Fibonacci

"Leonardo Fibonacci was born around AD 1170 to Guglielmo Fibonacci, a wealthy Italian merchant. Guglielmo directed a trading post (by some accounts he was the consultant for Pisa) in Bugia, a port east of Algiers in the Almohad dynasty's sultanate in North Africa (now Bejaia, Algeria). "

Leonardo Pisano Bogollo, (c. 1170 – c. 1250) also known as Leonardo of Pisa, Leonardo Pisano, Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo Fibonacci, or, most commonly, simply Fibonacci, was an Italian mathematician, considered by some "the most talented western mathematician of the Middle Ages."

Fibonacci is best known to the modern world for:

* The spreading of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Europe, primarily through the publication in the early 13th century of his Book of Calculation, the Liber Abaci.

* A number sequence named after him known as the Fibonacci numbers, which he did not discover but used as an example in the Liber Abaci.

Fibonacci
Nationality: Italian
Fields: Mathematician

Known for:

Fibonacci number
Fibonacci prime
Brahmagupta–Fibonacci identity
Fibonacci polynomials
Fibonacci pseudoprime
Fibonacci word
Reciprocal Fibonacci constant
Introduction of digital notation to Europe
Pisano period
Practical number

"In hyperinflation episodes, real quantity of money sharply fell and remained at low levels for a long time."

"Trends of Money"


Long-term trends -Nominal money quantity has always grown, apart from few pathological events. Real money quantity has grown most of the time.

Business cycle behaviour - Nominal money quantity is usually pro-cyclical, sometimes leading real GDP peaks.

"

"High growth rates in nominal money quantity, if clearly exeeding nominal GDP rates, can exert inflationary pressures."

Impact On Other Variables of Money"

If economic agents base their expectations about future inflation on the money quantity, one would expect the present inflation rate boosted by money quantity growth. But this is dependent on how present prices are influenced by mere expectations.

In many empirical instances, a certain increase of money quantity have turned out to be conducive to growth in real GDP.

Many short run acceleration or deceleration of the money quantity remain without any noticeable effects on other variables.

"Determinants of Money"

"International money quantity, i.e. the national quantities of money converted in one common currency at the prevailing nominal exchange rates, is completely out of control."

Narrowly-defined money is heavily influenced by central banks. Instead, depositors, banks, financial and public institutions play a crucial role for broad money aggregates.

With respect to the general economic climate, a booming economy usually exhibits a high growth of money quantity. By contrast, in hyperinflation, real money is drastically squeezed.

"Composition of Money "

"The narrowest definition of money, the monetary base comprehends only cash outside banks plus bank reserves, the latter including both cash reserves held by banks and banks' deposits at the central bank."

Money quantity is the nominal value of particularly "liquid" financial instruments in an economy. "Liquidity" means that an asset is easy to sell in any moment with small or no losses in respect to nominal price

There exist a few definitions of money quantity, some broader than others, i.e. including a wider range of financial instruments.

For the following definitions, a series of simplification has been taken to keep things easy. Moreover, there exist significant international differences in definitions, especially for broader money definitions (M2 and M3).

Larger than the monetary base, M1 comprehends cash and current accounts in banks.

M2 is M1 plus the savings account.

M3 is M2 plus other liquid liabilities of monetary financial institutions.

Thus, although a largely accepted image of money doesn't associate it to interest-bearing, some definitions do comprehend interest-bearing assets.

A crucial distinction is between nominal and real quantity of money, the latter being equal to the former divided by price level. In this way, real money dynamics becomes dependent on inflation.
This is particularly important, since inflation, in its turn, is dependent on nominal and real quantity of money, too.

"Significance of Money "

"Money is whatever can be used in order to settle payments. Nowadays, the most common kind of money are current accounts in the banks."

Cash, a self-evident component of money, has a short life out of the banks. Within few days is spent, for example in a shop, and the shopkeeper brings urgently cash back to a bank.

Money plays three main roles:

1. It is the medium of exchange that settle payments. People accept money in exchange of goods and services. Nothing is owed anymore.

2. Money is the most common medium of account, i.e. it is the good some quantity of which serves as unit of account for prices. Prices are expressed using monetary expressions.

3. Money is a store of value over time and across people, firms, countries. Selling things gives money that can be saved and spent in the future for many different goods and services. However, there exist other financial instruments - and even goods - that can serve as a store of value as well.

Self-Conciousness Of Social Group

One can have a strong consciousness of belonging to a certain group, who has specific material and non-material common interests as well as characteristic way of developing strategies, organizing and acting. But this is not always the case, since it is the result of personal, generational, collective experience.

Usually, the researcher take existing groups and then look at how they react to events and issues. But one can take the other way round and look how social identities arise from conflict and confrontation with "strangers". It's when you are under attack from "somebody" that you look at possible helpers - people on the same part of the barricades. A recognized leadership and an organizational hierarchy help a lot in transforming a latent identity into a co-ordinated multi-agent force.

In more "peaceful" situations, an individual may belong to more than one group and the axis - along which he feels to be defined - can be changed by mass media pressure as well as by specific events.

In a macro-perspective, "totalizing identities" as ethnicity, language, religion can reduce the subjective importance of other social boundaries.

In a micro-perspective, the consciousness of collective identity can arise from current participation to social activities and events, especially when they have a characteristic mass dimension: large factories, manifestations, church rites, stadiums, music concerts.

Significance Of Social Group

by Valentino Piana (2004)

Social Groups

Contents


1. Significance


2. Social groups defined along income and non-income axes


3. Core vs. periphery


4. The boundaries of social groups


5. Self-consciousness of social groups


6. Formal models


7. Data





Throughout the world, societies are split into distinct, albeit sometimes overlapping, social groups.

While self-definition - and self-defined belonging to groups - widely varies over time and situations for even the same individual, there are several indicators and features along which the researcher can build clusters of people.

Indeed, the atomistic idea according to which everyone feels to be dissimilar from anybody else is a realistic picture only of very extreme social conditions. Networks of people linked by communication and emotional lines are very common, while their collapse into monistic units of disconnected individuals is more the result of crashes in the social texture than the standard state.

This is very important for economics since, for instance, social groups are important for consumption as visible behaviour can become a standard with which to compare your owns. Peer groups are often the reference for choosing whether a certain good is a "must have", engendering an imitation dynamics.

In this vein, another name for "social group" is "market segment", seen from the point of view of a seller or a mass medium, to which a differentiated product can be addressed.

Social groups defined along income and non-income axes

A basic axis of social differentiation is personal income. A three-category distinction among the poor, the middle class and the rich, as the one we proposed here, can be too rough to capture all the intermediate nuances but still help characterize different societies.

The unit of analysis can be - but not need to be only - the individual. A second element should be kept into account when judging the individual's position: the size and composition of the household to which he or she belongs. Larger families pay less per-person for certain shared expenditure (like housing) and they can have more than one income-bearer. If not, a large family with only one income-bearer would be much poorer than a one-component family.

A third consideration is linked to the stability of income over time, with people having larger fluctuations in income belonging to different social groups than people reaching systematically and without renegotiation similar levels of income.

Another crucial axis of social differentiation is the ownership of assets. Families that own their home - having already paid back any financial instruments to buy it - can devote more money to active savings and consumption than families with the same level of income but that have to pay the rent. The ownership of durable goods is an important status element aiding different aspects of life. Financial assets (as Treasury bonds, shares, controlling majorities in firms,...) can constitute elements of common material interests for certain social groups.

Employment is an extremely important element in defining identities and common interests, common languages and values. Equally important are culture and levels of education.

Core vs. Periphery Of Social Group

Economists often ignore many of those axes and are tempted to treat each of them as uncorrelated to the others.

But sociology has convincingly shown that these axes tend to covariate, so that rich people tend to be more educated, to have top jobs, to participate more to social life and decision-making.

Thus one should distinguish a core of society (people with more than certain thresholds of income, education, ... and strong connections through social communication channels) - which actively takes part to public life - in contrast to social periphery, a more or less marginal layer of people (poor, emarginated, isolated) [1].

Social cohesion is what keep society united, avoiding the polarization of core vs. periphery. To measure social cohesion, one should look at how deep is the gap between the so-called "have's" and "have not's" (as in the case of "digital divide", the access to clean water, or the softer concept of "employability") and how fast is this gap filled through a diffusion dynamics.

Electoral participation is much higher in the core than in the periphery. This explains - in part - why, even in quite polarized society, democratic election can be won by parties making the interests of the small minority of rich.

The Boundaries Of Social Groups

Groups can be defined as people doing the same thing, liking the same subjects, sharing the same opinions, aiming at the same goals. More technically, groups have common interests, share real experience, express similar way of thinking and reacting.

In a further dimension, one can look at social groups as connected networks of people. They actively exchange information and Weltanschauungen. In the presence of new events, they consult each other on the interpretation to give to them and to decide what to do.

Solidarity networks link families, relatives, friends, neighbours up to co-citizens and people even if not previously known.

The geographical boundaries of social groups are a distinct aspect to analyse, since they are partially influenced by similarities across nations as well as by the hierarchical structure of international relationships.

Electronic Trading

Electronic trading, sometimes called etrading, is a method of trading securities (such as stocks, and bonds), foreign currency, and exchange traded derivatives electronically. It uses information technology to bring together buyers and sellers through electronic media to create a virtual market place.

NASDAQ, NYSE Arca and Globex are examples of electronic market places. Exchanges that facilitate electronic trading in the United States are regulated by either the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and are generally called electronic communications networks or ECNs.

Etrading is widely believed to be more reliable than older methods of trade processing, but glitches and cancelled trades do occur.

Philadelphia Stock Exchange

Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX), now known as NASDAQ OMX PHLX, is the oldest stock exchange in the United States, founded in 1790. It is now owned by NASDAQ and located at 1900 Market Street, in Center City Philadelphia.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) (often called "the Chicago Merc," or "the Merc") is an American financial and commodity derivative exchange based in Chicago. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization. The exchange demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and it merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become CME Group Inc. The Chief Executive Officer of CME Group is Craig S. Donohue. On August 18, 2008 shareholders approved a merger with the New York Mercantile Exchange.

CME trades several types of financial instruments: interest rates, equities, currencies, and commodities. It also offers trading in alternative investments such as weather and real estate derivatives.

CME has the largest options and futures contracts open interest (number of contracts outstanding) of any futures exchange in the world.

On October 7, 2008, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group announced that it will be teaming up with Citadel Investment Group LLC to create a transparent electronic trading platform for credit default swaps. The joint venture between CME and Citadel will operate as an independent organization with its own board of directors and management team. The new venture plans to initially provide clearing services for contracts involving credit-default swap indices, which typically have more standardized terms than swap contracts for individual bonds.

It is expected to eventually expand its offering to include other derivative indices as well as the multitude of single-name corporate derivatives. Major market participants will be invited to join the platform as founding members, in return for receiving a 30 percent equity portion of the venture.


The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 were a record breaking 454 million contracts. On 12 July 2007, the CBOT merged with the CME under the CME Group holding company and ceased to exist as an independent entity.

Chicago Board of Trade Building

Since 1930, the Chicago Board of Trade has been operating out of 141 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. It is housed in a building designed by architects Holabird & Root that is 605 feet (184 m) tall, the tallest in Chicago until the Richard J. Daley Center superseded it in 1965.

This Art Deco building incorporates sculptural work by Alvin Meyer and is capped by a 31 foot (9.5 m) tall statue of the Roman goddess Ceres in reference to the exchange's heritage as a commodity market. Ceres is faceless because its sculptor, John Storrs, believed that the forty-five story building would be sufficiently taller than any other nearby structure and as a result that no one would be able to see the sculpture's face anyway.

On May 4, 1977, the Chicago Board of Trade Building was designated a Chicago Landmark.The building is now a National Historic Landmark. Today the Board of Trade Building is closely joined by numerous skyscrapers in the heart of Chicago's busy Loop commercial neighborhood.

Consumption

"CONSUMPTION"

INTRODUCTION:

Consumption is a common concept in economics, and gives rise to derived concepts such as consumer debt. Generally, consumption is defined by opposition to production. But the precise definition can vary because different schools of economists define production quite differently. According to some economists, only the final purchase of goods and services constitutes consumption, and every other commercial activity is some form of production. Other economists define consumption much more broadly, as the aggregate of all economic activity that does not entail the design, production and marketing of goods and services (e.g. "the selection, adoption, use, disposal and recycling of goods and services").


Contents:

Significance
Composition
Determinants
Impact on other variables
Long-term trends
Business cycle behaviour


Significance

Consumption is the value of goods and services bought by people. Individual buying acts are aggregated over time and space.

Consumption is normally the largest GDP component. Many persons judge the economic performance of their country mainly in terms of consumption level and dynamics.

Composition

First, consumption may be divided according to the durability of the purchased objects. In this vein, a broad classification separates durable goods (as cars and television sets) from non-durable goods (as food) and from services (as restaurant expenditure). These three categories often show different paths of growth.

Second, consumption is divided according to the needs it satisfies. A commonly used classification identifies ten chapters of expenditure:

1. Food
2. Clothing and foot wear
3. Housing
4. Heating and energy
5. Health
6. Transport
7. House furniture and appliances
8. Communication
9. Culture and schooling
10. Entertainment

People in different position in respect to income have systematically different structures of consumption. The rich spend more for each chapter in absolute terms, but they spend a lower percentage in income for food and other basic needs. The percentage values of an aggregation over all the households in a country can thus be used for judging income distribution and the development level of the society.

The rich have both higher levels of consumption and savings. In differentiated product markets, the rich can usually buy better goods than the poor. This happens also because they tend to use different decision making rules. In other words, consumption depends on social groups and their behaviours, as well as their proneness to advertising.

Third, for exactness' sake, one should distinguish "consumption" as use of goods and services from "consumption expenditure" as buying acts. For durable goods this difference may be relevant, since they are used for long time periods.

Fourth, only newly produced goods enter into the definition of consumption, wheareas the purchase of, say, an old house is not considered consumption, since it was already counted in the GDP of the year in which it was built.

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Determinants

Current income is the most relevant determinant of consumption. Income comes from labour (employment and wages), capital (e.g. profits leading to dividends, rents, etc.), remittances from abroad.

Cumulated savings in the past can be squeezed in case of necessity and give rise to a jump in consumption, similarly with what happens with wealth increase, due for instance to stock exchange boom or house prices boom.

Expectations on future income, especially if concerning short-term credible events, may also play an important role.

At household level, there are many possible rules set to control monthly, weekly or even daily consumption expenditure. They relate not only to income but also to the following factors among others:

1. general lifestyles, in particular attitudes toward savings or consumption as "values" in itself;
2. a standard level of consumption the family tries to maintain over time;
3. decisions regarding active saving strategies, like an investment scheme for pension aims;
4. the relative success of past investment in shares or other financial instruments; in fact, a stock-exchange boom is likely to promote an euphoria tide with growing consumption;
5. opportunities of consumer credit, depending in turn by interest rates and marketing strategies by banks and special consumer credit institutions;
6. past decisions on durables. For instance, a family having bought a car will reduce expenditure on public transport in favour e.g. of fuel;
7. status symbols diffusion - "social musts" - that can be favoured by a pro-diffusion-of-innovation tax ;
8. new employment perspectives, also as far as the corresponding investments in human and physical capital are concerned;
9. innovative sale proposals in terms of both new products and new services, effectively advertised;
10. temporary money (cash) excess.

According to age of the decision-maker, individual and household consumption varies, both in values and composition. Thus, aggregate consumption may be influenced by demographic factors, such as an older and older population, even though one should not rely too much on these relationships since demographic variables are extremely slow in changes, whereas consumption clearly reacts to economic climate.

Other things equal, a higher price level (inflation) reduces the real current income, thus real consumption.

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Impact on other variables

A GDP component as it is, consumption has an immediate impact on it. An increase of consumption rises GDP by the same amount, other things equal. Moreover, since current income (GDP) is an important determinant of consumption, the increase of income will be followed by a further rise in consumption: a positive feedback loop has been triggered between consumption and income.

An autonomous increase of consumption, if at the same level of income, would reduce savings, but the positive loop just described (known as the "Keynesian multiplier") will imply an increase of income level with a positive impact on future savings.

If directed to goods and services produced abroad, an increase of consumption will immediately push up imports, while a similar indirect effect will result from consuming domestic products requiring foreign raw materials, energy, semi-manufactured goods.

Since usually the States separately tax consumption (say with a VAT tax), an increase of consumption will also boost this type of State revenue, as well as import duties revenue in the case of imported goods. The growth mechanism of consumption-income will also provide State revenue through income taxes.

To the extent firms decide to invest forecasting future demand and comparing it with present production capacity, an increase of consumption may induce new investment. In particular:

1. soaring consumption rises the production capacity utilization, with positive effects on profits;
2. it improves expectations on future demand;
3. it improves the financial conditions for funding investment both through profits and loans.

If exports are a second-best solution for domestic firm, an increase of domestic consumption might decrease export, since at the same level of production firms would prefer to sell inside the country. To verify this by yourself, try and play "You are an exporter".

An increased demand may also induce firms to increase prices, the more so when they operate at full production capacity or they operate on monopolized markets. Thus increased price level and accelerated inflation can be an effect of booming consumption.

Consumption can lead to CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, thus contributing to climate change.

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Long-term trends

In Western countries, consumption has always grown in the last 50 years, except in few deep recessions. Its growth is smoother than investment's rise or net exports' growth. In particular, services have always systematically grown at a fairly steady pace, non-durables have often mirrored the business cycle and durables have often over-shot the fluctuations in GDP.

Sustainable lifestyles, based on satisfaction of basic needs, green consumer goods, dematerialisation, and carbon footprint off-setting, will be more and more relevant in the future.

Business cycle behaviour

As the main component of GDP, it is pro-cyclical almost by definition: any large fall in consumption would reduce GDP. Consumption has a smoother dynamics than GDP. During a recovery, it sustains and stabilises the trend. Durable goods are particularly cyclical and they may peak shorly before GDP.

source: Valentino Plaza

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Poverty

"Poverty"

INTRODUCTION:

Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care,education, clothing and shelter. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages.


Contents:

Significance
Poverty in terms of Consumption
Poverty in terms of income
Poverty with respect to other dimension
Determinants
Infact on other variables
Long term trends
Business Cycle behaviour
Formal models


Significance

Poverty is a severe constraint on normal living. It is a forced reduction in consumption, due to insufficient income and menacing surrounding conditions.

The poor are a social group whose dimension depends on overall per-capita GDP but, even more, by inequality in income distribution.

There are several levels of absolute poverty between extreme poverty, at the one end, and normality, at the other.

Relative poverty threshold is a percentage of the overall average in income or consumption in a society, allowing for context-specific indications.

Contrary to the neoclassical approach based on utility, evolutionary economics emphasises the limited choice of the poor and a need-based approach with a criterium of sufficiency (satisfaction point).

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Poverty in terms of consumption

The most extreme poverty leads to permanent and unescapable hunger, insufficient and unhealthy diet. Hunger and malnutrition weaken the body, the mind and the capability to work. It becomes a trap because of feedbacks between low occupability, low productivity, low income and hunger.

International aid is directed towards countries where hunger is endemic, but they are usually insufficient and not timely to overcome the poverty trap and the dependence of the poor from the will of the donor.

Throughout its life, the human being is subject to health risks. The poor is subjet to them more often, more severely, and he's worse equipped to react to them. Diseases can be food-borne (with a link to bad diet) and contagious (with network effects). Medecines and medical advice can be so costly that the poor spend too large a part of their meagre income for health or even cannot afford the best remedies. The welfare state is a collective response to health problems, but many poor countries have only limited coverage in welfare.

Garments are used to protect the body from daily and seasonal distress, with the poor having only a limited set of garments, often inadequate in physical or social terms.

Shelter is offered by houses and equivalent buildings, with poor lacking them altogether (homelessness) or partially (e.g. collective dormitories, slums, etc.).

Due to price rises beyond the overall price level increase, certain specific goods might have reached so high prices that a person that earlier could afford them is now prevented form consuming them.

In other words, the poor do not satisfy their basic needs - as defined by Amartya Sen - through adequate quantity and quality of goods and services, not only in terms of level but also in terms of uncertainty and risk of negative shocks.

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Poverty in terms of income

Constantly zero income - out of unemployment - of a socially isolated person without a previously cumulated capital is the most extreme poverty condition. In rather short time, unless reversed, this can lead to zero consumption and death.

However, the most frequent condition of the extreme poor is a life of limited irregular income flows due to single occasions, possibly obtained through the family and social networks.

In many cases, the normal chain from of personal skill & time to employment, wage, and income is broken down, with the poor searching directly for consumption goods (as food), feeling unable to get a job, either because of lack of available jobs or because of his perceived or real inability to perform.

Moreover, the activities put in place in search for food are highly inefficient and usually unsustainable in the long run.

In other cases, the job is irregular and badly paid (in terms of level and effective payments after promises). Working poor are, furthermore, working all the time but getting so low hourly wages that total monthly wage is unsufficient to cover basic expenditure. All their wage is normally spent on consumption with no savings, especially if they feel that there is some stability over time assured.

Below this condition, in case of irregular income , the poor can try to accumulate - once and for all - a small capital to face negative shocks; since banks are costly and may refuse to open an account to e.g. an homeless, he might keep with himself a certain amount of money or exchangeable things, with all the risks of being robbed.

In other words, decumulating savings is a short-living unsustainable tactics used by the poor as a reaction to negative shocks but does not substitute the need for a stable flow of income of sufficient amount.

Less visible - but not less real - is the level of poverty that, although allowing daily satisfaction of needs, imposes a closed life without social activities, trips, enjoyment of culture.

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Poverty with respect to other dimensions

Poverty is usually associated with low education, precarious health, unproper or repellent social image, narrow experience of different places, difficulties in finding friends outside the circle of the poor. Ethnic minorities or migrants have often a larger proportion of poor than the rest of the population.

In family terms, single mothers with little children, on the one hand, and large families with many children, on the other, are particularly at risk of poverty.

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Determinants

Underdevelopment is the cause of the largest number of poor in the world. Low per-capita GDP levels, due to low employment, productivity and wages, plus income inequality result in large shares of the population living with less than 1 or 2 $ per day.

Specific needs could be particularly difficult to be satisfied in certain countries, as with food where desertification and primitive agriculture constrain harvesting or as with devasted houses by hurricanes or as with health during epidemics of contagious diseases.

However, social and political causes and mechanisms are by far more important in explaing why, in face of difficulties, no adequate policies are expressed and implemented by governments.

In particular, in dictatorships the will of the poor can be simply ignored, or repressed, by the ruling elites. In democracy, the poor may not go to the polls or vote for irresolutive politicians, with the middle class and the rich making an alliance to exclude the poor from countries' priorities.

Income inequality is the major determinant of poverty both in developed and non-developed countries. Rising unemployment is a major source of spreading poverty. Lack of access to crucial assets and services (health care, schooling, infrastructure) exclude the poor from the very beginning. By contrast, access to finance as with microfinance is a viable strategy for exiting poverty.

Individual choice and exogenous negative shocks can lead specific persons to the edge of poverty, with alcoholism, narcotics, and gambling being some of the sources of marginalization.

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Impact on other variables

The poor buy less (smaller quantities, narrower bundles, less often) and restrict themselves to worse quality goods (less performing, older, less innovative) than the middle class or the rich.

Thus, sales are lower when a large part of the population is poor (than they have would be otherwise). Total business turn-over, production, value added and employment are consequently reduced.

Vertical product differentiation exhibits a tendence towards low quality goods, with innovation hampered. R&D efforts are diverted from targeting horizontal differentiation features particularly useful to the poor. Goods suitable to the poor are not invented or diffused enough.

The poor tend to consume their entire income (apart from occasional precautionary savings), so usually personal savings will be low (where poverty is widespread). Capital accumulation is more difficult there, with FDI unlikely to target local demand; FDI could be attracted by low wages, but skilled labour might be difficult to find. The linkages between poverty, illiteracy and exports are explored in this paper.

Tax revenue will be low because it is ineffective to tax the poor, because of meagre tax base and necessarily low tax rates. In utility, welfare and political terms, it is too painful to raise tax from the poor. In addition, their income comes often from the grey economy. This creates a vicious cycle with low GDP requiring a pro-development economic policy (e.g. infrastructure) with difficulties in funding it.

Persistent perspective of poverty may lead people to migrate abroad, looking for employment to send money home as remittances.

To the extent poverty is associated with urban segregation, criminality and violence can be high as a result, depending also on general cultural climate.

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Long term trends

The United Nations Millennium Goals indicate the overall goal of halving, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 day. Eradicating poverty is the stated goal of World Bank.

However, the absolute number of the poor has been rising for decades in most developing countries, with the percentage fall over globe's population being due largely to a handful of countries, as China and India.

In developped countries, a bottom group of poor is consolidating, with social marginalization and cumulative feedback mechanisms, trapping the poor down.

Poverty eradication is a key goal that should be coupled with sustainable development and the mitigation of climate change. In this vein, our book on "Innovative Economic Policies for Climate Change Mitigation" puts forth the proposal of leveraging microfinance for the diffusion of clean tech across the poor.

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Business cycle behaviour

Poverty is anti-cyclical, widening and deepening during recessions. Recovery and booms are not always capable of reducing poverty below certain thresholds, due to social marginalization and difficult occupability of the poor.


Formal models

1.) The decision-making routines of the poor

2.) Product innovation in a polarized society

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The Causes of Homelessness

"People become homeless for a wide variety of reasons – loss of job, marital breakdown, mental illness, and alcohol and drug addiction. But when it comes to youth and children, the reasons tend to revolve around the family. "

Overall, were classified as runaways.

Over half of these children report they were “thrown out” by their parents. When youth were asked whose decision it was to leave home, others noted it was “their decision”, others said it was the decision of one or both parents and indicated it was a joint decision by themselves and their parents.

Abuse in the home
Ultimately, experts say that the vast majority of youth or children rarely leave happy homes for the streets. Several studies have indicated that youth have experienced some form of sexual, physical or emotional abuse. Many of the rest simply felt neglected.

One study showed that girls and boys left home because of sexual abuse. Physical abuse was a factor among females and males. Violence and parents’ drug and alcohol abuse were also huge factors.

Substantiated cases of physical abuse, cases of neglect. The increase in cases of emotional maltreatment, largely as a result to exposure to domestic violence.

Social factors
Various studies have identified some key social factors besides sexual and physical abuse.

Many children simply have a poor relationship with their parents. Youth characterized their relationship with their mothers as poor or fair, and said they had a poor or fair relationship with their fathers. Other of street youths said they had no contact at all with their fathers, had a poor relationship.

A higher-than-average portion of the youth come from single parent homes, from homes where one parent is deceased and from homes where the parents have split up.

Possibilities indicates that street youth are much more likely to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered than the general population .

A staggering portion nearly have had some involvement with the child welfare system. In other words, a huge number were once wards of state, living in foster homes or youth shelters and have now fled to the streets.

Behind Streets Life

One reason many youth live on the streets is because their families were made homeless or they can't find affordable housing or a steady source of income to get off the street.

A shortage of good jobs and affordable housing. Housing was a factor in one in five cases where children were taken into care.

And a lack of inadequate housing caused a delay in the return of children to their parents in more cases. From low-income mothers who spoke about losing, or the fear of losing their children because they couldn’t afford housing and were being evicted from their homes.

Indeed, while the loss of income and of affordable housing would seem to affect why adults become homeless, it would be naïve to believe these factors don’t also affect youth. After all, the reason many youth end up on the streets is because their families were made homeless, or they themselves can’t find affordable housing or a steady source of income to get off the street.

Help Protect The Children

HOW CAN YOU HELP PROTECT THE CHILDREN IN YOUR LIFE FROM BEING SUCKED INTO PROSTITUTION?

Keep your children in school as long as possible.
Talk to them in an age-appropriate manner about the methods recruiters use.
If they are ever in danger, it will help them to recognize it sooner.

Seek God’s help to work out family issues.
Broken and breaking families greatly increase the children’s vulnerability.

Let your children know that if they are ever in trouble or danger, they can always call no matter what time it is, no matter where they are, no matter how old they are, no matter what they have done.

Recruiters look for children they think will never call home.
Don't let your children fall in that category.
Try to keep open lines of communication with your children so that they can talk to you if they are in danger or trouble.

Most prostitutes, and ALL child prostitutes, are victims who need help.
Avoid talking about them in a judgmental way.
If you say something like, “People who do that are lower than dirt,” then if someday your child finds herself in a compromised situation, do you think she will feel free to come to you?

Always be willing to take them back.
Help is available for the problems.
They need to know that prostitution is not the only option for them.

If your child is missing, report it to the authorities as soon as possible, along with all possible information about the child.
There is a better chance of recovering the child if you act early.

Don’t send your daughter out selling on the streets.
The streets are being watched by pimps and many other wicked men.

Encourage your children to move in groups rather than in isolation.
Always know where your children are and when you can expect them home.
Avoid high-risk areas unless a trustworthy adult is present.

Children should not be sexualized too early.
If you child has been sexually abused, make sure it has stopped and that the child is protected now.
Then seek counseling for the child.

Pray daily for and with your childern, asking God's protection over them.
Remember that even for prostitutes and even for pimps, salvation is available through Jesus Christ.

He clearly says , “the one who comes to Me I will not cast out for any reason” (John 6:37).

Recruiting a Prostitute--The Isolation Phase:

The Isolation Phase:

The “boyfriend” begins to discourage or forbid contact with family or old friends so that he gains total control of the victim’s thinking (psychological brainwashing). If she has not done so already, he urges her to drop out of school. She is under his constant watch and has no personal freedom. The victim becomes totally dependent on him.

Recruiting a Prostitute--The Coercion Phase:

The Coercion Phase:

The pimp forces the victim into prostitution out of shame (Don’t you love me as much as the others do?), of course giving over most or all of the profits to him. Since she is now cut off from her former life, she often feels she must do this because she has nowhere else to turn. If she hesitates, her family or other people she most loves are threatened, using the information gained in the seduction and attachment phase. She may also be informed that she "owes" the pimp for the meals and gifts, perhaps for transportation, housing, and clothes. She has to work to pay off her "bill." Meanwhile, she incurs other expenses, which makes it virtually impossible for her ever to get free.

Recruiting a Prostitute--The Final Phase:

The Final Phase: Violence:

The victim begins to be beaten severely if she refuses or tries to escape. Early in their prostitution careers, victims are often beaten around the ankles with a coat hanger just to show “what will happen to you if you don’t do just as I say.” For many girls who are recruited very young, this begins when their first period comes. The girl may report that she cannot work because she has got her period. She is then beaten severely, thrown some sponges and told to stuff those up her vagina and get back to work. For many, this is the moment of awakening when they realized that they have been sucked into a terrible trap. They have become a slave and the pimp is their master. No love, no compliments now, only beatings, torture, degrading talk, and sex with whoever comes along with few bucks for the master.

The Seduction & Attachment Phase

There is almost always a definite pattern to the prostitute recruiting process:

Recruiting a Prostitute
The pimp seeks to be the girl’s friend and eventually boyfriend. He gives her presents, takes her out to eat, maybe lets her have her hair or her nails done, tells her he loves her. He tells her that he will take good care of her and never let anything bad happen to her again. He wants to get married to and have a child with her "someday". He has sex with her and tells her how great she is at it. In fact, she’s so good she should be paid for it. The victim enjoys the attention which she believes to be sincere. She is unaware that all this is literally being put on a “bill” that she will be expected to pay later. In fact, the bill may become so great that she will never escape the clutches of her seductor.

During this time the recruiter gains information about her family and about what is really important to her. This information will later be used to keep her in his grip by threatening the things and people closest to her.
During this time, the recruiter seeks to have the girl attach herself emotionally to him so that she will be emotionally unable to turn against him later on. This is easy with girls who have poor family relationships, poor or non-existent father relationships, and who feel deserted and violated already, who have no valid trust relationships with the adults in their lives, because they are so desperate for affirmation and love.

Sometimes in this phase, false promises are made. They may be made to the girl herself, or to her parents. Promises usually include free travel abroad, a well-paying job in the city, or the opportunity for free education. Sometimes parents give girls over to those who promise such glorious things, thinking they have done their daughters a favor and solved the problem of family poverty, too. The promisors are really chld traffickers who are seeking only to exploit their children. The girls rarely make anything, for they are soon turned over to pimps or brothels, where they are forced to perform sex over and over just in order to survive. Their families have unknowingly sold them into a form of modern-day slavery.

Help Protect Children Against the Lure of Prostitution.

Do you know how girls are recruited to become prostitutes?

Here's how girls are recruited into prostitution (commercial sexual exploitation of children)

Pimps are also professional “recruiters”. They watch the streets, transportation terminals, shopping malls, bars and other places, as well, of course, as chat rooms on the net, watching for girls they can easily recruit to become prostitutes lining THEIR pockets. They might be watching your daughter.

The pimp begin a relationship with a girl with the express intent from the very beginning of commercially exploiting the girl—not just sexually exploiting her, although that will happen too, and that is bad enough, but commercially exploiting her—forcing her into prostitution for his financial benefit.

The pimps are: experts at spotting which children are most vulnerable, most susceptible to their recruiting techniques.


Especially vulnerable are:

Children who are alone or in two’s

Children who are on the street

Children who have dropped out of school or are not in school

Children who have run away or are running away

Children with a history of earlier sexual abuse of any kind

Children with a history of family problems

Girls (although boys can be exploited, too)

Children from very poor families

Begging

Begging (or panhandling) is to request a donation in a supplicating manner. Beggars are commonly found in public places such as street corners or public transport, where they request money, most commonly in the form of spare change. They may use cups, boxes or hats to collect the donations.

History of Begging
There are few current techniques for begging which have not been used for hundreds of years, or are not based on older techniques, adapted to modern technology. Beggars rarely recorded their techniques, and often used to disguise their own communication. What is known of them is largely from records of law enforcement, penitential or rogue literature.

From early modern England the best examples are Thomas Harman, and Robert Greene in his coney-catching pamphlets. There is no reason to suppose that what he recorded was new. There are similar writers for many European countries in the early modern period.

In a 1786 James Gillray caricature,

the plentiful money bags handed to

King George III are contrasted with

the beggar whose legs and arms were amputated,

in the left corner

Street Vendor

Street hawkers selling bags and sunglasses in central Rome, Italy.

A hawker is the name given to vendors in many areas of the world selling merchandise that can be easily transported; it is roughly synonymous with peddler or costermonger. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells items of food that are native to the area. Whether stationary or mobile, hawkers usually advertise by loud street cries or chants, and conduct banter with customers, so to attract attention and enhance sales.


A hawker selling Goat meat in Kabul

Life Of A Streets Children

Street Children: Rejected from Childhood on

How dangerous is the situation many of these little street children face virtually alone in such a hostile world! Thank God that Christians care!

Children end up on the streets for many reasons. Some run away from abusive situations. Some street children are orphans of war, tribal fighting, and AIDS. Some were born on the streets to homeless single mothers. Some street kids are teenagers with various disabilities.

When a family has a child with a disability, they may feel ashamed, so they hide the child during his early years, not allowing him outside where others might see him. If a handicapped child or adult tries to go to church, he is often met at the door and told he is not welcome.

So he grows up hidden away, untaught, unvalued, unloved even within his own home. Often in cases of remarriage after death or divorce, the children of the first marriage are not welcomed and are sometimes abused and insulted by the new partner.


Out to the Streets

When such a child becomes a teen, he is often thrown out to fend for himself, and ends up sleeping on the city streets. He may find partial shelter after hours under a store awning or under a makeshift booth in one of the filthy outdoor markets.

Life as a Street Child

Streets children: Child's life

There he might find work enough to feed himself on "good" days by selling bags or carrying boxes to cars for shoppers, begging, or maybe stealing. Children who are able to walk spend long, hot days carting cardboard displays of goods for sale between cars at intersections. They make enough to eat most days. Street children never make enough to rent a room or visit the doctor.

They are almost never welcome in society. For the most part, these young people spend their whole lives knowing nothing but rejection. They are also objects of rape and sexual attack. People know that street children will not and cannot bring charges against them. So they are often used and abused, but seldom loved or valued.

Lane Width

The width of a travel lane on a roadway greatly influences the safety and speed of driving, as well as the total width of a roadway. The roadway width in turn determines the pedestrian crossing distance and the roadway width potentially available for other uses such as bike lanes, parking lanes, or landscaped curb extensions. Conventional traffic engineering theory holds that 12 feet is the optimal lane width, whether for highways, urban streets or rural roads. For example, the Missouri Department of Transportation states,

Narrow lanes force drivers to operate their vehicles laterally closer to each other than they would normally desire...In a capacity sense the effective width of travelway is reduced... In addition to the capacity effect, the resultant erratic operation has an undesirable effect on driver comfort and crash rates.


Bigger Is Not Better

raised_intersection-burden.jpgDespite the accepted engineering wisdom, narrower lane widths are actually associated with fewer traffic injuries and fatalities. A large study of crash data from all 50 U.S. states over 14 years revealed the following:

* Those states with more arterial roads with lane widths of 9 feet or less had fewer traffic injuries. Lane widths of 10 feet or 11 feet are also associated with fewer injuries and fatalities compared to 12 foot lanes.
* For collector streets (residential streets that provide vehicle access to large arterial roads), the same pattern is found. That is, 12 foot wide lanes are associated with more injuries and fatalities.
The author concludes, "these results are quite surprising, as it is general practice to improve the safety of roads by increasing lane widths. One possible behavioral response is that drivers increase their speed when lanes are wider and offset any safety benefit from increased lateral spacing. Another possibility is...that drivers may feel safer and reduce cautionary behavior."

In another study, a researcher found that two segments of the same road, that differed primarily in lane width and adjacent land uses, had 31% fewer crashes during the five years of 1999-2003. The lane width of the narrower section was 11 feet, while it was 12.5 feet in the wider section. Traffic was faster on the wider section, which undoubtedly added to the crash risk.


Narrow Urban Lanes = Less Congestion

Street design expert Dan Burden points out that, at busy urban intersections, narrower lanes allow crossing pedestrians to clear the intersection significantly faster. This allows the green time for cars to be increased, reducing congestion.

Children's Stories 3

I came to Delhi with my mother and her second husband. I was seven then. I am thirteen now. My mother abandoned me at the bus terminal while I was fast asleep and I have not seen her since.
Suddenly, I was an orphan. I met some boys who used to beg at the station and I joined them in begging to feed myself. I did not have a name, so friends started calling me Rajan, which means the king.

I started wiping cars when they stopped at a red light. After a while we moved to Connaught Place, the main shopping area in the capital, where we started picking rag. I also worked in a roadside eatery for a while.

While working there I met people working for a charity that help destitute children, called Jamghat. I work for them now.

I am quite happy here. Even if I find out where my mother is I will not return to her.

I am studying. I am also learning sewing, not neatly but now I can write letters to some extent. I like cricket. I went to Pakistan recently to play. It was an event called Cricket for Peace.

Police have beaten me several times. They beat me once while I was sleeping. I do mime for the Jamghat in which I portray what the police do.

Whenever I feel like rambling I go to my old hangouts. I still see my old friends. I take a bus but do not pay the fare.

I have seen the whole capital without paying any fare. I have travelled to many cities without a ticket. I have been to Mumbai, Haridwar and Dehradun.

I am living with kids like myself and I am very happy. I think I will study well and then help children like myself.

Children's Stories 2

Carlos Heredia, 9, started juggling a year ago. First it was a game, now it is an afternoon job in a busy street of La Paz, Bolivia.

His situation is similar to that of millions of 'street kids' in Latin America. Usually they have a home in poverty stricken areas or shanty towns, but their desperate economic situation compels them to live in the streets all day, doing what they can to earn money.

We have to eat. I go to school in the morning and then I come to this corner to juggle with my oranges. I don't have time for lunch, I do that at 4 pm when there are less cars to get money from.

After that I come back here with my brother who is 11 years old. He can't juggle so he dances by my side.

We make about 20 bolivianos ($2.50) each day. At night we go home. It's far away - two hours' journey.

Many cars give us money, other drivers get mad at us, they sound their claxons or start their cars when we are still in front of them, and they don't give us any money.

Children's Stories 1

My name is Alexey. Everybody calls me Lesha. I am nine years old. I live on the street right in front of the block of flats, where my parents used to live.

They are both alcoholics and they sold their flat so that they could pay for the booze. Now they are homeless themselves and stay with their alcoholic friends constantly moving from one place to another.

I meet my former neighbours and beg for some food or a little money. They usually don't sympathise because I am smelly. I smoke and sniff glue.

I don't want to go back to my parents, but also I don't like hostels for kids like me. You have to do what you are told and wake up at a certain time. I am used to being free to do what I want.

Drivers Behaving Rudely

Just because there's a livable streets revolution underway in NYC doesn't mean that drivers have gotten the message. Cars blocking crosswalks, drivers failing to yield to pedestrians, unnecessary honking and a slew of other quality-of-walking violations are still a routine occurrence to contend with on nearly every corner of New York City.

Mark Gorton, publisher of Streetsblog, wants to put drivers on notice of their rudeness. While he acknowledges the majority of drivers are not bad or mean people, their actions speak otherwise and they may not even realize it. After all, one rude driver sitting in a crosswalk can inconvenience or endanger dozens of pedestrians in one light cycle. Yet would that same person take a shopping cart in a supermarket and purposely block an aisle and make people navigate around him or her? The betting line says likely not.

So what is it about driving a car that allows people to get a societal pass on their rudeness? by Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Parking Spot Squat

In June 2006, Transportation Alternatives volunteers staged a "Parking Spot Squat" in Brooklyn's busy Park Slope neighborhood. The volunteers "liberated" two parking spaces, providing amenities that allowed residents to sit and relax.

The demonstrations created a temporary, but much-needed public space.



The event caused many to question traditional notions of the way public space is reserved for automobiles, and why that space is turned over to drivers at such a low cost. Many similar events have followed, and REBAR sponsored an amazing display of public space reclaimation in San Francisco. by Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Double Parking

UWS Streets Renaissance: Double Parking


Parking policy is one of the biggest challenges that faces New York City and the rest of the U.S. In this related StreetFilm, Donald Shoup explains how responsible pricing can solve the woes of double parking and pollution, while raising revenues that can be re-invested in communities.by Elizabeth Press

Small Vehicle Transit "positive disruptive effect"

Small vehicle transit's positive disruptive effect on human mobility

Small vehicle transit exists on large scale in the developing world right now. There are over 430 million cyclists and 120 million electric bicyles in China alone and networked bicycle systems are rapidly emerging in the developed world including Paris, Germany, Montreal, with the world's largest containing 40,000 bikes in Hangzhou, China. While existing public bicycle systems provide a certain amount of automation of access, parking, payment, etc. using credit card, global positioning system (GPS), and cell phone technology, more advanced systems will provide a certain amount of automated operation of the vehicles themselves with not only improved ease-of-use but, perfomance and safety -- on scale with high speed large vehicle transit in the form of trains (Japan's "Bullet Train" is reported as having not a single fatality in 40 years of operation) -- such as the New Zealand Shweeb adventure park system (capable of human-power-only 56 mph) (www.shweeb.com). And, a diversity of advanced design of vehicles will extend accessibility to the broadest spectrum of the population including the disabled, women with children, the elderly, and the just plain lazy.

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Small Vehicle Transit

Human Mobility and the Advance of Civilization
Small vehicles are those vehicles that are small enough to be practically powered by human power.

Ideal vehicles, small vehicles, zero VMT vehicles, net-zero vehicles, low-emission vehicles, human-powered vehicles, hybrid human-electric vehicles, bicycles, tricycles, recumbent bicycles and tricycles, networked bicycles, bicycle and small vehicle systems, advanced bicycle and small vehicle systems; skates, scooters, skateboards; Segways(TM), GM P.U.M.A., Uno Cycle.

Large-scale transition to running cars with green electricity combined with ongoing light-weighting and streamlining along with significant improvements in conventional large-vehicle transit services may greatly reduce green house gas emissions.

But, the key issue is that a large-scale switch to global mobility based on small vehicles will cut emissions much more effectively to a dramatically complete long-term sustainable level, quite possibly to less than 1% of current emissions; and, especially with a global population projection of 8 to 10 billion people by 2050 -- with a minimal equivalent of two Chinas 40 years from now -- with extreme poverty and mass starvation effectively eliminated along with many other treatable and preventable diseases.

Part of this issue is to provide logical arguments on how this new mobility can be crafted to be much more practical, convenient, safe and cost effective (low cost); can provide better accessibility, performance, speed, range, etc. than current systems and is completely achievable in the extreme short term with existing technology.

Small vehicle transit -- such as currently embryonic public bicycle systems -- may be just starting to appear on the radar of advocacy groups addressing rapid action to mitigate and adapt to the climate change crisis and, hopefully, much more advanced small vehicle transit will soon become mainstream common wisdom as one of the critical solutions to the rapidly accelerating crisis.

Parking Policy

Parking policy consists of local development ordinances and municipal programs that control the design, supply, and price of automobile parking. Once a bluntly-wielded tool of city planners, parking policy is now recognized as a major factor determining city form, the viability of transit services, development density, traffic volumes, and the look and feel of streets.

Surplus parking encourages car ownership and car use, creating induced demand. For example, residential buildings that guarantee off-street parking promote driving over walking and transit.

Outdated parking policies (i.e., generic, suburban-style parking minimums) thwart efforts to provide more transportation choices, reduce vehicle congestion, protect historic buildings, and revitalize downtowns.

Rethinking Parking Requirements

Research during the 1980’s and 1990’s, led primarily by Professor Donald Shoup at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed that parking policies were undermining the economies of urban areas, hurting retail sales, and increasing traffic congestion. It was also shown that many suburban building codes required more spaces than needed unnecessarily increasing the costs of goods and services and creating pedestrian-unfriendly “dead space” around buildings.

Shoup and his colleagues noted that “bundling” the cost of parking with building leases required anyone who used or did business in a particular building to participate in subsidizing anyone who used the attached parking. “Unbundling” the cost of parking from building rents has emerged as a necessary first step in reforming the allocation and use of parking.

In New York City, there is growing concern that free parking in new residential buildings will cause a steep rise in car ownership and traffic congestion. In August 2008, the organization Transportation Alternatives issued an urgent report [3] calling for significant reform to city parking policy. Their recommendations include: eliminating or reducing minimum parking requirements in areas close to transit, prohibiting curb cuts for parking facilities on pedestrian-oriented streets, and reduced housing prices for car-free households.

The effect of New York's residential parking minimums is to concentrate parking in the most dense and transit-rich areas of the city, packing cars into neighborhoods that would otherwise be walkable [4]. "Everyone's trying to remake themselves into New York while New York is trying to make itself a more suburban environment," explains urban planning professor Rachel Weinberger

Parking Policy Innovations

Many cities, primarily on the west coast of the United States, have instituted parking policy innovations

Pricing

Many merchants mistakenly believe free parking attracts the most customers. In reality, parking is a scarce resource that should be appropriately priced to encourage desired levels of use. In commercial areas, on-street and off-street rates and parking duration limits should be finely tuned to parking demand, to encourage turnover of spaces, which helps support retail sales. For example, rates may increase significantly after two hours or duration may be set at 2-3 hours. Retail employees are thereby discouraged from occupying the most convenient spaces, perhaps being directed to another mode, or to less expensive spaces in a parking facility or a less busy street. Ideally, rates between on-street and off-street spaces should be similar, with the most convenient spaces priced the highest. This is contrary to the usual practice, where parking meter rates are minimal and spaces in parking structures are set far higher, reflecting the cost of providing them. This results in drivers “cruising” for parking, adding significantly to traffic and pollution.

Disrupting the Pedestrian Environment

Parking lots and off-street parking spaces almost always present obstacles for pedestrians. This photo (below) of the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn proves that even modest off-street parking can deter those on foot. Constructed in 1908, the building on the left forms a safe, continuous pathway for walkers. The block on the right was built in the 1980’s, with greater parking requirements; vehicles cross the sidewalk at multiple points. The neighborhood shifts from “pedestrian-oriented to car-oriented as the pedestrian environment is undermined”

Complete Streets

Complete Streets" is an initiative by which cities, states, and other jurisdictions adopt a policy that future roadway projects will safely accommodate all users - pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, transit riders and drivers of motor vechicles, and people of all ages and abilities, including children, older adults, and people with disabilities. For decades, traffic engineers have designed streets, particularly urban arterials, primarily for the efficient movement of private motor vehicles. Residents across the U.S. are demanding street features that consider the needs of other users. The cause has been taken up by the National Complete Streets Coalition, formed in 2005 by a number of transportation user and practitioner groups, including AARP, the American Planning Association, and America Bikes, and led by transportation advocate, consultant, and writer, Barbara McCann.

The complete streets framework includes not only retrofitting existing streets to increase safety for all, but changing project scoping, planning procedures, and design standards so that streets are routinely designed with all users in mind from the outset. A related concept, Context Sensitive Solutions , emphasizes designing roadways with the surrounding context in mind.

Street Classifications Drive Overdesigned Streets

Since World War II, U.S. street design standards have gotten away from traditional street grid pattern that disperses traffic more evenly. Instead, the use of a street hierarchy has been emphasized. Streets are classified into a system of increasing volume and speed: residential, collector, minor arterial, and major arterial.

This classification philosophy, enshrined in professional manuals such as A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (the "Green Book") , purposely de-emphasizes accommodations for users other than private vehicles on the highest volume streets.

Although the Green Book has been revised over time to encourage all modes, the street hierarchy approach tends to lock into place the private-vehicle bias, leading to over-design of streets to accommodate ever higher volumes and speeds during the few congested hours of the day.

Major arterials typically space pedestrian crossing opportunities up to a mile apart, ignore the needs of bicyclists, and may not even provide sidewalks or anything more than a sign on a pole for a bus stop. Speed "limits" are set by measuring prevailing speeds and establishing the 85th percentile speed as the posted limit. As vehicle technology improves and vehicles travel ever faster, the speed limit is correspondingly ratcheted upward.

Little wonder then that pedestrian and bicycle deaths and injuries occur in such high numbers on urban arterials. Another result is that the sterile, hostile environments of urban arterials carve up neighborhoods, separate shoppers from available parking and school children from their schools.

This type of environment creates a natural incentive to combine as many products and services as possible into a single destination. Hence the big box mega-stores such as WalMart, that offer everything from groceries to snowmobiles.

Complete Streets Policies

Since the early 2000's, state laws, local ordinances, and regional transportation funding agencies have begun a quiet revolution, adopting Complete Streets policies (though not always using this term). Such policies are not one-size-fits-all, and need not be threatening to traffic engineers. They generally require that, depending on the context, roadway construction projects must include consideration of its various users. For example, disabled access on a rural highway project may not be the best use of limited funding when urban streets competing for the same funds lacks similar accommodations.

In 2005, the Complete Streets Coalition was formed to advocate for and track the adoption of Complete Streets projects, as well as state and local Complete Streets policies and standards. The Coalition points as models to the Massachusetts Highway Department's Project Development and Design Guide [2] and the City of Charlotte, North Carolina's Urban Street Design Guidelines [3]. Importantly, both models include additional staff training and revised public processes to include input from all users in making street design decisions.

Complete Streets - Federal Legislation

In 2009, complete streets legislation gained momentum because of a push for action on climate change and transportation reform. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA) introduced the Complete Streets Act of 2009 in March to make streets, intersections and trails both more accessible and safer for walking and biking. (Senator Harkin had previously attempted to pass a complete streets bill in 2005.) The law would require that states and city planing agencies tie investments to policies that "meet the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and vehicles, as well as the needs of people of all ages and abilities" .

In July 2009, the House of Representatives passed a climate change bill that included a 'complete streets' component : mandating that state and local agencies encourage alternative forms of transportation (walk, bike, transit) through land use and transportation policies.

Implementing Complete Streets

Implementing Complete Streets policies involve four major changes

1. Revised roadway policies and standards -- These include such features as lane widths, design speeds, corner turning radii, the placement and design of crosswalks, incorporation of countdown timers, lead pedestrian intervals, bike lanes, and whether to add or leave street parking.

2. Revised decision process -- All users should be consulted to help determine the appropriate design for a new or rebuilt roadway.

3. Staff training -- Local traffic engineers and planners should receive training in best practices for accommodating all users. Most engineering schools provide no training on traffic calming, pedestrian, bicycle, or disability design.

4. Data collection -- Data on all users, not just vehicles, should be collected before and after a street retrofit. Consideration should be given to adopting multimodal performance standards, known as Level of Service standards, to track how well each user group is being served. Typically, Level of Service is only measured for vehicles, during the most congested hours of the day.

Design Techniques

Roadways considered to be "complete" are not of any one size or description. However, for urban arterials, a number of standard design techniques are typically used:

* Speeds are reduced to be more compatible with pedestrians and bicyclists. This is done by a combination of techniques, included among those listed below.
* Lanes are reduced in width (from 12 feet to 11 or even 10 feet).
* The number of lanes may be reduced, often from 4 to 3, which also improves safety for left turns and allows the most prudent driver to set the speed. This treatment is known as a road diet .
* Sidewalks, if missing, are installed.
* Curb cuts (driveways) may be consolidated to reduce walkway interruptions by moving vehicles.
* Raised medians are installed, which improves safety for crossing pedestrians.
* Universal design features are installed, including audible signals, curb ramps, and providing a 4-foot wide clear path of travel on the sidewalk, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Public Rights-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG).
* Pedestrian crossings are enhanced with ladder-stye or zebra-style crosswalk markings, signal modifications such as a leading pedestrian interval or countdown timer , and as needed, flashing crosswalks -- lights embedded in the pavement that flash when activated by a crossing pedestrian.
* Street parking is maintained or installed, which helps to discourage speeding.
* Highway interchanges are modified to eliminate high-speed, free right turns. This is done by "squaring up" the interchange to resemble a typical 90-degree, signal-controlled intersection.
* Corner treatments are installed. These may include curb extensions, right-turn slip lanes, or tighter turning radii, all of which slow right turns and provide greater visibility for pedestrians.
* Transit accommodations are improved in a variety of ways.

Design Standards for Urban Arterials

Safer Design Standards for Urban Arterials

As mentioned above, in the U.S., urban arterials are especially dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as for drivers. The majority of pedestrian crashes and fatalities take place on arterial streets. The reason is a deadly combination of dense land uses, driveways, pedestrians, stopping transit vehicles, and high-speed, high-volume vehicle traffic. Research shows that typical safety fixes are in fact counterproductive, although few traffic engineers recognize this. For example, researcher Dr. Eric Dumbaugh studied streets with supposed unsafe conditions (narrow lanes, street trees, land uses close to the street, street parking) and concluded:

Current safety objections to the use of livable street treatments are not based on empirical evidence, but are instead the result of a design philosophy that systematically overlooks the real-world operating behavior of road users.

The Congress for the New Urbanism and the Institute of Transportation Engineers collaborated on a breakthrough design manual, Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities. Although some aspects of this treatment are somewhat conventional, the manual succeeds in endorsing known approaches and techniques for making existing or new urban arterial streets safer for all users, in effect making complete streets out of dangerous, incomplete ones.