Streets to Live In: Justice, Space, and Sharing the Road

Public streets are central to the built environment, where individuals seek a fair share of the roadway's benefits and harms. But the American street, an asphalt landscape typically defined and designed for cars, can be inaccessible, unhealthy, and dangerous for the non-motorized, whose transpo...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Hartman, Laura M. (Author) ; Prytherch, David 1969- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Center for Environmental Philosophy, University of North Texas [2015]
In: Environmental ethics
Year: 2015, Volume: 37, Issue: 1, Pages: 21-44
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:Public streets are central to the built environment, where individuals seek a fair share of the roadway's benefits and harms. But the American street, an asphalt landscape typically defined and designed for cars, can be inaccessible, unhealthy, and dangerous for the non-motorized, whose transportation choices have the smallest ecological footprint. Concern for social equity and sustainability requires rethinking the street geographically and ethically, and asking: "In what sense is the street a space of justice (or injustice)? How do traditional street regulation and design manifest ethical priorities? And what might a more just street look like, in theory and practice?" Such questions prompt one to engage both the spatial and moral, thus drawing from critical geography and ethics (including religion) to analyze roadways in terms of fairness and relational wholeness, and argue for what might be called a shalom street. Engaging such ethical concepts with the technical vocabularies of street regulation and design requires analyzing how national model standards and their interpretation (in the case study state of Ohio) enforce and materialize justice (or injustice) on the street.The promise of more just alternatives such as more sustainable and fair "Complete Streets" to live in needs to be explored.
ISSN:2153-7895
Contains:Enthalten in: Environmental ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5840/enviroethics20153713