Watch your engineering practicies

A new or redeveloped road opens with fanfare. Civic, public and private sector leaders promise to catalyze reinvestment and new growth. Fast forward, and the road is delivering high speed, more traffic, and more boarded-up buildings.

Our neighborhoods and cities are laden with wider roadways in the name of mobility and economic development. They are not living up to the design process, imagery, and vision established by the architect or planning professional.

It is easy to blame the engineer, civic leadership, or the bureaucrat for the results. The reality is the roadway aims for mobility, not access. Mobility operates in a realm without constraints.

To apply constraints of scale, integration of public space and amenities for entrepreneurial activities, form-based codes, and community history and identity might seem impossible for an engineer to do their job. But, it is these very constraints that lead to vibrant, connected, and thriving places. And the thriving, mixed-use neighborhood becomes a destination for many, rather than a place for all to pass through.