How car traffic affects neighborly interactions
How many and how fast cars move on a street affects whether people living on that street interact with each other. The late UC Berkeley Professor Donald Appleyard published research in the 1980s comparing three streets of similar size and residential form in San Francisco to see how much people walked down the street or crossed it to visit with their neighbors. His conclusions showed that residents of a street with low car traffic had at least twice as many acquaintances as people living on a similar street with high car traffic. Social interaction is a significant predictor of public safety, feelings of belonging, and neighborhood desirability. In addition, if many of those cars were instead bicycle riders, then as well as being quieter, the street would feel more comfortable to cross on foot. And, compared with passing cars with barely visible drivers behind window reflections, those passing bicycle riders could be seen and even known. — Steve Price