This is a really specific thing, so bear with me.
Currently, when you build a house in North America, the overwhelming norm is that there is a driveway leading directly onto the street with a curb cut.
I think this is bad for road safety and walkability, and we should revert to an older norm of alleys behind the houses which are used for accessing parking and for garbage collection and the like. For an example of what I'm talking about, the Leslieville neighborhood in Toronto is a good example if you want to poke around a satellite map or street view of the residential bits of that area.
So why do I think we should go to this planning system?
First, it greatly reduces the risk of crashes when people are coming in and out of driveways. There can still be parallel street parking, but that's much easier to see and avoid crashes than driving down a street where there's 100 driveways that at any time can make an intersection.
Second, it allows streets to be nicer and more walkable. Because you need less space for turning, you can make the street narrower. And putting garbage in the alley makes the sidewalk space nicer and not obstructed with trash cans all the time. Narrower streets also encourage people to speed down them less, which is safer.
I’ve done some googling around on this, but I don’t quite know the right way to phrase it to get a decent answer out of google. Since I started driving in the early 2000’s I’ve noticed a trend of parking lots getting more and more complicated entrances and exits, and even existing ones changes up to be way more of a pain to get in and out of, with traffic having to sometimes go all the way up to the front before actually being able to get to any parking, versus an old school curb cut and swathe of asphalt.
On mobile so my formatting is kind of crappy, but I hope that makes sense.
