Summary: A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 U R B A N LA N D 121
SkinnyStreets
andFireTrucks
R E I D E W I N G , T E D S T E V E N S ,
A N D S T E V E N J . B R O W N
The main obstacle to skinny
streets in the UnitedStates
is no longer the city traffic
engineer, but rather the
local fire chief, who enforces
the fire code with singular
purpose.
Skinny streets calm traffic, maintain
a comfortable human scale for pedestrians,
cut the cost of development, make more land
available for public and private spaces, and
minimize the negative environmental impacts
of all that asphalt, such as runoff and reflec-
tive heat. The narrow streets of older neighbor-
hoods, villages, and towns are a large part of

Source: Anisimov, Mikhail - Institute for Physical Science and Technology & Department of Chemical Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park

Collections: Physics; Materials Science