DOWNTOWN Is there a way to make everyone happy?
In a city where lanes are barely wide enough to accommodate cars and bicycles, city officials are desperately seeking a win-win situation — redesigning streets so that cyclists, drivers and pedestrians can all proceed with ample room and smiles on their faces.
On Wednesday, in the first step toward accomplishing such a goal, the Recreation and Parks Commission participated in a nationwide video conference on “complete streets” — thoroughfares that are safe for travel by foot, bicycle and automobile, according to Barbara McCann, a member of the National Complete Streets Coalition and a panelist in the video conference, hosted by the American Planning Association.
The panel consisted of civil engineers from both the public and private sectors, including three from the city of Boulder, Colo., where city officials were able to successfully create “complete streets,” Christopher Conklin, a principal of engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin in Massachusetts where the state Highway Department adopted “complete street” design for future state projects, and McCann.
In 2000, the federal Department of Transportation also adopted a policy recommending that all new construction and reconstruction accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians.
“Right now, streets are considered as a means for cars,” said Commissioner Kristina Deutsch.“We’re (considering) redefining the streets for our community.”
The presentation included 78 PowerPoint slides, most of which showed photos of “complete streets”and so-called “incomplete streets.” Many of the problem streets showed a pedestrian walking along roads that lacked a sidewalk or a bicyclist attempting to share the road.
McCann showed one picture of a stretch of Highway 14 in Cary, Ill., where a young boy was struck and killed by a car several years ago while attempting to ride his bike across a bridge that didn’t have a bike lane. After the community and the family expressed outrage over the incident, the state corrected the problem by creating a bike and pedestrian specific path.
“A complete street is really about avoiding this situation... from the get go,” McCann said.
In adopting a “complete street” mentality, cities will need to tweak their procedures and design manuals and retrain planners and engineers, McCann said.
In Boulder, multi-modal transportation was implemented into the Transportation Master Plan in 1996, when it was revised for the first time.The city has encouraged alternative modes of transportation to its residents and visitors by introducing the “Eco Pass,” an unlimited bus pass. There are currently 60,000 of the bus passes in circulation. Eco Pass users are nine times more likely to ride the bus, said Randall Rutsch of the city of Boulder.
The presentation from the Boulder panelists centered on the Broadway corridor, where they successfully implemented “complete streets.” Photos of the corridor showed a street safely shared by pedestrians, bicyclists and cars.
In designing a “complete street,” pedestrian walkways should be at least five feet wide and clear of any obstructions. Bicycle lanes should have at least a width of 40 inches and a 100 inch vertical operating space, according to Conklin. As for drivers, the lanes should be designed with the largest vehicle — usually a big rig — in mind.
“Complete streets” also entails additional landscaping.
On a busy stretch of Ocean Park Boulevard, between Lincoln Boulevard and Main Street, residents of the corridor have sought more greenery from the city, even going as far as planting their own trees several years ago.
Sitting with his laptop open, Bob Taylor, the co-chairman of the Ocean Park Boulevard Improvement Committee, glanced at a Google Earth satellite image of the city.
With his cursor, he pointed at the green parts of the city — North of Montana and Sunset Park. Ocean Park, on the other hand, appeared to have a dreary grayish feel.
When Taylor showed the Google Earth image to city officials, they thought he had intentionally colored in parts North of Montana, Taylor said laughing.
But the dangers posed by the wide intersections, which unintentionally invite high-speed traveling, are no laughing matter.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 15, 2007. Read the original PDF.