Posts about Complete Streets

The county's decisions about its streets affect the financial and physical health of its residents. A large portion of Prince George's residents outside the Beltway pay over 45% of their income for housing and transportation costs. These communities also have a Walk Score less than 50%, said Yolanda Takesian from Kittelson and Associates.

RJ Eldridge, a planner with Toole design and councilmember in the Town of Cheverly, pointed out that about 67% of county adults are obese or overweight, as are 33% of children ages 2-11.

Ortiz said that County Executive Rushern L. Baker has committed $17 million to a "Green Streets" fund. This will pay for sustainable streets that accommodate all uses, including walking and biking.

The county is no stranger to environmentally sustainable streets. Ortiz said that the county's Department of Environmental Resources pioneered bioretention, where streets include planted areas to absorb stormwater, around 1990. Their bioretention on Route 202 was the first in the nation. Bioretention has now become an accepted practice in stormwater management.

Incorporating walking and bicycling with green streets is a natural next step. Andre Issayans, Deputy Director of the Prince George's Department of Public Works and Transportation, listed several projects that will be the next "complete and green streets," including Oxon Hill Road, Harriet Truman Drive, and Ager Road. Construction will start on Oxon Hill Road in late summer or early fall.

Council Member Eric Olson discussed a bill he and Councilmember Mel Franklin have proposed that would allow the Planning Board to require developers to construct adequate pedestrian and bicycle facilities on new development. The Board would have to determine the infrastructure necessary to access destinations within ½ mile such as a public school, parks, shopping center or transit.

Developing a network for walking and biking goes beyond just transportation planning, but must include land use decisions as well, Eldridge elaborated. He said that that development codes must complement capital improvements from transportation. Infrastructure investment should serve many purposes beyond just moving cars.

The Countywide Master Plan of Transportation already outlines a Complete Streets policy. Eldridge recommends the next step is for the county to develop a design manual that brings Complete Streets principles to actual projects.

While the County representatives agree with complete and green streets, the forum ended on a note of reality. Many of the county's best intentions depend on funding. Planned projects may stay on the list far longer than anyone would like.

Residents also called attention to the fact that a walkable community is not only about infrastructure but about personal safety as well. Coalition for Smarter Growth Policy Director Cheryl Cort questioned the need for a new 4-lane highway to Branch Avenue Metro station when the county should be focusing on building a walkable community.

Slater said the project will include bicycle and pedestrian facilities, but that doesn't satisfy many residents concerned that the county still overbuilds auto infrastructure. It's great to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists on roadways, but a high-speed highway with token sidewalks and bike lanes still doesn't create a livable place.

Prince George's has taken some significant steps, but county officials and supporters of better communities alike should continue to work together to address the challenges they face as a community.

We wound down the banks of Accotink Creek, through quiet woods separating cul-de-sac neighborhoods, and past baseball fields lying in floodplains that seemed hard to access by car. We made our way the north shore of Lake Accotink, pausing at its marina. On the trail's southernmost end, we encountered evidence of both September's flood damage and very recent repairs.

I had planned the route to end at the Franconia station; from there we would take Metro with our bikes back into town. I did so assuming that there would be a sidewalk, or at least a wide shoulder, on the stretch of Old Keene Mill Road between the trail's end at Hunter Village Drive and the turn onto Frontier Drive. No such luck.

Faced with the prospect of pedaling up this hill in the rightmost of four narrow lanes of speeding traffic, we opted to walk our bikes along the road's rocky right edge:

After we finally made it to an area with a sidewalk (albeit a very narrow one), it soon ended as we neared the crossing of I-95. Just past Backlick Road, we reached a point where we had to dodge cars exiting on two rightward on-ramps in order to stay on Franconia Road. We made it.

At the other side of the Interstate, we found sidewalks the rest of the way to the Metro station. But we left with the impression that cyclists are not welcome to actually ride bikes to the southern head of the Cross-County Trail, particularly when coming from Metro.

Not only that, but Old Keene Mill Road's design is highly unsafe for Metrobus and Fairfax Connector riders (never mind that this route doesn't operate on weekends). How is someone supposed to get to this bus stop without jaywalking or bushwhacking?

Fairfax County planners should re-examine Springfield's major arterial roads to ensure that they are safe and accessible to pedestrians, cyclists, and bus riders. Simply adding a sidewalk on this section of Old Keene Mill Road would go a long way.

In Silver Spring, the Montgomery County Planning Department, the DC chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism, the Green Commuter, Pyramid Atlantic, and Growing Soul all created spaces in a row. The planners used one space for a three-dimensional display about complete streets. Two other spaces have become temporary extensions of Veterans' Plaza, and 3 spaces contain displays on cycling, sustainability, and art.

In Dupont Circle, Casey Trees set up the Park(ing) Day display with mock trees and some information about the value of the tree canopy in the city.

Finally, Arlington's Car-Free Diet folks created a video showing one way to use Park(ing) Day space: Arm wrestling.

However it's used, Park(ing) Day installations show how green space can further improve an urban area. Downtown Silver Spring, for example, is an extremely walkable place, but over 82 acres of ground is devoted to parking.

That's almost 22% of the land area of the CBD. And that number does not include on-street parking. In comparison, parks, plazas, and privately-owned open spaces make up only 21 acres—a little under 6% of the land area.

Today, public open spaces in downtown Silver Spring, Arlington, Dupont Circle, and Pennsylvania Avenue got a little larger, at least for the day.

Option 3 stands out as the best option. Its most notable feature is to reconfigure the intersections with Vermont Avenue and Sherman Avenue to traditional right angles. Currently, the intersections are designed like highway ramps to aid drivers in speedy turns between the avenues. As expected, when you engineer a road for fast driving, people will drive fast regardless of the speed limit signs.

To discourage speeding, option 3 curves both of these avenues to intersect Florida Avenue a right angles. This will require sharper turns that will calm traffic and reduce the distances pedestrians must traverse to cross the avenues.

The elimination of the high-speed turn lanes creates the opportunity for two small plazas at these intersections.

Option 3 also reduces the amount of impervious surface (orange) and allows for a planting strip with trees on the east side of Florida Avenue just south of Vermont Avenue. Furthermore, it includes for curb extensions that reduce the distance pedestrians must spend in the path of traffic when crossing the streets.

Bike lanes will extend from Sherman Avenue to 9th Street and will connect the bike lanes on V Street, W Street, and Sherman Avenue.

These changes are very welcome, but there are several regrettable omissions. The intersection at V Street lacks a crosswalk on the north side, as does the north side of the intersection of Vermont Avenue. The intersection with W Street lacks any crosswalks for crossing Florida Avenue at all.

To cross Florida at W, a pedestrian will have to detour nearly 900 feet to and from the nearest crosswalk, or cross without a marked crosswalk. Under DC law, any edge of an intersection is still a legal crosswalk, but by avoiding striping one, DDOT is sending a signal that it isn't designing the intersection to be safe to cross.

As Howard University increases the number of students living on campus while encouraging walking and biking, the city must build the infrastructure that makes walking safer, easier, and more comfortable.

Curb extensions and crosswalks at W Street would provide an excellent pedestrian accommodation, yet options 1 and 2 show one isolated curb extension at W Street and option 3 shows none.

In 2009, DDOT agreed to add a crosswalk to a Fort Totten intersection which had a missing leg. Including safe crossings at all intersections in street designs should be one of the ways DDOT follows through on its "complete streets" policy.

Another disappointment is that DDOT's 3 design proposals ignore the roundabout envisioned in the Office of Planning's Duke Plan.

A roundabout would lie at the intersection of Florida Avenue, Sherman Avenue, and a newly created Bryant Street, which would be constructed on a DC-owned parking lot that lies east of the intersection.

DDOT staff will present this design and take questions at tonight's meeting of the ANC 1B Transportation Committee. The meeting starts at 7 pm at the Thurgood Marshall Center, 1816 12th Street NW.

For many advocates, the prohibition on nonmotorized users at Broad Branch Road was a bad indicator. Bridges are traditionally choke points where bicycle and pedestrian access is critical. Why would DDOT install a facility it considers insufficient to handle bicycles and pedestrians, and then restrict their use entirely?

Because the temporary bridge is a structure DDOT already had available, it came with some restrictions if a temporary facility were to be installed quickly. Most notably, the bridge has a single 13-foot wide lane and no sidewalks. As a result, vehicles traveling on this bidirectional roadway must alternate in order to cross the bridge. Because of these movements and the narrow bridge width, DDOT explained in press releases that it "discourages" cyclists and pedestrians from using the bridge.

The signage installed did more than discourage, however. It entirely prohibited cyclists and pedestrians. In a phone call with us, DDOT representatives explained that the sign was too restrictive and would be removed.

DDOT was under pressure to install a temporary bridge at this location. In order to do so cost-effectively, it had to use a bridge already in its possession. The agency could not responsibly encourage all cyclists and pedestrians on a substandard bridge but did not want to prohibit expert users who needed to use the facility and could do so safely. Hence, the "discourage" policy.

While this policy is not anyone's ideal, it is understandable. This policy seems to abide by the Complete Streets philosophy by allowing access but not encouraging use of a substandard temporary facility. This is only acceptable because the bridge's temporary nature, and political pressure from the adjacent council members will help ensure its final replacement by mid-September.

The Broad Branch Road bridge doesn't violate the Complete Streets policy, but is DDOT following it with its other, more permanent projects? Next, we'll take a look at street reconstruction projects, including some constructed before the policy was issued, and one identified as a "complete street" by DDOT Director Terry Bellamy in his confirmation testimony.

Many DDOT projects do take all road users into account, but not always to the extent they should. In order to be meaningful, DDOT's complete streets policy should have an impact on the agency's projects. It's not yet clear that it has.

The plans are currently at 65 percent design, Bellamy explained. "We're bringing back the bike team for updates," Bellamy continued. "There was some concern over the amount of parking that was going to be removed."

However, it's not clear who exactly is concerned about the parking removal, or even how much parking might be removed, as DDOT's bicycle program has not released any plans for discussion since the conceptual designs were put on display in March 2010.

Although similar plans implemented along 15th Street NW garnered little opposition, Wells noted that parking changes can be difficult. "Politically, I know it's very hard," he told Bellamy. "Whenever there's one parking space removed, I hear about it."

When parking is removed, Wells said, "we need to know the impact on our businesses." The chairman, however, urged DDOT to prioritize the needs of District residents over those of suburban commuters. "Generally it's going to be a DC resident who needs that safe bike lane," he said.

Bellamy stated that "there were also some transit issues," though it's unclear what those issues might be since a very limited number of bus routes run on L and M streets. According to WMATA's map, there is no bus service on L Street east of 19th Street, and no service on M Street east of 18th Street.

DDOT had originally planned the cycle tracks for I and L Streets, but moved them to L and M streets after criticism that the plans ignored an existing study of bus priority along I Street.

The majority of the project area is located within the Golden Triangle BID and the Downtown DC BID. These organizations had been connecting property owners and businesses to DDOT's bike program staff as the lanes went through the design process.

Parking removal was not a major hang-up in these discussions, which included a wide range of issues, such as loading zones and intersection treatments. Over the past six months, these discussions have slowed as progress on the cycle tracks ground to a halt.

Looking ahead, Wells asked Bellamy: "How do you weigh whether you move forward or not?" Bellamy replied that the agency will do a benefit analysis, without providing specifics on what will be weighed.

In its response to Bellamy's statements, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association laid out some questions that should be considered as part of a benefit analysis. "How many parkers per day will be inconvenienced, compared to the projected cyclists served? ... When considering the benefits, as Director Bellamy states, will health and environmental benefits be included?" the advocacy group asked.

"Previously," WABA continued, "DDOT's stated rationale [for delay] had been a need to further study the impacts of the existing cycle tracks before continuing." If Bellamy continues to wait for this report, people who want to safely bike across downtown may be waiting a long time.

At a meeting earlier this month, DDOT staff said that an interim report evaluating the 15th Street cycle track and other new facilities will be available in November 2011 and the final report will be released in April 2012. That's more than a year after DDOT converted the lane to two-way operation, and more than two years after the initial contraflow lane was installed on 15th Street. That's a long time to wait for a bike lane, but that's okay—we've been waiting since 1979.

Both Capital Bikeshare and the downtown cycle track plan were announced as the two high-profile bicycling initiatives of Bellamy's predecessor, Gabe Klein. Capital Bikeshare has given the District a significant boost in bike-friendliness. Its popularity has led the red bikes to gain momentum under the Gray administration.

But bike sharing is only half of the equation. "The expectation for bicycle infrastructure is expanding," Wells noted at the hearing. Mayor Gray has stated that he wants the District to achieve platinum status as a "Bicycle Friendly Community."

In this context, Bellamy's equivocation on this central piece of bike infrastructure is an alarming signal. It comes as a surprise to some in the city's transportation community and flies in the face of DDOT's own long-term plans, since crosstown cycle tracks were first outlined in the agency's 2005 Bicycle Master Plan.

During his tenure, Klein hired Bellamy away from Arlington County to become DDOT's Director of Operations. Bellamy clearly holds the right priorities, and at the hearing he listed expanding bicycling, walking, and transit as top goals for his tenure.

Now that Bellamy no longer has "interim" attached to his title, he may have more freedom to champion cycle tracks, though his confirmation hearing comments did not give any indication that he is energized about pursuing serious bike infrastructure as a critical part of the District's transportation system.

Is there still a champion for these innovative projects within the agency? DDOT's bike program, like many other departments, has more on its to-do list than it has staff capacity. Before Klein was director, the agency's bike staff was working on other projects. Klein pushed the bike program to make downtown cycle tracks a priority.

Now that Klein and his interest in cycle tracks have moved to Chicago, it's not clear that the agency's bicycle staff has has the interest, capacity or ability to keep this project moving forward without the director making it an agency priority. As a result, DDOT's bike staff has been focusing on smaller, more traditional bike projects.

Is there a way forward for crosstown cycle tracks? Perhaps DDOT's Complete Streets policy, which was also a topic at Bellamy's confirmation hearing, should be, as Wells said, something other than just "an aspirational goal." A critical part of complete streets is making sure that staff are able to design roads for all users, so engineers consider bikes as well as cars and have tools at their disposal to include non-automobile users in a roadway's design.

Otherwise, it falls to the bicycle program to make sure that even the most basic bike lane designs, which have been accepted by state highway officials for years, are included in the agency's road projects. Instead of fighting within the agency for a simple bike lane, an effective Complete Streets policy would allow bicycle program staff to instead focus on more challenging, high-impact projects like cycle tracks.

The bottom line is that it's simply irresponsible of DDOT to encourage people to hop on bikes while neglecting to create safe places for them to ride. Crosstown cycle tracks will serve significant numbers of cyclists each day in a downtown environment where many do not feel safe on a bike today. They are too important to let DDOT roll back the clock on its commitment.

WABA is asking bicyclists and supporters of bike infrastructure to contact DC officials and ask them to move forward on these projects. Sign their petition to Bellamy, Mayor Gray, bicycle program head Jim Sebastian, and Wells now.

In this video, Streetfilms takes a look at New York City's complete streets transformation. If you haven't been to the big apple lately, you might not recognize some of the spaces that have been transformed in recent years.

The District and many of the other jurisdictions in the region have made great strides toward opening our roadways to all modes over the past few years. Let's hope that the region continues to follow the progressive example New York is setting.

Arlington already has a "complete streets" policy, which has animated the development of its Master Transportation Plan. For instance, the pedestrian and bicycle components envision completion of the respective networks, increasing use and safety, and integrating the various modes of transportation.

The streets element, however, may ultimately prove to be the most significant facet of the Plan.

The introduction to the draft streets section places Arlington's complete streets policy front and center:

The street is where every element of transportation must be addressed and accommodated: pedestrians, transit, bicycles, passenger vehicles, trucks, and parking. It is also where many other aspects of public life take place, including displaying civic pride, setting the tone for public life and commerce, providing space for vegetation, and providing storm water management. The street binds and enhances a community so that the public thoroughfares serve it.

The draft eschews the acquisition of substantial new right-of-way or road-widening efforts. Instead, it proposes to more efficiently and effectively use the transportation options and resources available. In addition, it aims to enhance the viability of multiple transportation options.

The draft plan also offers several recommendations with respect to "limited access highways" such as Arlington Boulevard, the GW Parkway, and Interstates 66 and 395. These recommendations include several designed to encourage high-occupancy vehicle use, such as increasing the hours HOV restrictions are in effect, increased bus usage, use of "intelligent transportation systems" as well as consideration of variable-occupancy toll lanes and congestion pricing.

By envisioning expanded pedestrian and bicycle access to bridges, the proposal will have the effect of encouraging additional alternatives to commuting by motor vehicle.

The new "typology" of streets will guide the redesign and rebuilding of arterial streets. In particular, the draft proposes six arterial street designations. The plan anticipates that placing arterial streets into these categories will help the County achieve its goal of complete streets by more clearly identifying how particular streets fit into the overall transportation network.

The draft also provides a typology for local streets, with specific design criteria. It contemplates the criteria and appropriateness of pedestrian-oriented streets. Such streets are "characterized by shared use of the entire street area by motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists."

Overall, the draft streets element is clearly driven by the County's previously adopted general policies, including the strong support of a complete streets policy. It is only fitting that the County complete its own Master Transportation Plan with the streets element.

Hamre called on DDOT and Maryland and Virginia DOTs to add more dedicated bus lanes and make other physical changes to streetscapes, such as curb bulb-outs and relocating stops, to enhance bus operations. But Ricks encouraged the audience to consider the needs of all road users.

"I hope Mr. Hamre doesn't want to pit bicyclists against transit riders," Ricks said, explaining that WMATA's priority bus corridors also happen to have the highest amounts of pedestrian and bicycle, as well as auto, traffic. Bus lanes, aside from taking valuable space away from other users, are very difficult to enforce.

She pointed out that, while owning and operating a car in the DC region costs about $27 per day (by AAA Mid-Atlantic estimates) and Metrorail costs about $4 per day ($3.20 daily for Metrobus) on average, Capital Bikeshare costs only 22 cents per day, and walking of course is free (shoes aren't even required on DC streets!).

While Ricks agreed that curb bulb-outs generally make for speedier bus service, she said that each bulb-out proposal should be examined in context to determine the effect it would have on pedestrian, bicycle and auto traffic flow, as well as parking. She Hamre also questioned universal calls for bus stops to be placed at the far end of intersections, saying that allowing buses to load and unload riders while stopped at a red light is often most efficient.

One thing Ricks and Hamre did agree on is the general desire for priority traffic signaling to be implemented on the busiest bus routes. This wold mean that the timer controlling each traffic light would sense (via GPS) when a late-running bus is approaching, and the light would stay green long enough for the bus to clear the intersection, or start changing from red to green faster.

"Transportation is what allows us to be successful. It is a lifeline to employment and opportunity," Ricks concluded. She also noted how transit service that is more responsive to a community's needs promotes social equity. 90- to 120-minute commutes are not uncommon for people living east of the Anacostia, an area that contains only five Metrorail stations and where Metrobuses generally run east-west and seem designed to bring riders across the river. An audience member thanked Ricks for recognizing this and reminded her that residents of Wards 7 and 8 don't always want to travel across the river but would like better service between River East neighborhoods.

Though some tension was demonstrated regarding where each agency's purview overlaps, there was general agreement around the need for connectivity between travel modes. Hamre and Ricks were united in saying that an informed and involved citizenry is the best antidote to institutional myopia and the only way to bring about a more livable future for all.

In my next post, I'll give an overview of upcoming studies, service changes, and other news revealed at the Coalition for Smarter Growth forum.