Fire Departments Are Standing in the Way of Good Street Design

​Street design plays a key role in defining a city. How we structure our streets – and particularly how wide we make them – speaks volumes about how we want people to interact with each other and their surrounding environment. These choices have dramatic consequences for a neighborhood’s walkability, vitality, safety, and transportation options.

In San Francisco, we’ve experienced first-hand the challenges created by having wide streets and the benefits of moving toward narrower, more walkable streets. We’re also experiencing a bureaucratic backlash against our city’s efforts to avoid wide streets and to implement good urban design. This conflict is not unique to San Francisco, and to ensure a future of livable, safe streets, it’s imperative that policymakers everywhere push back against opposition to good street design.