In South Bend, Pete Buttigieg challenged a decades-old assumption that streets are for cars above al

[douglas9]

For years, South Bend drivers held in their heads a magic number: Get their car to hit that speed and you could whip through downtown without seeing a red light.

When Pete Buttigieg took office as mayor of the Indiana city in 2012, he changed that. He pitched a $25 million plan to convert downtown’s wide, one-way roads into two-way streets with bike lanes and sidewalks. He hoped making it safer to get out on foot would encourage more people to spend time and money in the area.

Buttigieg branded the idea “smart streets.” Opponents lampooned it as “dumb streets.”

To Greg Matz — who pegged that magic number precisely at 32½ mph — it looked like a waste of money.

“It seemed like an inconvenience,” said Matz, 46. “That was exactly the point, to slow down traffic, which in my initial view was a bad thing.”

Buttigieg pressed ahead. He secured the support of the city council to borrow money for the project. He held off primary and general election challengers who campaigned against it during his 2015 reelection bid. Soon after, South Bend’s roads were torn up for construction and Buttigieg cut the ribbon in 2017.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/pete-buttigieg-south-bend/2021/01/15/6bb014b2-55d5-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html?utm_source=reddit.com