The goal of the assignment is to examine the state of pedestrian and bicyclist safety in the State of Florida and discuss methods to improve it. Your task is to perform a literature review on your topic. The summary should include a minimum of five references, two of which should be reviewed journal articles.
Provide a literature review summary about the state of bicycle and pedestrian safety in the State of Florida in relation to infrastructure controls.Provide details on pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure controls such as raised crosswalks, buffered bike lanes, complete streets, curbs for bike lanes, reducing lane width, and other infrastructures. You may also reference Florida statutes as long as it relates to pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. Be sure to cite each source in text. The summary should be applicable to your project, synthesize relevant methodologies, and formulate questions that need further research. Citations and references should be formatted in APA style.
Please reference the example below for a guide:
Example:
Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia define tactical urbanism as “an approach to neighborhood building using short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions and policies.” They also say, “for citizens, it allows the immediate reclamation, redesign, or reprogramming of public space,” (Green, 2015). Sanford Porchfest is a grassroots, community music event held in downtown Sanford that falls under tactical urbanism. It is tactical urbanism because it is a low-cost event that is run by four women in the Sanford community. Also, it is a neighborhood improvement that could potentially be beneficial towards gaining momentum in larger projects. There are also facets to the Sanford area that makes it able to house events like Porchfest. For example, there are alleys for residents in the area to walk, proximity to free parking, and a rich historic character. These connections led our team to determine that Porchfest in Sanford, Florida does fall under the umbrella of tactical urbanism and drives the focus in this literature review.
Tactical urbanism can be described in a variety of ways that, for the most part, share the common thread of Lydon’s initial definition. Often, tactical urbanism is characterized by its bottom-up regime that occurs at different scales (Marshall et al., 2016), a way for solutions to be tested in communities (Leonard, 2015), and reclaiming spaces in abandoned parts of a city (Campo, 2014). Tactical urbanism is also characterized by its differences compared to traditional town planning that encourage initiatives that don’t meet planning strategies (Donovan, 2014). Nonetheless, tactical urbanism can be understood to involve the general field of citizens in each community and their interactions with the surrounding environment; particularly urban planning’s role in this integration (Silva, 2016).
The specific aspect of tactical urbanism that is related to events like Porchfest are seen in event planning methods that are cohesive to urban design. This is different from DIY planning which encourages a ‘right to the city’ mentality whereas tactical urbanism is about the experimental application with intentions to scale (Foster, 2020). There is an inclination to the micropolitics of a community environment that resonates with tactical urbanism (2020). Over time, privacy has encouraged segregated institutions and lifestyles that are often avoided in a tactical urbanism design (Tushnet, 2022).
Porchfests are events that utilize the qualities of tactical urbanism to successfully implement a community-led event (Denton, 2018). Experiments have been performed to consider the role of streets in public life that indicate a correlation between community event success and the planning of streets in that town (Bertolini, 2020). This is said to also be connected to the sense of place that is created by tactical urbanism (Alyani & Herlily, 2019). A pop-up park placed in Northern California indicated that there were success rates in the multi-generational users that allowed for increased use of nearby resources and sparked active socializing (Winter et al., 2020). A successful Arlington Park Porchfest had a similar interpretation where those who lived in the community commented on the increased sense of community that was initiated by events like Porchfest (Denton, 2018). This seems to fall in line with the initial intention of Lydon’s definition of tactical urbanism (Green, 2015).
Experiments show that mental health of those in communities that have experimented with tactical urbanism are elevated (Winter et al., 2020). This is interesting compared to the role cities play in the global environment as many cities are reaching the size of small countries (Hannigan & Richards, 2017). A city’s ability to distinguish themselves and increase competitive advantage is becoming a heavy consideration to urban planners that consider tactical urbanism (2017). The relationship to mental health could be an advantage that cities can use to attract younger generations and boost economic development (Winter et al., 2020).
Overall, the literature demonstrates that events like Porchfest relate to the three main intentions of tactical urbanism (Hillson, 2018). One of those being a grass-roots approach that connects to DIY urbanism in its right to the city (2018). The second being a tool for developers to connect with inhabitants of the city in town planning (2018). The final one being early phases and implementation tactics that serve to respond to long-term investments (2018).
Based off the literature review, there are a few considerations that are left for further research. One of the aspects that can be a potential for future research is the likelihood that the small form application of tactical urbanism can provide a reference to the potential of initiating growth in a certain area. There is a limitation to research connected to the actual longevity of tactical urbanism’s use; there is rather a larger focus on successes surrounding its short-term implementation. This could be connected to more research about the shelf-life of tactical urbanism. This is in reference to the limitation of research on long-term designs that won’t lose its impact on the city with the introduction of newer urban planning methods. Lastly, more research can be done about philosophical interpretations of tactical urbanism that create the ideas around its continuance. Furthering this research could provide implications for the paradigm shift that is related to the interest in tactical urbanism and what that means for the future of urban planning outside of tactical urbanism.
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References:
Alyani, S., & Herlily. (2019). The Sense of Place in Community Participation Through Tactical Urbanism in Bundaran HI, Jakarta. CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development, 2(1), 40-49.
Bertolini, L. (2020). From “streets for traffic” to “streets for people”: Can street experiments transform urban mobility? Transport Reviews, 40(6), 734-753.
Campo, D. (2014) Iconic eyesores: Exploring do-it-yourself preservation and civic improvement at abandoned train stations in Buffalo and Detroit. Journal of Urbanism 7(4): 351–380.
Denton, I. (2018). Come Together: Arlington Park’s Porchfest turns strangers into neighbors. Sarasota Magazine, 41(1), 44.
Donovan, F. (2014) DIY urbanism: Implications for cities. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability 7(4): 381–398.
Foster, N. (2020). Rethinking the Right to the City: DIY Urbanism and Postcapitalist Possibilities. Rethinking Marxism, 32(3), 310-329.