skinny street
n. A street built narrower than usual to enhance traffic safety and encourage pedestrianism.
Examples
2013
The prescription is to put our cities on a road diet. As fellow planner Fred Kent told Playhouse District leaders last year, Pasadena's main drag, Colorado, is way too wide….Can every downtown get with the skinny streets program?
—Larry Wilson, “Wages of sin are paid by our broad boulevards,” Los Angeles Daily News, June 16, 2013
2012
Will all of the proposals in the pedestrian plan — lagging left turns, speed humps, pedestrian scrambles, "skinny" streets — be implemented, or is the department just throwing out ideas?
—Daniel Dale, “Gabe Klein: Chicago’s bike-collecting, rap-loving transportation chief,” The Toronto Star, September 21, 2012
1996 (earliest)
Why create skinny streets in neighborhoods? Allowing newly-paved residential streets to be narrower provides many benefits to area residents. Skinny streets help preserve neighborhood livability, while improving access to homes.
—“Downtown Birmingham 2016 Master Plan” (PDF), City of Birmingham, November 01, 1996
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