THE BURLINGTON, VT
WALK/BIKEDECLARATION -- MAY 2014
For the first time in a landmark document the Burlington Walk Bike
Council in what I term the “Burlington Declaration” sets roundabouts and a
cycle track network as part and parcel of a generating a safe walkable and
bikable context for the City. While no
roundabouts or cycle track (protected/separated bike lanes) exist on a busy
City thoroughfare today, these treatments remain indispensible to a safe
walk/bike urban street network usable by all residents. This Declaration, an “advisory” document,
calls for a demonstration roundabout and demonstration cycle track
(protected/separated bike lanes) in short order.
Equally important, the Declaration calls for re-design of the $40
million Champlain Parkway because the current design lacks as the Declaration
states “reasonable accommodations for bicycles and pedestrians” and calls for
including roundabouts and separate protected bike treatments in a re-design.
Finally, the Declaration points to the current North Avenue
Corridor Study stating “our expectation that the final recommendations will
include substantive improvements to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian
concerns, such as protected bike lanes [cycle track] roundabouts...and other
bike-ped improvements.”
Tony
Redington Burlington, VT
THE DECLARATION
Burlington Walk-Bike Council
Go For
Gold Priorities
The Burlington
Walk-Bike Council strongly believes that Burlington has great potential for increasing
walking and biking both for transportation and recreation. Our goal is to
make Burlington a world-class walking and biking city. Being certified as
a Gold Bike-Friendly Community and as a Gold Walk-Friendly Community is one way
to measure success towards the goal, although it is not itself the goal.
The following
document includes some of the Walk-Bike Council’s recommended priorities for
increasing walking and biking in our community. It includes a brief
discussion of the key elements required for success and the overall goals, a
prioritized list of major projects to achieve those goals, and a list of major
projects that are already in progress. The list of projects is divided
into three categories - short-term engineering and infrastructure projects,
medium-term engineering and infrastructure projects, and non-engineering
projects - and Top Priorities are identified in each category.
Elements of Success
While it is
important to identify particular projects and priorities, it is important also
to identify the key elements essential to any effort to promote walking and
biking, These are Safety, Accessibility, and Motivation.
Safety
The primary
prerequisite for increasing walking and biking in the City of Burlington (or
anywhere) is safety, both real and perceived. While some people will bike
in traffic and will brave even crowded roads, many more people are daunted by
current road conditions in many places. Some of the most important
corridors and routes in Burlington do not feel safe to ride on for most people
Safety is also a major concern for people who would like to walk,
especially when crossing traffic and especially for those whose mobility is
limited. Another aspect of safety for bikers is having a secure place to
store their bikes and gear, protected from theft, vandalism, and weather.
The primary
route to improved safety for both walking and biking is through improvements to
infrastructure, including sidewalks and crossings, protected bikeways,
roundabouts, and secure bike parking. In addition, enforcement and
education can play a significant role in improving safety.
Accessibility
Another critical
element of success for any effort to increase biking and walking is convenient
access to biking and walking facilities and to desired destinations. One
of the draws for walking and biking, compared to driving (and public transit),
is the ability to go straight where you want to go. Having to go out of
one’s way, in contrast, is a significant deterrent for many people.
Infrastructure
improvements must therefore take this into account by ensuring that safe routes
for walking and biking are placed where people want to go, and get people
efficiently from place to place without significant detours. This means
ensuring that they are continuous (without gaps where bicycle or pedestrian
facilities disappear or are reduced), and it may also include adding
cut-throughs where travel is currently blocked. Bicycle storage also
needs to be prominently and centrally located. Sidewalks and street
crossings should be frequent, accessible to those with reduced mobility, and
conveniently located, and pedestrians should be able to cross with a minimum of
waiting time. Finally, routes should be clearly marked both on the street
and on readily accessible maps.
Motivation
Another barrier
to more widespread walking and biking is the dominant car culture, in which
people are accustomed to driving to get where they want to go. To
increase walking and biking it is thus important to motivate people to change
their behavior through a variety of encouragement activities. These may
include special events and programs, Safe Routes to Schools or other
promotional campaigns, incentives for commuters, discounts at local businesses,
public art and design, historical markers, and many other ideas.
Goals
The overall goal for this effort is to make Burlington a truly
walk-friendly and bike-friendly community and to increase the actual number of
people walking and biking. This means substantially improving conditions
for walking and biking in the city. Based on the primary elements of
success (Safety, Accessibility, and Motivation), the required conditions for
meeting this overall goal include the following:
- A well-maintained continuous city-wide network of sidewalks and
pedestrian paths, with frequent, safe, and convenient crossings.
- A well-maintained continuous city-wide network of protected bike
routes, particularly on major arteries and in the downtown area, with safe
intersection design.
- Abundant and accessible bike parking throughout the city, with an
emphasis on secure and weather-protected bike parking facilities at major
destinations.
- Policies, education, and infrastructure that encourage safe driving
behavior, including appropriate speeds and respect for pedestrians and
bicyclists.
- A variety of events, policies, and programs that encourage walking
and biking.
Top Priorities
While Burlington has already made significant progress in
achieving the goals identified above, there are still many gaps and needs for
improvement to the existing conditions. The Burlington Walk-Bike Council
has therefore identified a number of Top Priority strategies, projects and
actions for achieving the overall goal of a walk-friendly and bike-friendly
community, divided into three categories by type and time-frame.
Strategies for promoting walking and biking are often divided into
5 categories, known as the 5 E’s: Engineering & Infrastructure, Encouragement,
Education, Enforcement, and Evaluation & Planning. Because
of the importance of Engineering & Infrastructure in meeting the goals of
the Go For Gold project, we identified two separate lists of Top Priorities in
that category, in both the short term (1-2 years) and medium term (3-5 years).
We have also identified our Top Priorities among the many other types of
non-engineering projects, including Encouragement, Education, Enforcement, and
Evaluation and Planning.
Improvements in Engineering and Infrastructure - short term (1-2
years)
- Demonstration
Projects: Perform at least one
long-term demonstration project each of cycle track and roundabouts to
show and test how they work, and to build support for their inclusion in
more comprehensive upgrades.
- Secure
Bike Parking:
- Install
Secure, weather-protected Bicycle Parking (lockers) at the new Transit
Center, at the Airport, and at other transit hubs, and
- Modify
zoning codes to require secure bike parking for residential and
commercial developments.
- Sidewalk
Repair: Increase the sidewalk
repair budget and capacity to erase the current backlog of sidewalks
requiring repair
Improvements in Engineering and Infrastructure - medium term (3-5
years)
- Attended Bike
Parking: Establish an indoor,
secure, Attended Bike Parking facility located close to Church St. and the
transit station, with capacity for 150 bicycles, lockers, and shower.
- Crosswalk
Spacing: Create a standardized
precedent for the maximum distance between two crosswalks. Add crosswalks
as needed once the standard has been set, including bumpouts, RRFB
flashing signs, or HAWK signs as appropriate.
- Main St.
Improvements: Complete Corridor
Study for Main St., and follow up by making recommended improvements,
incorporating ideas from Plan BTV, protected bike lanes, roundabouts,
sidewalk upgrades, safe crossings, traffic calming, and other bike-ped
improvements.
Improvements in non-Engineering Categories
(Education,
Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation and Planning)
- DPW Bike-Ped
Staffing: Increase staffing
levels for Bicycle-Pedestrian Planning at the Burlington Department of Public
Works to provide additional capacity for planning and management of
improvements to infrastructure for bicycles and pedestrians
- Bicycle-Pedestrian
Plan: Develop a comprehensive
Bicycle-Pedestrian Plan, either stand-alone or as a part of the overall city
transportation plan
- Transportation
Demand Management (TDM):
Encourage more employers to create walk/bike-to-work incentives if they do
not have them already.
__________________________
Priorities
Already In Progress
The following
high priority projects have been left off of the main BWBC Priority list
because it is our understanding and expectation that these are already
underway. It is critical to ensure that all of these projects are
completed as expected in order to meet our goals for improved walkability and
bikability in Burlington.
Bike/Ped
Accommodations on the Champlain Parkway
The existing
plans for the Champlain Parkway do not currently include reasonable
accommodations for bicycles and pedestrians. However, it is the BWBC’s
understanding and expectation that the plans will be revised in short order to
incorporate improvements for bicycles and pedestrians. Examples of key elements
include roundabouts at some intersections, signalized crosswalks, and a
separate bikeway end-to-end, either as sidepath and/or cycle track.
Updating the plans must take place immediately if the Champlain Parkway
is moving forward. If the Champlain Parkway is NOT built, then the city
should establish a plan for making these bike-ped improvements on the Pine St. corridor.
Corridor
Studies and Improvements
- North Ave.: A Corridor Study for North Avenue is currently
underway. It is our expectation that the final recommendations will
include substantive improvements to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian
concerns, such as protected bike lanes, roundabouts, sidewalk upgrades,
safe crossings, traffic calming, and other bike-ped improvements.
It is further our expectation that the Study will be followed
up by implementation of these recommended improvements.
- Colchester
Ave.: It is our understanding
that CCRPC has recently granted funding for implementation of the
recommendations from the Colchester Ave. corridor study regarding the
intersection of Colchester Ave., Riverside Dr., and Barrett St.
- Winooski Ave.: It is our understanding that the City is
initiating a Corridor Study for North and South Winooski Ave. It is
our expectation that the final recommendations will include substantive
improvements to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian concerns, such as
protected bike lanes, roundabouts, sidewalk upgrades, safe crossings,
traffic calming, and other bike-ped improvements as appropriate. It
is further our expectation that the Study will be followed up by
implementation of these recommended improvements. The section of S.
Winooski between Pearl St. and Main St. is especially critical to address.
Safe Routes
to Schools Plans
- North Ave.: It is our understanding that the City is
currently working on implementing the improvements recommended in the 2008
Safe Routes to School plan on North Ave.
- Champlain
School: It is our understanding
that the City is currently working on making improvements to street
crossings on Locust St. and Birchcliff Parkway as recommended in Champlain
School Safe Routes to School plan.
Other Projects
- Bike Path
Repair: A central portion of
the Waterfront Bike Path is currently funded for repair and upgrade,
starting this fall.
- Bike Lockers: It is our understanding that well marked and
easily accessible bike storage lockers with electronic keys are currently
planned for installation on Cherry St. near the parking garage for
Burlington Town Center mall.
- Wayfinding
Plan: It is our understanding
that the City is currently working on implementation of the existing
Wayfinding plan for Burlington.
- Open Streets: We have recently established a plan for an
Open Streets event in September 2014 - an event at which a main street is
closed to through traffic and only accessible to pedestrians or bikers.
It is our expectation and hope that the success of this event will
lead to establishment of at least two annual Open Streets events.
Other Priorities
The Burlington
Walk-Bike Council also identified a number of other projects that did not make
it onto our Top Priority list. While they are not as critical as the projects
identified above, these are also important for increasing walking and biking in
Burlington and should be pursued in parallel.
Other short term priorities for improvements in Engineering and
Infrastructure
- Crosswalks: Improve visibility of crosswalks throughout
the city, including
- ensure
that the paint remains visible throughout the year
- add
bumpouts to slow traffic and reduce the crossing distance
- add
RRFB flashing lights at crosswalks on high volume and high speed streets
throughout the city.
- Crossing
Signals: Change policy to:
- have
a leading phase on pedestrian crossing signals downtown
- have
automatic crossing instead of push button generated crossing light
- Bike Racks: Ensure that there are accessible, convenient
bike racks throughout the city, including at all public buildings and in
all city parks, as well as major public destinations.
- Traffic
Calming: Add traffic calming
and other features to key locations throughout city to encourage driving
at or below speed limit
- Waterfront
Bike Path: Perform repair and
upgrade for portions of waterfront bike path that are not currently
budgeted/planned
- Maintain
Bikeways: Ensure that all
on-street bike lanes and markings are maintained in a safe and visible
condition:
- ensure
that the paint remains visible throughout the year
- ensure
that bike lanes, side paths, and sides of major roads without bike lanes,
are maintained to ensure safe bicycle passage, including being free of
debris, potholes, and sunken storm grates
Other medium term priorities for improvements in Engineering and
Infrastructure
- Rest of Bike
Path: Evaluate and perform
repairs and upgrades for the bike path in Ethan Allen Park, intervale, and
other locations not covered by existing repair plan for waterfront
- Roundabouts: Install roundabouts at key intersections
throughout the city
- Mall
Pass-Through: Open up path
through Mall from Cherry St. to Bank St. at Pine St. (or nearby) for
pedestrians and bikes, as envisioned in Plan BTV
- Shelburne St.
and St. Paul St. Improvements:
Complete Corridor Study for Shelburne St. and St. Paul St., and follow up
by making recommended improvements, incorporating protected bike lanes,
roundabouts, sidewalk upgrades, safe crossings, traffic calming, and other
bike-ped improvements.
- Willard and
Union St. Improvements: Complete
Corridor Studies for North and South Willard St., and North and South
Union St., and follow up by making recommended improvements, incorporating
protected bike lanes, roundabouts, sidewalk upgrades, safe crossings,
traffic calming, and other bike-ped improvements.
- Additional
Improvements: Complete Corridor
Studies for additional major corridors in the city, including North St.,
Manhattan Dr., Battery St., Prospect St., and Flynn Ave. These
studies should be followed up by making recommended improvements,
incorporating protected bike lanes, roundabouts, sidewalk upgrades, safe
crossings, traffic calming, and other bike-ped improvements.
- Secure Bike
Parking in Parks: Ensure that
all major park facilities have secure bike parking that is accessible to the
main activity of that park
- Champlain
School Safe Routes: Plan and
implement additional recommendations from the Champlain School Safe Routes
to School plan
Other high
priorities in non-Engineering Categories
- Driver
education: Ensure that regular
driver education classes incorporate pedestrian and bike safety issues,
and provide targeted education to professional drivers (including truck
drivers, city employees, bus drivers) on sharing the roads with bikers and
pedestrian safety.
- Car
Traffic Enforcement: Improve
enforcement of car traffic laws - focused on speed, giving room for bikes,
yielding to pedestrians
- Accident
Reduction Plan: The city should
develop and carry out a specific plan for reduction of pedestrian/car and
bicycle/car accidents and fatalities, AKA Vision Zero
- Expert
Consultants: City departments
(DPW, Parks, CEDO, Planning and Zoning) should establish a policy ensuring
that all development and planning projects include expert biking and
walking facility consultants, and in particular that roadway projects
include consultants that are familiar with roundabouts.
- Safe
Routes To Schools: Ensure that
all Burlington schools take part in Safe Routes To Schools programs and
promote walking and biking to school, and ensure that Safe Routes to
Schools evaluations are undertaken for all schools
- Walk
the City: Develop a “Walk the
City” map/brochure (like "Cycle the City”) with routes laid out for
safe, reasonable walks downtown and elsewhere in the city, with places of
interest highlighted.
- Bike
Repair Station: Establish more
bike repair stations within the community like the one at Local Motion;
Healthy living is willing to donate them, but the City must install them.
- Evaluate
Bikability and Walkability:
Perform regular evaluations of walking and biking in the Greater
Burlington area. This would include surveys of the perceived safety
and convenience of biking and walking in different areas, as well as
assessments of walking and biking behavior. This information can be
used both to gauge success of efforts to increase walking and biking, as
well as to target areas for improvement.
- Bike
Route Signage: Purchase and
install bike route signs in remaining parts of the city
- Mountain
Biking Park: Create a
sanctioned mountain biking park within Burlington
- Formalize
BWBC: Formalize the Burlington
Walk-Bike Council as a part of city government, with review function
similar to other advisory boards
Lower
priorities in non-Engineering Categories
- Bike
Maintenance Day: Establish an
annual Bike Maintenance Day event , with equipment, classes on bike
maintenance, assistance with making sure a bike is in safe operating
condition, etc.. This could be a stand-alone event or partner with
existing event, in conjunction with bike parking. Single event or on-going
(like the farmer's market)
- Improve
Streetscape: Add public art,
landscaping, and other amenities throughout the city to improve the
pedestrian and cyclist experience, encourage walking, and engage people in
their environment
- Parcourse: Add one or more parcourses (fitness trails) in
city parks
- Bikes
Cross With Pedestrians: Change
city ordinances to allow bicycles to cross with pedestrian signals
- Bike-Sharing
Program: Develop a public
bike-sharing program similar to those in Montreal, Boston, and New York
City, or (more size-appropriate) Aspen, CO, and Spartanburg, SC.
- Bicycle
Friendly Businesses: Promote
and assist businesses in applying for and achieving Bicycle Friendly
Business status
- Bike
Traffic Enforcement: Improve
enforcement of bike traffic safety laws, focused on stopping at
intersections
- Walking
Event: Create an annual event
with a walking focus, perhaps similar to the “Winooski on Foot” event.
- Safety
Education Campaign: Create a
broad-based safety education campaign aimed at, to encourage safe road
behavior by both drivers and bikers, and to promote mutual respect and
understanding
