lawns, and get in the way of our cars.

I personally moved to the suburbs to get my own little piece of the country. But, the pesty deer are eating my look-but-don't-touch exotic 'garden.' Wild animals? I think we need to draw the line somewhere.

As for the bunnies, they are cute and cuddly. But, these are not wild animals and are tearing up the lawns at the university, which we use for.... something! I will explain what a 'lawn' is in my next letter ;) You'll want one for sure!

Last week, Johnny hit a deer with his car and now has $400 worth of damage to his front end. Anyways, we had to throw the carcass in the dumpster. Why are these stupid animals getting in the way of massive, faster-than-the-speed-of-life vehicles?


We're not sure what to do. Some people suggest that we eat them!

Eat bunnies and deer? Horrible! (Did I tell you about that great lamb burger I had? Yum!)

Besides, what about all the pesticides on our lawns? If we got rid of those, then we might have weeds... which aren't nutritious, medicinal, and delicious, so what would we do then?

Anyways, I have to go to Safeway to pick up some imported beef and greens -- feeding the homeless, tomorrow! Fun!

If you have any advice, then please let me know. We could really use your help!

Hope all is well with you! How's the dirt farm, this year?

Sincerely,

Random Victorian

Jack Knox on Cyclists at the Drive-thru

Full article here.

Ours is a car culture, and will be until BP has sucked the last litre of oil out of the earth and poured it directly onto a shorebird for old time's sake. Bike to Work Week might pack the trails for a few days and convert some participants into full-time commuter cyclists, but for others it's like the Winter Olympics or the World Cup, where we all turn into diehard biathlon/soccer fans for a fortnight, then forget them for another four years.

For all our lip service to global warming, we would rather see the ice caps melt and turn Esquimalt into Atlantis before crowbarring our ever-expanding butts out from behind the wheel.

This tepid approach to environmental change is led by the provincial government, whose HST will add seven per cent to the cost of a bicycle July 1, the same day the tax on luxury vehicles drops.

Million Bicycles in Beijing... for 13 Million people.

Uploaded to Flickr by crypt K (CC)

I was going to talk about this off-hand in a recent post. I am glad I waited, as this offers some numbers for us.

From EcoVelo:

According to a recent article published by Agence France-Presse (AFP), increasing affluence in China has caused the rate of bicycle ridership in Beijing to drop from a high of 80% in the 1980s to less than 20% today. 

Though 20% is still very high by U.S. standards, the drop is nothing short of stunning. The results of this dramatic increase in driving are predictable, with massive traffic jams and intense smog now the norm. In an effort to reverse the trend, the city recently launched a bike-sharing program that it plans to grow to 50,000 bikes by 2015. 

The burning question is whether anyone will use the bikes now that the automobile genie has been let out of the bottle.

--

Related:

Misplaced and Misguided Priorities

Expanding Roads = Urban Laxatives

Skyscrapers and Skylines: Unnecessary and Overrated (Pt. 1)

http://desertplanet.wordpress.com

Overview: 
 
Many people want Victoria to have more taller buildings and a more interesting skyline. I don't. I want a better city at the street-level, where we experience it, and believe that overly-tall buildings are detrimental to the creation of a healthy, vibrant city.

Skyscrapers are overrated, ego-centric, phallic symbols of one-upmanship and dominion of man that represent a misguided imbalance in our settlements.

Interesting skylines are NOT signs of effective, meaningful urban development -- nor are they a symptom of it. Moreover, I would suggest that, in many ways, overly-tall buildings in the urban core facilitate our North American fear of the city (downtown) and density.

--

Postcard Skylines:

Boring Skylines:

According to the need for interesting skylines, we should look to Atlanta (aka Sprawlanta) and Auckland (nice bay, crap city) instead of Paris and Barcelona.

But, we need tall buildings for density!

(... especially in light of our soon-to-be denser core.)

Paris has double the population density of New York City.

Auckland puts 1.3M people in 1000 square kilometres. Barcelona has 1.6M people in one-tenth that area.

We need smarter density and better land use, not taller buildings.

James Kunstler on the fall of the World Trade Centre:

Where is the financial world going to find several million square feet of office space?

The answer is right in front of our noses. Move into and renovate the numerous depressed areas just a few subway stops away. With the proper mixed zoning legislation needed to protect residents and guarantee a thriving street life.

We associate height with density far too much. Often, increased height is just an excuse used in order to maintain density while giving swaths of land over to roads and parking lots (e.g., the antiquated Tower in the [car] Park ideal).

What about the wow factor?

Sure, the skylines and daunting monoliths of New York City and, to a lesser extent, Toronto generate tourism (to some degree). Yet, no one goes back for or lives for these towers.

It is, instead, the human-scaled villages with their sidewalk and cafe culture found within. Elevator and hallway culture is pretty lame, last time I heard. 

Vancouver loves to flash its skyline around to show the beauty. Sorry, architects, the mountains and ocean make your city beautiful -- not the buildings.

To paraphrase a European architect/urban designer:

When you pass by a tall building, the first time you say "Wow." The next "Whoa." The next "Woo...." And, then you stop looking, because we are far more drawn to the details and interest of the world at our level.

In fact, I often find myself noticing tall buildings -- for the first time -- that I have passed by my whole life.

The wow factor is reserved for first-time tourists and postcards.

So beautiful, you want to just walk around looking up.

 --

Part 2. will address wayfinding, evolutionary needs, and more -- soon.

Don't Be Afraid to Experiment

 I finally re-found a story that I referred to in Bureaucracy vs. Balls and Hey Victoria, Go Back to Kindergarten!
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http://ytiffanie.wordpress.com/

Summary of NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan's (more on her, soon) talk in LA about the rapid and progressive changes happening in NYC, right now.

To me, this relates to any city in the world.

The real message of the evening was that Angelenos, especially our government leaders and transportation bureaucrats, shouldn't be scared of trying something new. After all, the transportation planning for Los Angeles up to now clearly hasn't worked...

As Sadik-Khan talked about how easy it is to make some of these changes, some in the room got a little queasy. It's easy to paint bus-only lanes? Sorry, that takes decades of studies and environmental reviews. NYCDOT has a goal of fifty miles of new bike lanes ever year? Well, here in L.A. we can bring a Sharrows pilot program on a couple of streets to fruition a mere three years after the city starts studying it. [< being ironic]

Full text here.

Video:

Helmet-wearers Given Less Room by Motorists

copenhagencyclechic.com

Well, this was an interesting find.

A study published in the March 2007 issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention stated that drivers drove an average of 8.5 cm closer, and came within 1 meter 23% more often, when a cyclist was wearing a helmet.

 From the report:

The closer a driver is to the cyclist, the greater chance of a collision.

The bicyclist’s apparel affects the amount of clearance the overtaking motorist gives the bicyclist.

This research thus implies risk compensation, not among cyclists but among fellow road users.

News article

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, which is connected with the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. 

Cycling Infrastructure: The little things

From copenhagenize.com:

This bicycle turn lane is in the Danish city of Roskilde, outside the train station. Like every other Danish city, there are bike lanes. Separated or painted, depending on the traffic volume. Most traffic here continues straight on but there are those who need to turn left. Take out a little piece of sidewalk and wiggle in a turn lane. Sweet.

This one features a button for the cyclist to press when they need to turn. There's no irritating waiting time, it's a quick, efficient process. Perfect for Citizen Cyclists on their way through the town.

Misplaced and Misguided Priorities in our Cities

I want to share two (trimmed-down) excerpts from the brilliant little book 20 Minutes in Manhattan (highly recommended to anyone interested in... any thing related to cities, architecture, or New York).

Excerpt 1: Re-iterating a previously introduced concept.

Excerpt 2: A clever way of looking at it.

Excerpt 1:

In general, the planning and transportation establishment tends to advocate the enlargement of vehicular space, frequently at the expense of that available to pedestrians.

The difficulty [accomplishing an alternative] is exacerbated by the great grail of traffic engineering and of the fictions that support it. The ideal of traffic planners is a smooth and ever increasing flow of vehicles, moving at as high speed as practical, achieved by the removal of impediments (via synchronization of traffic lights, discipline of pedestrians, elimination of slower vehicles, like bikes), and by the continual increase in the space available for vehicular movement. Protagonists offer this naively simple formula: the more space we provide for vehicles, the faster and more smoothly they will flow.

This has proven not to be the case, and not just on city streets. Studies demonstrate that building and enlarging highways not only does not abate the congestion it is designed to relieve, it invariably exacerbates it. Increased supply generates increased demand. Yet, despite the evidence, the road-building mentality persists. Every attempt [that] favors pedestrians... is met with the same howl of protests from authorities: this will increase congestion because... [a]ny reduction in volume in one place in the city will inevitably be accompanied by a rise in traffic somewhere else.

This claim is fallacious: the true corollary is that opposite. In case after case, a reduction of space available for vehicular traffic has simply resulted in the reduction of traffic overall. 

Excerpt 2 (keep in mind this is in reference to a -- relatively -- very pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood):

On our block [in Greenwich Village], the street is 60 feet wide (including the parking lanes), while the combined width of the sidewalks on either side is about 20 feet. We tend to treat these dimensions as reasonable in proportion and as logically ordained and efficient...

Of the four lanes reserved for vehicular traffic, two are parking lanes. On our block -- as with most blocks in New York -- there are no meters and parking is available on a first come, first served basis. The city, in effect, provides half the area of the public space on my block for the storage of private cars and approximately 40 will fit when spaces are occupied. This diversion of public space -- some of the most valuable real estate on the planet -- to the private interests of the least efficient and most dangerous and dirty means of movement in the city is a fundamental affront to the real needs and habits of New York's citizens, the majority of whom do not own automobiles.