Høringssvar vedrørende Fodgængerstrategi

I think on the whole, the proposed Fodgaengerstrategi is full of good ideas for improving the human environment of our city. I would like to add my thoughts about how the plan could be made even better. In our neighborhood (2400 NV) the sidewalks are maintained to a very low standard and this does nothing to encourage people to slow down and travel by foot. This is not directly the Kommune's fault because important streets for foot traffic are “private faellesvej” and thus the responsibility of the property owners along the street. In our district there is a fine-grained mix of residential and commercial buildings which, because of the large number of parties involved and their divergent interests, makes reaching consensus for improvement impossible. The best routes for “fodgaengerruter” will be on these secondary streets, and the whole city's interest in improving these routes will there need to be reconciled with the private ownership status they have today. Maybe a solution would be to “opclassificier” the streets so that they are owned and maintained by the Kommune. (I specifically have Rentemestervej in mind, but I'm sure the problem applies to other corridors.) Speed reductions to 30km/t will be just as relevant on “fodgaengerruter” as they are on Stroeggader. I also think the plan would benefit from confronting a predictable objection to allocating more space for pedestrians on major shopping streets (Stroeggader). Space on these streets is scarce and more space for foot traffic implies less space for other street users. The marginal users of the street are private cars, so less space for parking must be the result (or is there another way to make the sidewalks wider?). But empty parking spaces are already rare because of the chronic underpricing of this valuable space. Reducing available car parking will directly result in more foot traffic because on average cars will park farther from their user's destination, but if harmful “soegetraffic” is to be minimized, increased scarcity of parking must be balanced by a fair price, high enough to assure that at any time around 10% of spaces are available. I noticed that the survey results (page 6) revealed a pattern of citizens who walk much more on the weekend (and on vacation) than on work days. Why can't this pronounced traffic pattern be used to justify changing street configurations on weekends (or Sundays) to give more space to humans, as is done is in cities such as Bogota (“Ciclovia”)? I remember when Sundays were good days to walk because car traffic was very light, but today that weekly pause for breath is in danger of disappearing. Finally, I think public toilets are critical infrastructure for walkers. In the past 10 years the number of public toilets has decreased, and this trend should be reversed.