Don’t Be Afraid of the Friendly Street

There has been a posting hiatus here at Our History because of recent travels. The hiatus is now over.

One of my recent destinations was Germany. The most amazing thing about the visit, besides the breweries in and around Bamberg, was how easy it was to move around town without a car.

Which leads me to this question:

Is there anything scary in this photograph?

That street is walkable and bike accessible. It’s a friendly street. Why are some New Albanians so afraid of this photograph? Why is there fear-mongering about traffic calming, bike lanes and converting one-way drag strips to two-way streets?

Can anyone honestly tell me that an investment to upgrade an existing street in New Albany to look like this would be a bad investment? Would this not be an improvement to “quality of life” in the area?

Perhaps it is just “change” that frightens some. Unfortunately the world is changing. The future that is coming includes streets that look like this one.