Creating communities in which everyone, regardless of ability or income, can get where they need to go safely can be challenging. We can transform our communities and create healthier and more equitable place to live, work, and play. This presentation discusses tools to successfully transform your community.

1. A Tale of Two
Streets: Completing Our
Streets in City or Country"
Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP
Hoyle Consulting
August 30, 2018

2. Outline for
Today’s
Presentation
1. U.S. Streets - Where we
are today. How did we
get here?
2. Solutions?
3. How do we make the
change?
4. Tools for
transformation.
5. The Future.
6. Resources.

3. 1. U.S. Streets –
How Did We Get
Here?

4. 30% of US population does not drive. How do they
travel?
Current U.S. Streets are
Unimodal/Unequal

5. Roadway Fatalities in 2017

6. What if 40,000 people a year
died in plane crashes?
Photo of the British Airways Flight BA38 crash in London Heathrow

7. U.S. Transportation
System Is Not Resilient
 Reliance on SOV
results in gridlock
 Crashes result in
system paralysis
 Inability to
maintain
infrastructure and
fuel supply in
disasters
Hurricane
Evacuation -
Houston
7

8. Reality Imitating Fiction in Atlanta

9. How did we get here?
Photo credit: Brett Coomer – Houston Chronicle

10. What are streets for?
1904 at State and Madison Streets, Chicago – Photo Courtesy of Chicago Transit Authority)

11. “Roads were not built for cars.”
Bicycles – League of American Wheelmen
Source: Roads Were Not Built for Cars blog
http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/lady-that-handlebar-moustache-aint-
fooling-no-one/

12. Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in
the American City
by Peter D. Norton
Before the advent of the automobile, users of city streets were
diverse and included children at play and pedestrians at large. By
1930, most streets were primarily motor thoroughfares where
children did not belong and where pedestrians were condemned
as "jaywalkers.“ Peter Norton
Photo source – Peter Norton Photo source – Peter Norton

14. "Pedestrians were walking in the streets anywhere they
wanted, whenever they wanted, usually without looking,"
Norton says. During the 1910s there were few crosswalks
painted on the street, and they were generally ignored by
pedestrians.

15. A total of 5,987 pedestrian deaths occurred in 2016.
They increased 9 percent from 2015 and were at their
highest level since 1990.
Graphic source: NHTSA

16. A total of 835 bicyclists were killed in
crashes with motor vehicles in 2016. This
represents a 1 percent increase from
2015 and is the highest number of
bicyclist deaths since 1991.
Graphic source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's
Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).

17. Unintended Consequences:
Traffic Congestion
Parents driving children to
school:
•20-25% of morning traffic
(2011, National Center for Safe Routes to School)
•In 2009, U.S. families drove 30
billion miles to take their
children to and from school, at
a cost of $5 billion in fuel.
(U.S. School Travel 2009: An Assessment of Trends.”
American Journal of Preventive Medicine 41)

18. Research
links
sedentary
lifestyles to
negative
health
outcomes.
Health Concerns

19. Equity
Enhancing the ability of
underserved populations to
travel by non-motorized
modes can:
◦ Improve outcomes in health,
safety, and economic
development;
◦ Promote resource efficiency, e.g.
reduce household transport
costs;
◦ Strengthen neighborhood
relations
Slide adapted from: Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center

20. 4. Solutions?

22. Healthy Community Design Principles
• Mixed-land use: homes, shops, schools, and work are
close together
• Public transit
• Pedestrian and bicycle-friendly
• Accessible and socially equitable community
• Housing for different incomes and different stages of life
• Green spaces and parks that are easy to walk to
• Safe public places for social interaction
• Fresh, healthy food outlets

23. •Medium-to-high densities
•Fine-grained mix of land
uses
•Short-to medium-length
blocks
•Transit routes every half
mile or closer
•Two- to four-lane streets
•Continuous sidewalks
appropriately scaled
•Safe crossings
•Appropriate buffering
from traffic
•Street-oriented buildings
•Comfortable and safe
places to wait
Checklist of Essential Features for Cities
Pedestrian & Transit-OrientedDesign(Ewing, Bartholomew)
Pictures: Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, Hoyle Consulting

24. Start with the plans!
Engage the public:
◦ 66% of Americans want more transportation
options so they have the freedom to choose
◦73% feel they currently have no choice
◦57% want to spend less time in the car
Must address land use, infrastructure, and
design
How Do Communities Create
Mode Shift?

25. 5. Tools for Transformation

26. Successful Programs to
Support Mode Shift
•Complete Streets
•Safe Routes to School
•Bicycle Friendly America
•Vision Zero
•Walk Friendly Communities

27. Complete Streets policies defined:
Complete Streets ensure that the entire right-of-way is
planned, designed, constructed, operated, and maintained
to provide safe access for all users.

28. Complete Streets does not
mean:
 One ‘special’ street project
 A design prescription
 A mandate for immediate retrofit
 A silver bullet; other issues must be addressed:
• Land use (proximity, mixed-use)
• Environmental concerns
• Transportation Demand Management

29. Who Benefits from
Complete Streets
Policies?
EVERYONE!

30. Many types: rural streets
0

31. A slow-speed shared street – advisory bike lanes
The many types of Complete Streets

32. Many types: main streets
2
32

33. The many types of Complete Streets
Transit routes 33

34. Many types: urban streets
4
34

35. Many types: rural w/ paved
shoulders

36. Implementation
How to Tips

37. CS National Implementation Survey
Outcomes
•Wide variety of activities undertaken
• Importance of implementation plans
• Start with non-controversial projects
•Continual education and advocacy of practitioners,
elected officials, community
• Document results and celebrate success
• Don’t stop at base policy – change subdivision regs
• Learn to collect & use data

38. 38
What can be done without moving curbs/drainage?
◦ Restripe for bike lanes
Do not construct unneeded or overly wide lanes
◦ 12’ lanes cost more than 10’ or 11’ lanes
Install sidewalks during closed drainage construction
◦ Minimal added cost
Countdown ped signals: inexpensive, reduce crashes
Decisions Based on Minimizing Cost
Credit: Cynthia Hoyle Credit: Cynthia Hoyle
Credit: City of Urbana, IL

39. From Policy to Practice
Effective implementation means:
◦ Organizing implementation activities
◦ Restructuring procedures, policies, and programs
◦ Rewriting or updating design guidance
◦ Offering training opportunities to transportation
staff, community leaders, and the general public
◦ Creating new performance measures

40. 1.Establish multidisciplinary oversight
committee to oversee day-to-day
implementation
2. Make list of all documents to be reviewed
and updated
3. Modify procedural documents:
• Checklists (Roadway design, signals,
streetscaping, ADA, development reviews, etc.)
• Decision trees
• Standard operating procedures
• Project development forms
Organize&Restructure Procedures
40

41. 4. New project procedures
• Planning / Programming
• Scoping / Design
• Construction / Operation / Maintenance
5. New procedures should address:
• New construction/retrofitting/reconstruction
• Repair/resurfacing/restoration/rehabilitation
• Maintenance/Operations*
• Bridges
Organize&Restructure Procedures

42. 6. Capital improvement budget
process prioritizes projects to meet
needs of all users
• Change project selection criteria:
o Award points to multi-modal projects
o Close gaps in ped/bikeway systems
• Prioritize for submission to TIP
• Rewrite local master plan/bike plan/ped
plan
7. Establish procedure and specify entity
for approving exceptions
Organize&Restructure Procedures

43. Colorado Springs
Bike lanes added after resurfacing: 7-10%
of network each year
Seek opportunities: repaving
Slide source: National Complete Streets Coalition presentation

44. Two- to Four- lane Streets
(Road Diets/Right-Sizing)
Photo source: City of Urbana
Midblock pedestrian
crossing at bus stop
Bike lanes added

45. Complete Streets changes transit

46. Pedway retrofitted from sidewalk to building through parking
Wheaton IL
Sidewalk
Store
“Ped
Way”
Landscape
Bulbout
Accessible
Parking Space

47. Same principles apply to large-scale developments:
Direct, safe & convenient access is provided
Corvallis OR

48. FHWA Design Flexibility Memo
(2013)
FHWA supports “taking a flexible approach to
bicycle and pedestrian facility design. ... The
National Association of City Transportation
Officials (NACTO) Urban Bikeway Design Guide,
[the Urban Street Design Guide,] and the
Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares guide
builds upon the flexibilities provided in the
AASHTO guides, which can help communities plan
and design safe and convenient facilities for
pedestrian and bicyclists. FHWA supports the use
of these resources to further develop
nonmotorized transportation networks,
particularly in urban areas.”

49. Update Design Guidance – Use Latest &
Best Guides

50. Champaign, IL offers alternative cross-section design options
Update Design Guidance

51. Mixed Traffic Visually Separated Physically
Separated
“Small Town and Rural Multimodal Networks”

53. What should the street do for us?
We need to ask for more than:
 More pavement
 More capacity
What else could we measure?
 Reduced speed
 Reduced crashes
 Increased walking/ bicycling
 Increased transit ridership
 Decreased noise
 Increase neighborhood and business satisfaction

54. Results: Hamburg NY
• Narrowed lanes
• Modern
roundabouts
instead of signals
• Crosswalks, curb
extensions
extensions
• “Safety lanes” are
de facto bike lanes
• Total cost: $20m

55. Results: West Jefferson, NC
• Adapting to changing conditions
• Embraced decrease in commercial traffic
by reclaiming right-of-way for walking,
sitting
• Replaced signals with 4-way stops,
shortened crossings
• Streetscape, landscape
• Total cost: $300k

56. Myrtle Beach, SC
• 5-lane road along
main street  two
auto lanes, two
bicycle lanes, and a
turn lane
• Also: sidewalk and
crosswalk
improvements,
landscaped medians

57. Myrtle Beach, SC
• Collision frequency
dropped by 400%
• Collisions less severe
• Average daily traffic
decreased from 15,000 to
13,000 vehicles
• Increase in people on bikes
and using transit

58. SRTS Programs – Part of the Solution
The 5 E’s
Education
Encouragement
Enforcement
Engineering
Evaluation
Equity
Pictures: Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, Hoyle Consulting

59. National recognition for
communities that actively
work to support
bicycling.
• 5 award levels
o Bronze
o Silver
o Gold
o Platinum
o Diamond
Bicycle Friendly Community Program
League of American Bicyclists
Photo credit: Jennifer Selby

60. A Bicycle Friendly Community
welcomes cyclists by providing safe
accommodation for cycling and
encouraging people to bike for
transportation and recreation.
Pictures: Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, Hoyle Consulting

61. Vision Zero is
a strategy to
eliminate all
traffic
fatalities and
severe
injuries,
while
increasing
safe, healthy,
equitable
mobility for
all.
https://visionzeronetwork.org/
Picture: Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, Hoyle Consulting

62. Walk Friendly Communities
http://walkfriendly.org/ Picture: Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, Hoyle Consulting

63. 6. The Future
Where do we go from here?
Pictures: Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, Hoyle Consulting

64. Start with the American Dream:
Freedom & Choice
Pictures: Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, Hoyle Consulting

65. 7. Resources

66. Resources
www.completestreets.org
www.ite.org
www.apbp.org
www.activelivingbydesign.org

67. Resources
www.bikeleague.org/bfa
www.planning.org/
https://www.880cities.org/
www.saferoutespartnership.org/home

68. Resources
Measuring Urban Design: Metrics for Livable Places by
Reid Ewing and Otto Clemente
Fighting Traffic: Dawn of the Motor Age in the American
City by Peter D. Norton
Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and
Inclusive Transportation Networks by Barbara McCann

69. Institute for Transportation & Development
Principles & Performance Metrics
https://www.itdp.org/tod-standard/

70. http://activerain.trulia.com/image_store/uploads/agents/winwinjoh
n/files/Denver_light_rail_train_at_16th-California_station.jpg
Mode Service Type Minimum Density
(Dwelling Units Per Acre)
Area and Location
Dial-a-Bus Demand response serving general
public (not just people with
disabilities).
3.5 to 6 Community-wide
“Minimum” Local Bus 1/2-mile route spacing, 20 buses per
day
4 Neighborhood
“Intermediate” Local
Bus
1/2-mile route spacing, 40 buses per
day
7 Neighborhood
“Frequent” Local Bus 1/2-mile route spacing, 120 buses per
day
15 Neighborhood
Express Bus – Foot
access
Five buses during two-hour peak
period
15 Average density over 20-square-mile
area within 10 to 15 miles of a large
downtown
Express Bus – Auto
access
Five to ten buses during two-hour
peak period
15 Average density over 20-square-mile
tributary area, within 10 to 15 miles of
a large downtown
Light Rail Five minute headways or better
during peak hour.
9 Within walking distance of transit line,
serving large downtown.
Rapid Transit Five minute headways or better
during peak hour.
12 Within walking distance of transit
stations serving large downtown.
Commuter Rail Twenty trains a day. 1 to 2 Serving very large downtown.
Source: “Transit Oriented Development-Using Public Transit to Create More Accessible and Livable
Neighborhoods” Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute. http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm45.htm
Transit Density Requirements (based on Pushkarev and Zupan 1977)

71. 71
Questions/Thoughts?
Cynthia Hoyle, FAICP, LCI
Hoyle Consulting
2207 S. Cottage Grove Ave.
Urbana, IL
cynthia@cynthiahoyle.com
http://www.cynthiahoyle.com/