Fair street space allocation: ethical principles and empirical insights. Issue 6 (1st November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Creutzig, Felix; Javaid, Aneeque; Soomauroo, Zakia; Lohrey, Steffen; Milojevic-Dupont, Nikola; Ramakrishnan, Anjali; Sethi, Mahendra; Liu, Lijing; Niamir, Leila; Bren d'Amour, Christopher; Weddige, Ulf; Lenzi, Dominic; Kowarsch, Martin; Arndt, Luisa; Baumann, Lulzim; Betzien, Jody; Fonkwa, Lesly; Huber, Bettina; Mendez, Ernesto; Misiou, Alexandra; Pearce, Cameron; Radman, Paula; Skaloud, Paul; Zausch, J. Marco
• Is Part Of: Transport reviews. Volume 40:Issue 6(2020)
• Page Start: 711
• Page End: 733
• Publication Date: 2020-11-01
• Subjects: Ethical principles -- urban transport -- governance -- parking -- cycling; Transportation -- Periodicals; Transportation engineering -- Periodicals; 380.5
• DOI: 10.1080/01441647.2020.1762795
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0144-1647

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Urban street space is increasingly contested. However, it is unclear what a fair street space allocation would look like. We develop a framework of ten ethical principles and three normative perspectives on street space – streets for transport, streets for sustainability, and streets as place – and discuss 14 derived street space allocation mechanisms. We contrast these ethically grounded allocation mechanisms with real-world allocation in 18 streets in Berlin. We find that car users, on average, had 3.5 times more space available than non-car users. While some allocation mechanisms are more plausible than others, none is without disputed normative implications. All of the ethical principles, however, suggest that on-street parking for cars is difficult to justify, and that cycling deserves more space. We argue that ethical principles should be systematically integrated into urban and transport planning.