the streetscapes or public realm is well handled. There is usually an outer boulevard, with trees. While the new trees look small, they grow quickly in the warm NOTL climate.

 

Readers sometimes complain my pictures are lifeless, but I am a bit shy of photographing people, sans permission, for the limited publication of blog. But for those particular readers, here is a pedestrian:

 

 

And a cyclist:

 

See, these new urban towns are not ghost towns.

In the background of the above picture is my favorite bit of urban planning in Garrison Village. The two way street from which the camera view is taken approaches the obligatory-for-all-new-urbanist-towns “common” or public park set in a island.  In this case, the cyclist will swing right to go around the common, and her exit street — a continuation of this one — leaves from the right corner of the park. Traffic coming the other way circulates the opposite way around the common. There is a cross street involved here too, so it is very much a square “traffic circle” with with streets radiating from the offset corners. Their one-way nature makes it easy and safe for anyone, including children, to cross the street to get to the park. I’m sure in Ottawa we would have insisted on a two way road, plus parking, on all four sides. Note how narrow this street is:

You can google the map, search for Garrison Village Drive, NOTL.

Shown below is another village square, this one triangular, which fails to slow traffic much at all. Much more for show than for use, the cars just whizz by:

 

 

Like most new urbanist towns, there is a touch of the twee, with wrought iron fences (made of aluminum for easy maintenance) near Georgian towns, and picket fences, often now made of plastic, for colonials:

 

 

 

tomorrow: the pedestrian lanes