Newport, Rhode Island, is thinking about installing at

Newport, Rhode Island, is thinking about installing at least seven modern low-speed roundabouts and reducing its four- to five-lane America’s Cup harborside arterial to a two-lane avenue with bike lanes, widened sidewalks, and tree canopies as it comes through town. Those were among the ideas developed during a charrette conducted in early April by Dan Burden of Walkable Communities, Ken Taylor & Partners architects, and others. Despite the allure of narrow town-center streets lined by houses from 200 or more years ago and despite the fame of its Gilded Age estates, Newport suffers from many of the 20th-century road-planning mistakes that other communities made. Thus the charrette sponsored by the Community Redevelopment Agency. Immediately before the two-day session with the citizenry, Burden delivered his walkable-community message to a Society for Photographic Education annual conference on “Photography and Place” chaired by Sandy Sorlien.