Examples of What Other Communities Are Doing to Improve Their Pedestrian Environments

LOCAL
• Bethesda: Bethesda Row’s award-winning design resulted in attractive and wider sidewalks, while some parking on Wisconsin Avenue was taken away in order to add a central landscaped median and more closely-spaced street trees.

• Downtown: The Downtown BID has undergone a comprehensive project to improve the quality of their streetscape in an effort to better accommodate pedestrians, shoppers and tourists alike. Plans for smaller street lamps, improved signage and more trees highlight their redevelopment.

• Crystal City: In conjunction with a new retail/restaurant project on Crystal Drive, the entire streetscape is being redesigned with an emphasis on pedestrian safety and comfort. Traffic patterns and signage will be altered to facilitate this change while also improving vehicular flow and access. Sidewalks will be widened and new street furniture, street lights and trees will be installed to further enhance the pedestrian experience.

• Alexandria: Alexandria has made trees a priority on the main retail streets and has narrowed many intersections to accommodate pedestrian flows. It has also added a central landscaped median to its main thoroughfare.

• Middleburg: Middleburg recently has received federal funding for a “traffic-calming” experiment to retro-fit Route 50 with bricks, cobblestones, raised intersections tree-lined medians, etc. in an effort to prevent their main street from becoming a humming highway.

OTHER
• Ann Arbor: The Downtown Development Authority, in conjunction with the Merchant Association is improving 14 blocks of State Street (major retail, dining, residential, university, tourism artery)to calm traffic and improve pedestrian conditions. Sidewalks will be widened and refinished, more trees will be planted and new fixtures will line the streets. On State Street, the main concern was improving pedestrian safety.

• Chicago: The Halstead Street Improvement Project encompassed a one-mile stretch and involved the resurfacing of roading, new sidewalks, curbs and gutters, wider sidewalks and decorative street and pedestrian lighting and landscaping. The project cost of $7 million was funded by federal, state and city sources. The purpose of the project was to “enhance the quality of life for the entire community” while “providing a boost for motorists, residents and businesses in the area”.

• Chicago: Over the last 5-7 years, Mayor Daly has done amazing work throughout the city, introducing planted medians, street trees and lights, and landscaping everywhere from downtown to the neighborhoods. In 1996, $23 million was spent on State Street downtown, where sidewalks were redone, new streetlights were added and large tree planter zones were introduced to bring back the proper scale and feel to the old main retail streets.

• New York City (Greenwich Village): The Eighth Street Sidewalk Widening Project included widening sidewalks 2’5” to 4’5” on each side and adding 54 new trees and 37 historic light posts (as well as new “muni-meters”). The project covered multiple city blocks and cost over $2 million, which was funded by city, state and local BID (The Village Alliance) money.

• New York City (Downtown): The Department of City Planning and the Downtown Alliance (BID) plans for revitalizing the sagging downtown area per pedestrian expert Scott Wise. Their plans include:
o Sidewalk curb extensions at the corners.
o Changing some streets from two-way to one-way.
o Making Broad Street one-way and using the excess space to widen sidewalks.
o Widening sidewalks on Liberty, Fulton and Wall Streets.
o Widening crosswalks, installing new cross walks and reducing turn movements.
o Clearing corners now cluttered by poles, newsboxes and newsstands.

• New York City: The NYC Traffic Calming Law “permits NYC to use traffic calming techniques to design streets for speeds as low as 15 mph.” Its passage sends a powerful message to traffic engineers that the public demands equal rights for pedestrians, bicyclists and neighborhoods.

• New York City: A four-part advocacy campaign, “Reclaiming the Sidewalks” was launched. This campaign is “rooted in the simple premise that sidewalks are for walking, and that pedestrians deserve safe, congenial conditions that respect their dignity and humanity”. They will, amongst other solutions, install bollards, widen crowded, high-volume sidewalks and repair damaged and unpassable sidewalks.

• Ottawa: Government and civic officials are proposing to retrofit and improve existing core roads throughout the Central Area to better distribute the space among the road functions, maximizing pedestrian comfort on the sidewalk and cyclist safety. They have proposed to delete a lane of parking to widen sidewalks, or alternatively, they will provide trees and vegetation in raised, curbside planter boxes in lieu of wider sidewalks.

• San Francisco: Twenty years ago the residents of Noe St in San Francisco faced a decision as to whether or not to implement traffic calming measures. Half the street opted out of the calming project, fearful of losing parking while the other half moved forward with neckdowns and benches. Eventually, however, the block that chose parking changed their minds and instituted the improvements as well. “What a surprise, flowers beat parking every time.”

• London: On February 17, 2003, London instituted an $8/day charge for any vehicle moving within an 8 square-mile area of central London during business hours. Traffic gridlock and the dominance of the car had simply become too overwhelming, so the city decided to do something to stop the attack of the car.

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