By Jay Walljasper

So what would our neighborhoods look like if the needs of people mattered more than the needs of automobiles? One of the most interesting thinkers playing with this question is David Engwicht, a former seminary student and window washer who began thinking about transportation in bold new ways after hearing about plans to widen a road near his home in a suburb of Brisbane, Australia. He attended a public meeting inclined to think the widening was a good idea, but changed his mind in hearing his neighbors' stories about how the faster traffic would disrupt their lives. Writing a pamphlet outlining his thoughts and later a book, Reclaiming our Streets and Towns (New Society Publishers), he suddenly found himself an international pied piper for the idea of traffic calming--an invention that tames reckless and thoughtless motorists by making changes to streets (narrow lanes, speed bumps, etc.) that force them to drive slower and pay more attention to pedestrians.

Engwicht's ultimate goal, outlined in his new book Mental Speed Bumps, is reducing the speed and quantity of traffic in cities by as much as fifty percent. And he proposes doing this by some extraordinary means: waving to motorists, putting a bench in front of your home, adding horns to your bicycle helmet, dressing your kids as dragons... anything to break down the barriers between drivers sealed inside their autos and everyone else. For his part, Engwicht is investing thousands of dollars to outfit his own front yard with a neighborhood bread oven and a large sculpture shaped like a mushroom that splashes water into a pond. If that doesn't get drivers to slow down, and even get them out of their cars to take a closer look, then Engwicht says he doesn't know what will.

I think we are all wanting a little better balance between our need to move and our need to feel comfortable and at home where we live.

He believes that our deep-seated addiction to autos can be overcome by an ancient idea that is even more deeply imprinted in our souls than the desire for mobility: the ritual of taking a stroll, which is observed in nearly every culture around the world as a way to meet people and pleasurably pass the time.

"We have this strange fixation," he adds, "that fast movement always equals progress, and going slow is stagnation. But I think we are all wanting a little better balance between our need to move and our need to feel comfortable and at home where we live. Speed disconnects us from our surroundings. It can be a loss as well as a gain.

"I get e-mails from people all over the world who have been to one of my talks and then go home and put a bench in their front yard and they tell me it was a catalyst for changing the social life of their neighborhood."

Engwicht weaves a vision of the future every bit as compelling as the dream of personal mobility represented by the car. He prophesizes people will still use cars in thirty years, but most likely as part of car-sharing co-ops. Traffic will be much lighter and people will walk and bike far more than they do today. Cafés, groceries, bakeries, shops, and small parks will pop up in the middle of what today are residential streets. People will still travel for fun, but spend more time exploring their own towns and neighborhoods.

"We'll just amble down the streets in no hurry," he envisions. "The front yards will become the center of social life, as people just hang out and enjoy each other's company, with plenty of time to relax, reflect and play. If you're going somewhere by car you'll feel that you're missing out on so much."

For more information on David Engwicht's vision for our neighborhoods, see www.lesstraffic.com.