US urban development since the latter half of the twentieth century has followed a number of car-centric practices that discourage or inhibit the use of the city at the scale of the pedestrian. The geometries of car traffic and that of pedestrian inhabitation are mutually incompatible. Cars require predictability and open space while diminishing air quality and cluttering the noise-environment. Pedestrians tend to prefer spaces with high variability at an intimate scale and tend to stay away from high-pollution, unshaded, and noisey spaces.
The usual paradigm of public planning locates the commons away from the lacerations of major roadways, however, due to the contiguous nature of roadways, this has the effect of isolating neighborhoods -- often stripping them of access to groceries, parks, schools, and other basic necessities. This project analyzes how single-use roadways are antithetical to an equitable city and speculates how the re-programming of them as a unified commons/multimodal corridor can work to establish universal access to basic needs.
Zone 5: Monticello Canal + Kayak Rental
Zone 4: Sewerage and Water Board Viewing Tower
Zone 3: Harrell Park Pavilion
Zone 2: Claiborne Bike Repair + Cambronne St. Garden/Kitchen
Zone 1: Carrollton Transfer Station + Dublin Library
The chosen site is the corridor of S. Claiborne Ave. between S. Carrollton and Monticello Ave. in New Orleans, LA. This site was chosen primarily for the wildly underserviced bus stop at the corner of Claiborne and Carrollton which serves as the transfer station between New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) and Jefferson Transit (JeT). Due to the non-coordination between these two transit systems, riders are left waiting at this location for long periods of time with no restrooms, electricity, water, and minimal shade in the form of 4 small bus shelters.
In an interview that I conducted with the RTA, I learned that this particular stretch of Claiborne is over-capacity in road space, giving me the opportunity to reduce the street from 6 to 4 lanes. The additional space gained is used to augment the neutral ground (or median if you're not in New Orleans) with dedicated riderway for a proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and 5 specific "zones" of public programming, which can be seen in the oblique drawings above.
