It might not occur to you from behind the steering wheel, but the design of many roads around the United States is awful—for drivers and everyone else. It’s in our best interest as enthusiasts to give people safe ways to get around that aren’t cars, because that leaves driving for those of us who are truly invested in it. One of the building blocks of this better world for drivers is improving road design, and Streetcraft can show you just how much work needs to be done.
Streetcraft is a creator who posts videos across multiple platforms detailing the shortcomings of infrastructure design, which often concerns roads in the United States. Infrastructure is an elaborate problem that’s deeply intertwined with other complicated matters like land use, all of which Streetcraft touches on through their various online channels. But for brevity’s sake, let’s focus on their Instagram account, which gives terrible road designs the makeovers they deserve.
The video above details a troublesome intersection in Chicago, IL, which is actually a triangle of three four-way intersections at odd angles. This results in high-speed conflicts with right of way, posing an increased risk of serious crashes—the video even shows cars driving through bike lanes to make aggressive passes. The fact that this misuse is even possible is proof of bad design.
The solution? Completely cut out one of the legs of the triangle, slightly reshape the roads, and fill in the unused space for a simpler, safer, more navigable pair of intersections. It doesn’t neglect the safety of bicycle or foot traffic either, which is critical if you’re going to get bad drivers out of their cars.
Naturally, you get a lot of people in the comments who make up outlandish what-if scenarios because they don’t understand what they’re watching. I’ve seen this reaction firsthand from my own mother when my hometown in Colorado implemented a road diet, and she got frustrated because she didn’t understand why things changed. It’s an understandable response from people who think their default mode of transportation is under threat.
But make no mistake, Streetcraft isn’t waging a war on car enthusiasts. They’re on our side, as they showed by covering the encroachment of suburbs on a drag strip in Florida in the video below. There are often solutions that make things better for everyone, and it’s people like Streetcraft that are helping more people realize that.
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