Skinnier lanes, longer curbs, and speed humps slow down drivers. But building safer streets usually requires persistent demands from safety-minded citizens, and fistfuls of hard-won tax dollars from authorities. “Traffic calming” strategies rarely happen overnight… unless it’s winter.
Enter the “sneckdown”: When a snowstorm fills up wasted street space with the white stuff, everyone gets a lesson in how to dramatically reduce car speeds. It’s like nature blanketing the city with curb extensions overnight.
TheMuppet-esque portmanteau mashes up “snow” and “neckdown,” an engineering term for a sidewalk extension or street island designed to damper drivers. Snowbanks accumulate on the paved space where people don’t drive or park, revealing “streets we have overbuilt so a car driver can go faster and more recklessly,” according to Clarence Eckerson, the director of video production at STREETFILMS. Imagine if street engineers took a nod from Mother Nature, and repurposed even half of that whited-out space with room for walkers and cyclists—you’d have slower, less dangerous, roads. Sneckdowns are “a very visual way to make the argument,” Eckerson says. [Full article]