Chapter Two: Creating Your Community Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan

Step 5: Pedestrian System Planning

Pedestrian planning differs from bicycle planning partly because almost everyone walks. Individuals from every age group and ability level use the pedestrian environment and most destinations need to be accessible by walking. People may be walking less these days, especially in environments that lack pedestrian accommodations. However, many communities are attempting to reverse this trend since walking is healthful, brings people in contact with their neighbors, and offers mobility to those who cannot or choose not to drive.

A pedestrian friendly community must provide facilities that allow people to walk safely. In some circumstances, roadways and developments must be retrofitted to make walking easier and more inviting. Facilities alone will not encourage walking. Revitalizing downtowns and planning for density and mixed-use development are equally important.

The Pedestrian Transportation System

Pedestrian facilities, like those for any transportation mode, are most effective when they are part of a system that assures connections, continuity, access, and safety. A community-wide system of facilities that is well designed and maintained is essential. It is important to consider the needs of pedestrians during transportation and development projects. In an interconnected pedestrian system, sidewalks are continuous; crossing streets safely is made possible; and, where appropriate, measures are taken to slow automobile traffic.

The Sidewalk Corridor

In most communities, sidewalks are the primary transportation facility for walking. As such, the sidewalk system must be continuous and provide access to all pedestrian destinations. The sidewalk corridor is usually parallel to the road from corner to corner. It encompasses the area from the edge of the road to the property line and provides an area for walking, separated from vehicle traffic, and additional space for signs, streetscaping, and amenities. It must be adequately maintained to remain useful.

Ames, Iowa has revitalized the CBD

Criteria for a Good Sidewalk Corridor

Street Corners

Street corners are busy places. They are of vital importance to the safe integration of automobile and pedestrian traffic. Here, people socialize, buy their newspapers, mail letters, and window shop while waiting for changing lights or buses. The most dangerous and complicated part of an individual's walk – crossing intersections – occurs at street corners. Street corners house much of the hardware (traffic signals, etc.) that controls the complicated movements at intersections.

Criteria for a Good Street Corner

The following elements should be provided to ensure safe and well functioning street corners.

Crosswalks

Crosswalks accommodate the most hazardous stage of any pedestrian trip, crossing the street. The purpose of crosswalks is to concentrate pedestrian crossing movements so that the potential number of conflict points between pedestrians and motor vehicles are reduced. There are two types of crosswalks: marked and unmarked.

Crosswalks are the natural extension of the sidewalk at corners (or if there is no sidewalk, the area that would extend if there were a sidewalk). The majority of crosswalks are unmarked. Crosswalks are sometimes marked at mid-block locations. Pedestrians have the right-of-way at crosswalks but are required by law to obey traffic control devices and laws.

Criteria for Good Crosswalks

Walking trips are short trips. Unlike bicyclists who sometimes want to traverse an entire city or region, pedestrians tend to do most of their walking close to home, work, school and commercial activity areas, like central business districts and shopping centers. Some of the areas where pedestrian considerations should and often do occur, include:

• Central business districts
• School routes
• Residential areas
• University/college areas

Additional areas of attention where pedestrian considerations should, but often do not, occur include:

• Access to downtown from surrounding neighborhoods
• Arterial and collector roadways that serve commercial and residential areas
• Neighborhood commercial areas
• Access to parks and community centers
• Hospitals and elderly housing facilities

Product/Action

Define priority pedestrian service areas in your community using existing conditions information and the public participation process.

Conditions can be precarious for pedestrians. Sometimes, there are no sidewalks or they are in poor condition. The roadway is intimidating with fast traffic, wide intersections, dangerous freeway exits, and inadequate opportunities to cross safely. There are long distances and no pedestrian connections between adjacent developments.

Several tools can help to evaluate local conditions:

Pedestrian Audits

One of the best ways to evaluate a community's pedestrian environment is to conduct one or more "pedestrian audits." These are "walks" taken in various neighborhoods during which citizens and public officials answer questions about the walking environment. These informal exercises usually reveal a great deal about the walking environment. Even more insights are gained when children and people with disabilities participate in these audits. (See Appendix Four for a sample audit.)

Sidewalk Inventory

For communities with a significant number of sidewalks, it is useful to inventory existing sidewalks, their condition, missing sections and roads that have no sidewalks at all. If an entire inventory cannot be conducted in the planning process, citizens can often supply some of this information at a public meeting - they will identify the missing pieces that matter to them.

Crosswalk Inventory

It is also helpful to consider the pedestrian crossing environment as a whole system. Which signalized crosswalks have walk phases? Are signals visible to pedestrians? Are traffic gaps adequate at non-signalized intersections?

Hazard Reporting

Some communities have adopted programs through which pedestrians and bicyclists can report hazardous conditions. A complementary "spot improvement" program allocates a relatively small budget to quickly fix minor problems. More expensive and difficult problems are included in future planning and programming. (See Appendix Four for a sample hazard reporting card.)

Analysis of Pedestrian Capacity

The 1994 Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), offers an extensive treatment of pedestrian capacity. It describes the basic principles of pedestrian traffic flow and procedures for the analysis of pedestrian facilities. The intended use of the HCM analysis techniques is to assess and plan for adequate capacity at locations of concentrated pedestrian activity - especially sidewalks, crosswalks and street corners. A balance is sought between the needs of pedestrians and motor vehicles.

Product/Action

• Use public participation process to conduct pedestrian audit to assess general conditions and define needs.
• Inventory sidewalks and produce a spreadsheet indicating missing segments, gaps and state of repair.
• Examine all or a sample of representative intersection locations and identify problem locations for pedestrian crossing.
• Develop prototype solutions for common conditions at intersections.
• Consider adoption of a hazard reporting and "spot improvement program."

Developing specific pedestrian plans that address design options and policies that favorably impact walking is a relatively new activity for municipal government. A local pedestrian plan is generally policy driven. The City of Portland, Oregon, adopted a pedestrian plan that developed prototype design and policies to improve conditions in the primary sub-areas of the walking environment: the sidewalk corridor, street corners, and crosswalks. Designs and policies were adopted to complete the sidewalk network, to improve the pedestrian capacity and safety of street corners, and to increase the safety of crossing streets.

The evaluation process will have identified many needs. Facility improvements will be developed based upon these needs. Many communities annually program sidewalk in-fill projects as well as assuring that sidewalks are built with new road and development projects.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers suggests the following guidance for sidewalk installation (See Table 3). Intersection reconstruction projects offer the opportunity to assess conditions for pedestrians at the corner and in the crosswalks. Crosswalk pavement markings, traffic control and signal improvement projects, curb cut installations and other projects to address special pedestrian needs are sometimes programmed separately. The pedestrian network plan will be dependent on policies to ensure progress on the sidewalk network and include pedestrian considerations in other roadway projects.

Product/Action

• Draft policies to build, in-fill and maintain sidewalks, to improve intersections and crossing opportunities, and to slow traffic in specific areas.
• Prioritize sidewalk in-fill and repair needs considering priority service areas, information on the sidewalk inventory, and sidewalk installation guidance to determine relative importance.
• Identify difficult intersections and prioritize improvements according to priority service areas and public input.
• Determine if traffic should be slowed in some locations to address safety concerns; prioritize locations.
• Refer to Appendix One for pedestrian and traffic calming design considerations and references.
• Develop cost estimates for elements of program improvements based on local prices.
• Present Draft Plan at public meetings and incorporate comments.