Reimagining the physical/social infrastructure of the American street: policy and design for mobility justice and conviviality

Abstract

Public roadways are ubiquitous and extensive urban infrastructures, typically regulated and engineered for vehicular flow. But streets are also public places. Social infrastructure debates beg the question: How might transport infrastructure be reimagined for circulation and sociality? This paper further asks: How can public roadways be regulated and designed for mobility justice and conviviality? Constructed over a century as motorized thoroughfares, American streets are now focus of movements challenging automobility to promote multimodalism and livability. First are multimodal policies and design standards. Second is the nascent – but accelerated by pandemic – reclamation of streets for more-than-mobility, from temporary events to public space retrofits. This research highlights complexities of transport spaces as physical and social infrastructure, and possibilities in reimagining streets for flow and urban life. These raise thorny mobility/social justice questions of “for whom?” But building fair and convivial cities might begin with reimagining the infrastructural possibilities of public streets.