Why the complete street concept is important to downtowns

It's amazing what one image can convey. When thinking about our downtowns it can be shocking to realize just how much real estate we sacrifice to automobiles. Swedish artist Karl Jirg makes how little space we afford pedestrians (in our supposedly most walkable neighborhoods) to cars. Excerpt: "Jirg’s image shows a pedestrian crossing an intersection, but instead of a crosswalk, the walker is on a plank of wood;instead of providing safe passage in front of cars, the plank spans a rather deep looking chasm. On a nearby sidewalk, you see pedestrians sharing a narrow space between buildings and the ominous hole. A small child tugging at a woman’s hand to run ahead toward the intersection takes on a new sense of danger considering the abyss just a wrong step away." See and read the rest here.