How to Truly Complete
Your Streets
STREETS AS PLACES
Most Modern Transportation Planning
Estimation of trips/ridership
Alternatives analysis
Mitigate Impacts to Livability
Alignment + Interchanges + Stations + Service Level
Mode essentially pre-determined
Clash with environment
Force Fit into community
Decide Announce Defend
Reacts to Growth
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
We have been Building Transportation Through
Communities, not communities through transportation
Slide courtesy of Dan Burden
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
For Transportation
Corridor/Community
Place
Roadway
Traveled Way Intersections Roadside
Retuning Our Streets (The Engineering)
Layer in the Placemaking!
We Call This Streets as Places
Creating Streets as Places
Retune Streets for other uses (The Engineering)
Layer in the Placemaking!
Question: What makes a Street comfortable for all users?
Appropriate Speeds
Appropriate Accomodations for Users
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Retuning to Set the Table for Placemaking
* Slow Down Speeds
* Comfortable for All Users
Slowing Down
• Rightsizing• Lower Design Speeds• Tolerate Some Congestion
Rightsizing
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
East Boulevard
Charlotte
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Reinvented Edgewater Drive
Orlando, Florida
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
15.7%
7.5%9.8% 8.9%
29.5%
19.6%
0.0%
7.5%
15.0%
22.5%
30.0%
37.5%
Before AfterBefore BeforeAfter
North EndMiddle South End
After
Speeding Analysis
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Other Results
Before After
Crash Rate 12.6/ MVM 8.4/MVM
Injury Rate 3.6/MVM 1.2/MVM
On Street
parking
29% 41%
Pedestrians 2136 2632
Bikes 375 486
This 5-lane Main Street was converted to…
Pottstown PA
This: One less travel lane; bike lanes; parallel to back-in
diagonal parking on one side; new pavement
Slide courtesy of Dan Burden
US 395 Bridgeport, California
Hailey, Idaho (Existing)
Hailey, Idaho Four Lane with Paint
Hailey, Idaho Four Lane with Planters
Hailey, Idaho Three Lanes
Hailey, Idaho with Bike Lanes
Russell Street, Missoula
73
74
Russell Street, Missoula
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
PPS Rightsizing Web Resource
http://www.pps.org/reference/rightsizing/
Design for Lower Speeds
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Design speed is a dirty little secret
relating to flexibility
Minimum
Desirable
Versus
Lower Design speeds mean smaller
clear zones
Lower Design speeds mean more
forgiving geometry
US Route 202 Pennsylvania
Up to 11 mph or 25% of the current speed
Cost depends on the materials
“…this bulletin establishes eleven foot travel lanes for
roadways… within a mile of an urban area and with a
design speed of 45 mph or less.
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
State Route 380
Lincoln, New Mexico
Route 15, Underhill Vermont
Photomorph courtesy of Dan Burden
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Engineering to Set the Table for Placemaking
* Slow Down Speeds
* Comfortable for All Users
Complete Streets
A Complete Street is safe, comfortable & convenient for travel by automobile, foot, bicycle, & transit regardless of age or ability
AARP Bulletin
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Is this a Complete Street?
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Is this a Complete Street?
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Is this a Complete Street?
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES2nd Avenue, SouthPhotomorph courtesy of Dan Burden
Not Just Bike Lanes
A Variety of Complete Street Types
Pedestrian-Oriented
Auto-Oriented
ParkwayAvenue Boulevard
Local Streets
Main Street Avenue
Local Street
Boulevard Parkway
Network of Streets
Street Typologies
NEIGHBORHOOD STREET
NEIGHBORHOOD ST / BIKE BLVD
LANE
DESTINATION STREET
SUPPORT STREET
MEW
ALLEY
COMMERCIAL AVENUE
AVENUE
BOULEVARD
COMMERCIAL BOULEVARD
RURAL HIGHWAY
RURAL DRIVE
INDUSTRIAL ACCESS ROAD
PATH
:
:
:
:
STREET TYPE (PPS suggests)
Community Input A
Community Input B
Description of Street
STREET’S ROLE IN THE COMMUNITY
Public Input
Traffic Tolerance
USE HIERARCHY
High Priority to
Low Priority
STREET PARAMETERS
Number of Thru Lanes
TWLTL
Pavement width
Lane Width
Curb Radius
Target Speed
Design Speed
Design Vehicle
Parkway Width
Sidewalk Width
Bicycle Facilities
Bicycle Parking
Transit Facilities
On Street Parking
Curbing
Median
ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS
Street Trees
Tree Spacing
Tree Alignment
Illumination
Stormwater
ELEMENTS OF THE TYPOLOGY
NEIGHBORHOOD STREET
NEIGHBORHOOD STREET -- NARROW
LANELANE
RenderingsCOMMERCIAL STREET
COMMERCIAL STREET
DESTINATION STREET
Comfortable for All Users Is Not the Same
As Space for All Users on Every Street
Creating Streets as Places
Retune Streets for other uses (The Engineering)
Layer in the Placemaking!
Layer in the Placemaking!
Attractions & Destinations
Identity & Image
Active & Connected Edge Uses
Amenities
Management: Central to the Solution
Flexibility
Seasonal Strategy
Create Intrigue
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Attractions & Destinations
Identity & Image (Authenticity)
Showcase local assets to create a distinct sense of place
Businesses, pedestrians and drivers raise their behavior (conform, respect) to this vision
Slide Courtesy of PPS
Littleton, NH
Lambertville, NJ
Hawthorne Square – Philadelphia, PA
Mural honoring local history and special events
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Active & Connected Edge Uses
Sense of Enclosure
Ground Level Transparency
Physical Connections
Slide Courtesy of Dan Burden
Camden, Maine
Active and Connected EdgesEnclosure
Denver, Colorado
Active and Connected EdgesEnclosureLo
w
Bozeman, Montana
Active and Connected EdgesEnclosure
Sandpoint, Idaho
Active and Connected EdgesEnclosureLo
w
Portland, Oregon
Improving parking lot edges
Active and Connected EdgesEnclosure
Slide Courtesy of Dan Burden
Orenco, Oregon
Active and Connected EdgesTransparency
Bozeman, Montana
Active and Connected EdgesTransparency
Brunswick, Maine
Active and Connected EdgesTransparency
Putnam Plaza – Brooklyn, NY
Active and Connected EdgesPhysical Connections
Undoing “Seas of Pavement”
JFK Boulevard – San Francisco, CA
Active and Connected EdgesPhysical Connections
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Amenities
Public and private seating options
Triangulate to support use – cluster sidewalk elements
like benches, waste baskets, planters, lampposts, cafes
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Management - Central to the Solution
Maintenance and security
Programming – daily activity generators and cultural,
civic events
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
Flexibility
Street design can respond to community use
David Engwicht
Create Intrigue
Traffic speed is largely determined by residents
psychologically retreating from the street.
Simply reversing that retreat creates mental speed
bumps in the street.
Streets and roads
are not just ways to
get places, they are
places!
Mental Speed Bumps - by David Engwicht
The Three Mental Speed Bumps
Intrigue
Uncertainty
Humor
Mental Speed Bumps - by David Engwicht
Creating Intrigue
Activating blank walls
New Hope, Pennsylvania
Creating Intrigue
Street Sculpture
Hamilton, NJ
Creating Intrigue - Street Sculpture
Streets as Places Video
Gary Toth
Director of Transportation
Initiatives
Project for Public Spaces
609-397-3885