Is Heavy Traffic in our Neighborhoods Dangerous to our Health?

Last Updated on January 19, 2018 by Lawrence Berezin

Heavy traffic is the “Invisible Harm” in our Neighborhoods

Heavy traffic cannot be managed or regulated solely by issuing a gazillion NYC parking tickets.

Donald Appleyard, a scholar who studied the neighborhood environment and the ways planning and design can make life better for city residents, published “Livable Streets.” This book was based on his research into how people experience streets with different traffic volumes. The Second Edition of Livable Streets will be published by Routledge Press in 2011. It is an amazing study, the first of its kind, and well worth six (6) minutes of your valuable time.

Professor Appleyard measured the impact of light, moderate, and heavy traffic in three different neighborhoods on:

• Social interactions
• Where people gather
• How people define their “home territory”
• Environmental awareness

Dim the house lights, please. Does the outcome of this study surprise you?

Revisiting Donald Appleyard’s Livable Streets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.