Walking, Cycling, and the Politics of Streets in New York and Berlin
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RETHINKING THE STREET POLITICS, PROCESSES, AND SPACE OF PEDESTRIAN- AND BICYCLE-FRIENDLY STREET TRANSFORMATIONS IN NEW YORK AND BERLIN Vorgelegt von Dipl.-Ing. Annika Levels geb. in Tönisvorst Von der Fakultät VI – Planen Bauen Umwelt der Technischen Universität Berlin zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktorin der Ingenieurwissenschaften Dr.-Ing. genehmigte Dissertation Promotionsausschuss Vorsitzender: Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz Gutachterin: Prof. Dr. Angela Million Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Robert Beauregard Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Harald Bodenschatz Tag der wissenschaftlichen Aussprache: 22. Februar 2018 Berlin 2019 0 Author’s Declaration AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I hereby declare that I am familiar with the current PhD regulations of the Technical University Berlin; I am the sole author of this thesis and that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research; I have used no other sources and aids other than those indicated. All passages, which are quoted from publications, the empirical fieldwork, or paraphrased from these sources, are indicated as such. The audio files of the interviews are attached in the digital copy of this thesis; I have not submitted the thesis in the same or a substantially similar version, not even partially, to another examination board and that it was not published elsewhere. X Annika Levels - 2 0 Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the DFG-funded International Graduate Research Program “The World in the City” at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Technical University Berlin that provided the financial and institutional means to write this dissertation. Furthermore, many thanks go to the affiliated professors, especially to the head of the department Prof. Dr. Dorothee Brantz, and my colleagues who provided such a stimulating intellectual environment. Particularly, I would like to thank my supervisors who guided me through all phases of the research process: Prof. Dr. Angela Million, Prof. Dr. Robert A. Beauregard, and Prof. Dr. Harald Bodenschatz. I thank my interviewees in New York and Berlin without whom this work would not have been possible as well as those that supported my fieldwork in other ways. Many thanks go to my colleagues and friends Antonio Carbone, Anna Steigemann and Lisa Vollmer for their helpful comments and feedback on my work. I am much obliged that I have been part of such a smart, loyal, inspiring, and fun group of fellows who have fundamentally enriched my work and life. Last, but not least, I thank my family and friends for their various kinds of support, for their patience and encouragement during the writing process and for providing distraction and help whenever necessary. I am especially grateful to my life-long friend Julia and her incredible editing skills as well as to my housemates Gesa and Luise for their loving care in the last months, weeks, and days of writing this dissertation. 3 0 Content CONTENT AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ................................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................... 3 CONTENT .......................................................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................... 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 7 1 INTRODUCTION: STREETS AT STAKE .............................................................................................................. 8 1.1 “THE WORLD IN THE CITY”: STREETS BETWEEN GLOBAL AGENDA AND LOCAL POLITICS ................................................ 12 1.1.1 Challenging the Street: The Local Politics of Rethinking the Street ..................................................... 14 1.1.2 State of Research, Research Gap and Research Question ................................................................... 16 1.2 RESEARCH PROCEDURE AND EMPIRICAL METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................ 18 1.3 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION ..................................................................................................................... 23 2 METROPOLITAN STREETS: PLANNING, SPACE, AND PRACTICE FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT . 26 2.1 ORDER, FLOW AND STATUS: THE EMERGENCE OF THE INDUSTRIAL METROPOLITAN STREET ........................................... 27 2.1.1 Ordering Streets, Ordering the Metropole .......................................................................................... 28 2.1.2 Regulating the Street: Transport, Flow and the Urban Pedestrian ...................................................... 31 2.1.3 Wealth, Time, Modernity: Walking, Cycling and the New Urban Middle Class ................................... 34 2.2 FROM HABITAT TO INFRASTRUCTURE: THE STREET IN THE AUTOMOBILE CITY ............................................................. 37 2.2.1 Cyclists, Drivers and their Demand for ‘Automobility’ on Metropolitan streets ................................. 38 2.2.2 Make Way for the Future: The Re-Shaping of Streets for the Automobile .......................................... 42 2.2.3 ‘The System of Automobility’ and the Transformation of the Metropole ........................................... 46 2.3 RETHINKING THE STREET!? – TOWARDS NEW POLITICS OF METROPOLITAN STREET SPACE ............................................ 52 2.3.1 Walking, Cycling and the Promotion of Livable Streets ....................................................................... 54 2.3.2 “We are Traffic!” - The Shifting Political Agency of Bicycling ............................................................... 60 2.3.3 Pedestrian Commodities – Livability, Walkability and Quality-of-Life ................................................. 63 2.4 THE SAME, YET DIFFERENT, YET THE SAME!? - STREET POLITICS IN NEW YORK AND BERLIN .......................................... 68 4 0 Content 3 CASE STUDY I: NEW YORK CITY .................................................................................................................... 70 3.1 GOING GREEN: (STREET) POLITICS FOR A ‘GREATER, GREENER NEW YORK’ ............................................................... 71 3.1.1 Re-imagining the Public Realm and Creating World Class Streets ....................................................... 72 3.1.2 Rebuilding the City, Drafting PlaNYC and Greening the ‘Bloomberg Way’ .......................................... 75 3.2 TOWARDS A LIVABLE CITY: CHANGING THE STREET AGENDA ................................................................................... 81 3.2.1 Transforming the DOT: New Staff and Processes of Strategic Planning .............................................. 83 3.2.2 Upgrading Advocacy: The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign ........................................... 88 3.3 NEW STREET SPACES: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN PROJECTS................................................. 93 3.3.1 200 Miles in Three Years – Expanding the Bicycle Network ................................................................ 94 3.3.2 ‘Create or Enhance a Public Plaza in Every Community’ – The NYC Plaza Program ........................... 103 3.4 CONCLUSIONS OF THE CASE I .......................................................................................................................... 111 4 CASE STUDY II: BERLIN ............................................................................................................................... 117 4.1 STRATEGY, CONTINUITY, BALANCE - AN ADMINISTRATIVE TAKE ON STREETS ........................................................... 118 4.1.1 Streets for Integrated Mobility and a Livable Metropole .................................................................. 119 4.1.2 In Transformation: Towards Integrated Transport Planning ............................................................. 123 4.1.3 Dialogue, Consensus, and Commitment – The UDP Traffic and its Planning Process ........................ 128 4.2 FROM PLAN TO STREET SPACE: PROCESSES AND CONCEPTS TO SPATIALIZE CONSENSUS ............................................. 135 4.2.1 ‘We […] have an Implementation Gap’ – Structural Obstacles to Implementation ........................... 136 4.2.2 Thinking the Street!? – The Conceptualization of Space in the Planning Process ............................. 139 4.3 NEW STREET SPACES FOR WALKING, CYCLING AND SHOPPING .............................................................................. 146 4.3.1 Becoming a Cycling City: Planning, Politics, and Advocacy for more Cycle-Space ............................. 147 4.3.2 Nice to Meet You? – Planning, Space and Conflict of the Berlin Begegnungszone ............................ 153 4.3.3 New Urban Centers and Attractive Shopping Streets ........................................................................ 159 4.4 CONCLUSIONS OF THE CASE II.......................................................................................................................... 167 5 CONCLUSION: RETHINKING THE STREET?!