Note: The U.S. dropped from first to 20th in highway safety since 1990 with today about 22,000 excess fatalities and hundreds of thousands of serious injuries each year compared to the numbers generated per mile of travel by the average of the top four nations--the UK (we were tied with them in 1990 for #1), Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. AAA studies point to desperate need for U.S. to address its shoddy highway safety status. AAA, AARP, Federal Highway Administration and Geico all support roundabouts for safety and converting signals to roundabouts for reducing serious and fatal injuries.
The
A, B and C of Modern Busy Urban Street Design:
the Burlington, VT Example
--yes,
there are D, E, F, etc. to be covered in future analyses
Since
2000 a revolution occurred in United States modern busy urban streets
design. Today there are three generic elements necessary when
choosing to serve safely those who walk, bicycle, and, yes, those who
travel by car on a busy urban street.
The
three core busy urban street design elements are:
- sidewalk
- roundabout
- cycle track (protected bike lane)
The
basic design principle? Safety first!
If
your busy urban street lacks one or more of these three central
components—or their equivalent--by definition one or more ways of
travel is unsafe, undeserviced and/or less than the desired, complete
transportation street.
In
many cases geographic (sharp grades like San Francisco hills),
physical constraints (older narrow streets), etc., prevent fully
achieving all three elements. The three elements remain the desired
objective for safety! The 1000 Friends of Portland study found,
essentially, the formula to walkable busy streets are a sidewalk
network free of sharp grades plus ease of crossing intersections only
the roundabout enables safely.
Almost
by default by a neighborhood driven planning process, the Burlington,
VT adopted its North Avenue Corridor Plan in 2014 where these three
elements were enshrined to provide the highest level of safety for
all modes: an existing sidewalk system, cycle track from end to end
of the 2.6 mile corridor, and conversion of three of seven busy
intersection traffic signals to roundabouts. Note the report
two-page Chapter 1 vision and goals:
https://studiesandreports.ccrpcvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/FINAL-NorthAve_CorridorReport.pdf
The
roundabout, birthed in the U.K. in 1966, arrived in the U.S. in 1990.
By 2005 NY State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) made the
roundabout which cuts serious and fatal injuries about 90% its
standard based on better safety for all modes. At U.S. and Canadian
roundabouts, about 10,000 today, only one pedestrian and two cyclist
fatalities occurred to date. NYSDOT's 2005 action instantly
fossilized the traffic signal in America. (Consider the Assam, NL
design preferred by many in the U.S. with a separate walk and bike
lane:
https://www.google.com/search?hs=ylX&q=assam+roundabout+design+netherlands&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=opera&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYqdO8_s_iAhVkRN8KHbZODNIQsAR6BAgFEAE&biw=784&bih=462
)
Historically
cycle track is the newest and most rapidly adopted generic street
element—the first cycle track network in North America being
installed in Montreal in 2007.
Cycle
track adoption here includes its appearance statewide bike plans like
the first Illinois state bicycle plan in 2014 and by 2017 in the form
of a cycle track network in
Burlington,
VT's planBTV Walk Bike: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/planbtvwalkbike
The “old” bicycle provisions of paint on street may have been
help to the then prevalent young adult male cyclists. But paint on
streets excluded most less skilled, old and young, and women
concerned with personal safety. Simply, paint on asphalt is not a
safety device and offers minimal safety benefit compared to cycle
track while leaving most of the potential bicycle riding community
unwilling to ride two wheelers.
Yes,
there are some additional wrinkles. Led by Vermont bikepath pioneer,
now Dr. Anne Lusk, Harvard School of Public Health, the cycle track
alternative location on sidewalk level where there are business or
other mixed use areas emerged. Dr. Lusk led the first safety studies
showing the superior safety performance of cycle track in Montreal
early this decade. Here is the 2010 Lusk study report:
https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/17/2/131
Japan
cities feature widespread use of sidewalk level cycle track (though
only now adopting roundabout technology). Bicycling is a natural
part of Japanese urban neighborhood travel activity (and connecting
to subways in major cities) with pedestrians and cyclists of all ages
mixing in a low speed cycling context on sidewalk spaces and street
crossings. (Up to 10% of Japanese bicycles are E-bikes.)
Among
other features, sidewalk level cycle track favors adjacent businesses
with easier access and added flexible space between the business and
vehicle travelways. Cycle track not on vehicle travelway may be at
sidewalk level or at a separate level between the sidewalk level and
vehicle travelway. Sidewalk cycle track examples:
There
are a few other variations in street design of note, particularly
“shared space” where all modes mix, coexist in a low speed and
safe context https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space
One reason busy street urban Japan cycle track works so well is
the presence of shared space neighborhood “local” side streets as
described in the Wikipedia entry.
These
major changes in safe busy urban street design took place since 1990
when the U.S. began its drop from 1st
to 20th
in highway fatality rates, now 22,000 yearly excess highway deaths
compared to the average of the top four, the U.K. (co-leader with
U.S. in 1990), Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Safety first!
Tony
Redington June 7, 2019
TonyRVT99@gmail.com
@TonyRVT60 TonyRVT.Blogspot.com
