I gave a couple of presentations on the benefits of Complete Streets to the City of Franklin Plan Commission as well as the Common Council. Consequently, by unanimous Common Council vote, the Franklin Trails Committee will become the Franklin Complete Streets and Connectivity Advisory Board. (See FranklinNow story here.)
The stated goal of the Board is creation of a Complete Streets ordinance which will give proper priority to non-vehicular traffic and provide guidelines for new development and street repair in terms of facilities for pedestrians and bikes. We'll also be working toward creating a more connectivity-minded street grid.
I'll post much, much more information in the days to come. In the meantime, here is a silent and, for now, low res version of the presentation I gave on 3/6/12. Once we get a Franklin Complete Streets website launched, this information will be posted in much, much more detail.
The STROAD design -- a street/road hybrid -- is the futon of transportation alternatives. Where a futon is a piece of furniture that serves both as an uncomfortable couch and an uncomfortable bed, a STROAD moves cars at speeds too slow to get around efficiently but too fast to support productive private sector investment. The result is an expensive highway and a declining tax base.
ABOVE: Rawson Avenue - non-vehicles beware. Subdivisons full of children who attend a nearby elementary school face this barrier.
After decades of catering to cars and the people able to drive them at the expense of people who cannot or chose not to drive (Rawson Avenue in Franklin, WI is a living monument to that vision), city planners and transportation officials are finally (slowly) starting to see the value in making communities accessable to all. However, it isn't going to be easy to convince the public at large that we needn't provide the means to travel at 60 mph through residential areas:
We have been so thorough in making cars happy for the past several decades that much of our world is designed in such a way that it is impossible to travel without a car.
Tragically, convenient, easy car travel we have bankrupted ourselves in creating is not conducive to creating safe, lovable, human-oriented, sustainable, enjoyable places that induce civic pride (indeed, it is utterly destructive of a better place to live). Those of us who have discovered this, then, are stuck with the enormous task of trying to point out that the path to a better community – to a better future – lies in doing something that at least initially, seems harmful to our happiness: inconveniencing car travel and car parking (and making car use more costly)
The picture above is one I took this morning while out for a walk. While this blog is often where you see horrific examples of asphalt gone wild in the suburbs, anyone who lives in a community like mine can attest to the beautiful stretches of road that exist - - especially at this time of year.
If a person could string together a mile or so of the sort of roadway you see above -- particularly if it creates a useful route from home to a grocery store or cafe, for instance -- it wouldn't be hard to create an opportunity to walk each and every day. However, the majority of my route this morning was along 51st Street, where traffic averages 45-50 mph (it's posted 35 mph) and the "pedestrian lane" is a narrow edge of the roadway deliniated by a white line.
Fortunately, the city is working to continue a sidewalk that runs in front of the high school and currently gets you about 1/5th of the way between Drexel and Rawson. It connects people to the grocer, pharmacy, and convenience store/gas station that are at the corner of 51st and Rawson. Eventually, many people will be able to make a morning or evening walk towards a cup of coffee or a few groceries part of their daily routine.
That's the challenge we face: Connecting roads like the one above to other roads like the one above. That way, walking becomes organic to daily life.
Why is this important? Watch and listen to the video below (BONUS: This gentleman has an enormously relaxing speaking voice, you'll find).
Aware of the crushing costs of continued sprawl, the ’burbs are embracing slightly higher density and giving rise to a new generation of urban villages and mini cities.
At last night's Trails Committee meeting, we began the process of putting in place a Complete Streets policy for Franklin, Wisconsin. In summary, Complete Streets are an effort -- adopted via resolution, policy, and ordinance in cities across the country -- to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone.
You will be reading a lot about Complete Streets in this space in the days and weeks ahead. Make no mistake: Complete Streets is first and foremost an economic development tool, as it is more important than ever to extract maximum value from our build environment.
This article from BUILDER MAGAZINE embraces the suburban context, but recognizes as well the economic importance of creating a connected community:
At the same time, schools aren’t the only draw luring die-hard urbanites to the suburbs. As one-time bedroom communities begin to sprout higher-density housing options (rental apartments, condos, lofts, and the like) around transit stops and mixed-use town squares, they’re beginning to feel more like urban villages themselves—places that have appeal for singles, empty-nesters, and DINKs [Dual Income, No Kids] just as much as families. This increasingly multi-nodal landscape, notes Joel Kotkin, a Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, marks the beginnings of what may be best described as “smart sprawl.”
That also means "retrofitting", when possible, existing structures:
Whereas the old suburban growth model was dead set on expansion in the manner of the Oklahoma Land Rush, new approaches are much more focused on redeveloping tired properties with strategic densification. “The truth is we’re not as built-out as we think we are,” Ellen Dunham-Jones, professor of architecture and urban planning at Georgia Institute of Technology, and co-author of the book, Retrofitting Suburbia, noted at a recent Urban Land Institute symposium on smart growth. The imperative now is to use land resources more economically.
So says Christopher B. Leinberger, an urban land use expert, in a recent essay in The Atlantic Monthly. While that dark vision is not shared by all observers, it's clear to most that "change or die" is still the operative phrase.
Outlying suburban homes in many parts of the U.S. are now worth less than the materials that went into building them. The cycle is that homeowners have no incentive to invest in their homes and banks won’t finance renovations anyway. Homeowners with a choice move away, leaving behind those who can’t afford to live anywhere else. Crime and decay isn’t far behind.
The answer: Make communities, not subdivisions. Create walkable cities, which appeal to up-and-coming homebuyers:
On the flip side, the trend to walkable urbanism is driven by those in their 20s and 30s, who don’t want to spend their disposable income on cars and crave high-density and fast-paced downtown living. A whole lot of experts — perhaps Richard Florida best known among them — say for cities to thrive, they have to cater to young, creative workers who are sought after by the employees of the knowledge economy.
But baby boomers, singles, childless couples and empty nesters are also looking for interesting urban living in droves. And their proportion of the population is rising.
This is the challenge that the city of Franklin faces right now. How will local leadership respond?
ABOVE: Nobody's dream landscape -- across a sea of asphalt, a McMansion roof peeks over inaccessible retail outbuildings.
REMINDER: Please mark your calendar for January 24th, 6-8pm, and plan to attend the Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan Open House so you can voice your concerns regarding making Franklin a competitive community that is travel-friendly for children, the elderly, and differently abled persons.
At this week’s National Association of Home Builders conference, there has been much talk about the estimated 80 million people that comprise the category known as “Gen Y,” born roughly between 1980 and the early 2000s. The boomers, meanwhile, number 76 million. From the Wall Street Journal:
Here’s what Generation Y doesn’t want: formal living rooms, soaker bathtubs, dependence on a car.
In other words, they don’t want their parents’ homes.
Something to keep in mind here in Franklin, as we struggle to create a wider and deeper tax base as well as attract young talent. However, as I noted in yesterday's post, we're still mired in outdated notions about trails and sidewalks as mere "recreational opportunities" when they are in fact crucial infrastructure.
Gen Y housing preferences are the subject of at least two panels at this week’s convention. A key finding: They want to walk everywhere. Surveys show that 13% carpool to work, while 7% walk, said Melina Duggal, a principal with Orlando-based real estate adviser RCLCO. A whopping 88% want to be in an urban setting, but since cities themselves can be so expensive, places with shopping, dining and transit such as Bethesda and Arlington in the Washington suburbs will do just fine.
“One-third are willing to pay for the ability to walk,” Ms. Duggal said. “They don’t want to be in a cookie-cutter type of development. …The suburbs will need to evolve to be attractive to Gen Y.”
ABOVE: From a previous post on SPRAWLED OUT: An example of a trail that is certainly "recreational," but A) does not connect any destinations (it merely loops through a park), and B) empties into a blind curve on a suburban speedway, further shielded by trees and shrubs (indicated with green boxes).
The City of Franklin has been working for some time on a new Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, and is now inviting public input.
I encourage people to come to the open house and make their concerns about CONNECTIVITY in the city of Franklin heard. As a member of the city's Trails Committee, I am sorry to report that there is precious little interaction between us and the city's Parks Commission. In fact, there has been considerable tension in Trails Committee meetings when I or any other member made requests for information on the ongoing Recreation plan.
A member or the Parks Commission who also sits on the Trails Committee has made it clear that he considers the trails proposed by the Parks Commission as completely separate and unrelated to the sidewalk and trail network we on the Trails Committee are trying to create. He has repeatedly spoken in "us vs. you" terms when the subject of funding comes up.
The problem is this: Trails are, indeed, recreational. However, it's time to look at trails as part of the city's overall connectivity plan. Trails (and sidewalks) are infrastructure, and it's important that we provide a way to get from place to place in Franklin without a car.
The Parks Commission, unfortunately, does NOT plan trails with usefulness or connectivity in mind. To the Parks Commission, trails are mere recreational playthings. Take a look at our current trail system (and some of the insanely dangerous junctures with blind curves on roads) and you'll agree,
This will not be my last post on the subject (nor is it the first), but please mark your calendar for January 24th, 6-8pm, and plan to attend the open house so you can voice your concerns regarding making Franklin travel-friendly for children, the elderly, and differently abled persons.
I've pasted some material from the city's press release below, and linked to fellow Trails Committee member Greg Kowalski's Scribed-posted PDF:
This update is set forth in a draft document entitled Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan: 2025 for the City of Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. This Plan is being prepared to maintain the City’s eligibility to participate in many cost-sharing programs for the acquisition and development of its park, open space, and outdoor recreation system. When completed, the updated Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan will look 15 years into the future at the City’s anticipated park, open space, and outdoor recreation needs.
Before the draft is completed, the Planning Department staff of the City of Franklin would like to provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions and to provide additional comments about this draft Plan. Therefore, an Open House has been scheduled for January 24, 2011, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Community Room at the City of Franklin City Hall, 9229 W. Loomis Road.
Copies of maps and other select information from the draft Plan will be on display at the Open House. The entire draft Plan will be available for viewing on the City website and at the offices of the Planning Department approximately one week before the Open House.
It is envisioned that the public comments provided at the Open House will be summarized and provided to the City of Franklin Parks Commission for their review and consideration immediately after the Open House or as soon thereafter as the Parks Commission may determine.
If you have any questions, or need additional information, please feel free to contact the Planning Department at 414-425-4024, or visit the City of Franklin website at www.franklinwi.gov.
I can tell you that I was certainly a happier person when I went for a run the other day and was able to use a sidewalk on 51st street rather than the slush-clogged shoulder of the road I'd braved before the new sidewalk was installed. We're making slow but steady progress.
And, of more import to the bottom line:
If the residents of these walkable neighborhoods are homeowners, they benefit in yet another way, notes the Sierra Club's Green Life blog. It cites a 2009 study by CEOs for Cities that founds homes with an above-average Walk Score sold for up to $34,000 more than their sidewalk-less counterparts.
The graph above shows the most recent USDOT vehicle-travel data covering the last 25 years. Although vehicle-miles of travel (VMT) grew steadily during most of the twentieth century, in recent years the growth rate stopped and even declined a little. It is now about 10% below where it would have been had past trends continued.
Yet another argument against business-as-usual (read: ASPHALT as usual):
The Twentieth Century was the period of automobile ascendency, during which personal motor vehicles grew from virtually nothing to becoming the dominant travel mode in most developed countries. During this period it made sense to invest in automobile-oriented infrastructure: paved roads, highways and parking facilities. However, demographic and economic trends are changing travel demands. Aging population, rising fuel prices, increasing urbanization, increasing traffic congestion, improvements in alternative modes, changing consumer preferences, and increased health and environmental concerns are all reducing demand for automobile travel and increasing demands for travel by other modes. Although automobile travel will not disappear, it will not grow as it did in the past, and in many developed countries motor vehicle travel will be flat or negative in the future.
Road Widening: Contemporary Blood-Letting
After decades of catering to cars and the people able to drive them at the expense of people who cannot or chose not to drive (Rawson Avenue in Franklin, WI is a living monument to that vision), city planners and transportation officials are finally (slowly) starting to see the value in making communities accessable to all. However, it isn't going to be easy to convince the public at large that we needn't provide the means to travel at 60 mph through residential areas:
Read the rest at: Road Widening: Contemporary Blood-Letting | Dom’s Plan B Blog
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 10:10 AM in Bicycling and Walking, Close to Home, Commentary, Current Affairs, Franklin Photos, Franklin Trails Committee, Safe Routes to School, Traffic/Transportation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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