Toronto Papers
Development and Implementation of the City of Charlotte’s Sidewalk Retrofit Policy
Vivian D. Coleman, RLA, AICP, City of Charlotte Department of Transportation, USA
Summary: The presentation will focus on re-designing existing environments to create more walkable and livable communities through policy creation and implementation. The presentation focuses on an example of a successful pedestrian policy. Context and Background In the spring of 2005, the City of Charlotte, North Carolina conducted an extensive review of its existing sidewalk construction program, including its policies, public involvement process and sidewalk prioritization system. The purpose of this review was twofold: 1) to address growing resident concerns that the existing process was unbalanced and 2) to create a process that would help Charlotte further its goal of becoming a premier walking city. This presentation (1) summarizes the steps taken to conduct the sidewalk program review, (2) presents the resulting policy and procedure adopted by City Council in 2005 and (3) addresses the first two years of implementation under the new policy. Methodology and Process The City of Charlotte is committed to improving pedestrian conditions. Sidewalks have been required of all new development projects since 1998. However, sidewalks were not required of development for a period of about 40 years (from the 1950’s until the 1990’s.) This results in about 1800 miles of streets without sidewalks. The Sidewalk Program Review detailed in this presentation focuses on retrofitting sidewalks on existing roadways through the Capital Improvement Program. In order to perform the Sidewalk Program Review, the City hired a consultant to assist in evaluating and redesigning the sidewalk program’s policies, public involvement process and sidewalk prioritization system. The review process consisted of the following components: • Establishment of a Stakeholder Group and City Staff Technical Team to provide input regarding the existing sidewalk program and potential new policies; • An extensive review of sidewalk programs in other cities and counties across the country to identify best practices that might work well in Charlotte; • Development of a new sidewalk policy and accompanying procedure (ranking criteria, prioritization and public involvement process) that incorporate the lessons of the first two components. Results and Conclusions The Sidewalk Program Review resulted in a policy document that focuses on the implementation of sidewalk projects (1) which serve a public need and purpose and (2) which allow for greater public participation. ... More
Does place matter when assessing walkability?
Dr Malika Bose, Dr Mark Ivy, USA
Summary: Study to investigate how well the Irvine-Minnesota (IM)Inventory works in low income inner city environments. The case studies were public housing sites in Harrisburg, Philadelphia. In determining which tool to use, there are many options exist, but are new and untested. the IM was selected as the most detailed. The study involved preparing the tool and undertaking field work. The results indicate the need for both objective and subjective engagement, improvements for the tool selected, for example neighbourhood segmentation and the data gathering process undertaken. Ultimately it is designed to bring real change to the community. ... More
Encouraging walking, the role of urban design: Experiences of the EU- ECOCITY project
Uwe Schubert, Institute for Regional Development and Environment, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Franz Skala, Institute for Ecological Urban Development
Summary: Abstract The central proposition of the multi-national ECOCITY project to promote walking is the development of an urban design of “short distances”. Only if the most important destinations to be covered on a regular basis are within walking distance and can be reached safely and in comfort, can potential pedestrians be convinced to walk instead of driving. The ECOCITY project carried out in the context of the 5th framework program (City of Tomorrow) consisted of essentially 2 parts : • development a planning theoretical concept for the creation of new urban quarters on the basis of a “sustainable urban development “postulate • the design of master plans following this concept. The most important characteristics of an ECOCITY can be summarised as follows: An ECOCITY is composed of compact, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use quarters or neighbourhoods, which are integrated into a polycentric urban system in public-transport-oriented locations and mainly composed of solar-oriented buildings. In combination with attractively designed public spaces, that integrate green areas and objects of cultural heritage to create varied surroundings, an ECOCITY should be an attractive place to live and work. Such sustainable and liveable structures contribute to the health, safety and well-being of the inhabitants and their identification with the ECOCITY. The contribution to the conference consists of introducing the concept with a special emphasis on “walking” and the key features such new quarters have to exhibit to make them truly “pedestrian” and oriented on public transport for medium and long distance coverage. In addition the master plans for some of the case study areas will be discussed that offer interesting and diverse solutions within the paradigm developed. ... More
Evaluation of policy measures and infrastructure provided for the needs of pedestrians in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece
Panagiotis Papaioannou, Professor, et al., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Summary: The needs of pedestrians, as far as infrastructure and policy measures are concerned, are usually examined in the framework of short term traffic management studies or town planning studies in Greece. The experience so far in the country shows that little attention is paid to the pedestrians due to various reasons. The basic aim of this paper is to assess the current process concerning the provision of the adequate infrastructure and policy measures for the pedestrian trips in the urban environment, having as a case study the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Thessaloniki is the second biggest city in the country with a population just under one million inhabitants. The city, as most of the Greek cities, faces severe traffic and related environmental problems, especially in its central area. The lack of an integrated pedestrian streets network and the relatively poor geometric characteristics of the pavements, among other reasons, lead most of the times to an unacceptable level of service for the movement of pedestrians. Within the framework of the present paper, the policy measures and the projects implemented so far in the under study area for the pedestrians’ needs will be presented and discussed as far as their realism and efficiency is concerned. Special emphasis will be given to the safety issues related to the movement of pedestrians. Similarly, the temporal evolution of the participation of pedestrians in the daily mobility of the city will also be presented and will be related to the infrastructure constructed and to the policy measures implemented so far. In addition, the results of a questionnaire based survey in the city, aimed at the identification of the perceived needs of the pedestrians, will also be presented. This survey was carried out in the framework of the the COST Action 358 “Pedestrian Quality Needs”. ... More
Exceeding expectations: The growth of walking in Vancouver and creating a more walkable city in the future through EcoDensity
Melina Scholefield, P. Eng. Manager, Sustainability Group, City of Vancouver
Summary: Walking is the second fastest growing transportation mode in Vancouver, after cycling. In a given day there are over 300,000 walk trips in the city, many of which occur to and within the Downtown Peninsula. In 1997, the City adopted a long-range transportation plan that limited overall road capacity to 1997 levels. This plan emphasized providing more comfortable walking and biking environments, increasing the provision and use of transit, calming traffic in neighbourhoods and maintaining an efficient network for goods movement. The plan also set a combined walking/cycling mode share target for Vancouver and its Downtown of 18% by 2021. A decade later, the walking mode share alone has reached 17% Vancouver-wide and an astounding 27% for Downtown. At the same time, vehicle trips entering the city and entering our Downtown Core have declined by 10% and 7%, respectively. These changes have occurred during a period of growth when there has been a 23% increase in trips to Vancouver. Car trips to Downtown are now a minority and there are nearly as many walk trips (27%) in our Downtown as there are transit (30%) and vehicle trips (30%). For daily trips only within Downtown, about 70% are by foot. The tremendous growth in walking in the City’s Downtown can largely be attributed to transportation policies and investments that give greater priority to pedestrians, cyclists and transit over the private automobile and some dramatic changes in land use and amenity policies that helped to improve the jobs-population-transportation balance for Downtown. This paper explores how land use and transportation policy together have made walking the most desirable way of getting the around the Metropolitan Core, provides insights into how we have monitored our progress, reduced automobile dependency and provided policies and investments that have helped walking thrive. This paper will also describe a new City initiative called EcoDensity, which aims to build on some of the successes of our Downtown and reduce the city’s ‘Ecological Footprint’ through high quality densification. The overarching objective of EcoDensity is to improve the ecological performance of our communities while supporting liveability and affordability. Creating highly walkable communities will be critical to the success of EcoDensity. Melina Scholefield, P. Eng. ... More
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