2013 Walking Summit
2013Walking Summit
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Barracks Row Main Street
Capitol Hill’s Leading Walkable Commercial Corridor
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2013 Walking Summit
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2013Walking Summit
Martin SmithExecutive Director
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2013 Walking Summit
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Who Works with Walkable Commercial Districts?
•What is a “Main Street”?
•What is a “Business Improvement District”?
•What are the general organizing principles of vibrant commercial districts?
•Multi-modal transit•Responsive to consumer transportation choices
•Example: Delivery of products / services
•Focus on pedestrian scale•Solid mix of restaurants / retailers / services / residents
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2013 Walking Summit
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Walkability and Business
•Why is walkability important to business owners?•DC and other major cities have a high rate of car-free households,
and this number is growing among young families•Parking can be a challenge in urban areas, so walkability benefits
drivers as well - park once and run several errands in a walkable corridor instead of driving from store to store
•Pedestrian orientation lets businesses draw in more customers overall - window displays are far more visible to a pedestrian than a driver
•Walkable corridors also draw in more occasional customers - consumers choose convenience and will use a business that is already on the route they take between a destination and a transit option they plan to use
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2013 Walking Summit
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Lessons from Barracks Row
•Barracks Row had a complete streetscape rebuild in 2005•As part of this rebuild, parking on the east side of the street was
angled to add additional spaces
•This meant there was not enough space for bike lanes, which could have been provided with standard curbside parking on the east side
•Standard curbside parking would also have left additional space that could have been used for wider sidewalks and bigger sidewalk cafes
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2013 Walking Summit
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Lessons from Barracks Row
•Plan for the future!!•As the corridor has evolved, we have a new need for bike facilities
•We also have five times as many sidewalk cafes now as we did in 2005 when the street was rebuilt
•Plan for the street you want, not one that meets your current needs
•If budgets are limited, at least plan for a “Phase 2” option even if it will not be implemented right away
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2013 Walking Summit
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FULL FRAME
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