STREET BARRIERS IN AMERICAN CITIES

The paper examines the emergence of urban street barriers, which are objects placed by municipal governments or neighborhood associations on publicly owned, local service streets to control vehicular traffic. An increasing number of U.S. cities have adopted street barriers in order to deter crime and to regulate commuter traffic. The paper discusses the conditions that prompted cities to adopt street barriers and the results of their installations. Street barriers are effective as traffic controls but have mixed results in reducing crime. The philosophical issues relating to the continued adoption of street barriers are addressed. The paper concludes with a call for additional research on street barriers.