Expanding Church Street Marketplace Walkability

 
            A Downtown Burlington Proposal: Four Mini-
     Roundabouts Adjacent Church Street Marketplace—
   Providing Comfort to Pedestrians, Aiding Climate Change   
       Emissions Reductions and Freeing Vehicle Traffic

    …Extending Church Street Marketplace walkability
    two blocks west along Bank and College Streets to Pine Street

Recently at a family luncheon at Burlington’s Friendly Toast on Saint Paul Street three members were shaken up when crossing the all-way stop Saint Paul/College intersection as a vehicle failed to properly yield almost hitting them. One moved by a walker. This spurred some thinking about the four all-way-stop intersections immediately west of the Marketplace and how inexpensive mini-roundabouts could transform the block of Saint Paul/College/Pine/Bank Streets into a much more comfortable and less stressful walking environment for both pedestrians and drivers at very little cost using mini-roundabouts.

While “normal” roundabouts with central islands can cost up to a million dollars or more each, the mini-roundabouts price is often in the tens of thousands of dollars, really reflecting their listing as a traffic calming measure.  Also, Burlington has historically employed all-way stop intersections which traffic engineers will testify are the safest for pedestrians.  The mini-like its senior regular roundabout—both dating from their inception in the 1960s in the UK—also provide equivalent safety to the all—way-stop intersections while providing some very important additional benefits: reduced delay for cars and trucks, less stress for pedestrians, greater capacity for traffic and climate change and other pollutants reductions of up to 20-30%.  The cut in emissions alone can amount to annual thousands of gallons of fuel consumed from the simple act of reduced stopping and then accelerating to speed when no cars or pedestrians are present at the intersection. 


When two or more vehicles arrive at stop signs about the same time at an all-way stop intersections, not only does this cause some “who got there first” issues for drivers to figure out before moving through the intersection, but a similar an even more uncomfortable situation for pedestrians who can must deal with cars literally able to invade their crossing from all directions before the plus vehicles approaching towards the crossing they are to negotiate. The mini-roundabout solves all these conflicts—cars yield to pedestrians immediately in front and yield only to a car already in the circular travel way.  Mini roundabouts will in many cases also provide the pedestrian with a small median space, a refuge. between lanes so only one lane of traffic is dealt with at a time.

In the case of Burlington, while it boasts mostly 25 mph streets, as a practical matter it has 20 high crash intersections (19 signalized) or almost one in five on the Vermont Agency of Transportation current high crash list of 111! Unfortunately it is, perhaps, the most dangerous City in Vermont to walk, bike and travel by car.  It experiences weekly about two vehicle occupant injures and one pedestrian or cyclist injury. At its intersections, seven have died since 1998—three pedestrians, three vehicle occupants and one cyclist.

The intersections bordering the Marketplace and downtown are especially problematic.  The east side border is South Winooski Avenue which has the reputation among engineering consultants as “death valley” with both Pearl Street and Main Street on the high crash list (Main Street the number one high crash intersection in Vermont!).  Another Marketplace adjacent intersection along Main St at Saint Paul St not only is on the Vermont high crash list but also the site of a T-bone fatality not many years ago.

On the west side of the Marketplace there is an opportunity to provide safe, comfortable for all, and high level of service mini-roundabouts to enhance the context for the many businesses and services there, accommodate hundreds residents of new apartments (some 100 under construction and about 400 slated for City Place), and make the trips of thousands of tourists who chug up and down the hill on College St between the waterfront and the Marketplace just  more enjoyable.

Vermont already has one mini-roundabout built almost a decade ago in Manchester Center—it is part of the first Vermont “roundabout corridor” composed of three roundabouts.  The AARP sponsored Pine Street Workshop in 2014 identified mini-roundabouts as the preferred choice for intersections up and down the corridor in great part because of right-of-way constraints which prevent the installation of full service roundabouts with central islands.  The Department of Public Works (DPW) in recent years considered a mini-roundabout demonstration at North St/North Winooski (a Vermont high crash intersection) and a second a block away at North Winooski/North Union/Decatur.   

Each mini roundabout will offer benefits.  First, every mini roundabout enables a vehicle to reverse direction, a very important feature with so many tourists trying to find their way around downtown.  Second, the mini-roundabout not only calms traffic with a raised center area and horizontal diversion (no straight line vehicle movement through the intersection possible) but it also discourages stop/rapid acceleration movements since there is little or no delay between intersections—and of course, no stop required if no pedestrian is present and no car in the circular travel way.  Ease of travel for larger trucks and regular Green Mountain Transit buses are responsible for for particularly higher emission cuts and benefits from mini-roundabouts versus all way stop or signals. Note traffic signals have a markedly poorer record in injury generation for all modes as well as higher injury severity levels than all-way-stop or roundabout intersection.   

Consider for a moment each mini suggested here.  For the Saint Paul/College the mini will enable easy access/egress to the parking lot at the southwest corner (former Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop) and, again, comfort to the regular and tourist traffic up and down College St.  Ditto at College/Pine intersection where movements in an out of the Key Bank ATM on the northeast corner along with parking traffic adjacent will be easier.  The Pine/Bank intersection awaits a third leg of Pine St north as part of the City Place development. This intersection now is a two-way corner where pedestrian movement is particularly uncomfortable and a mini will help define two pedestrian crossings as well as car movements.  About 100 apartments on the west side of Pine Street—49 apartments set for occupancy this December built by Nedde Real Estate in a new building and about 50 apartments on the west side within the People’s United Bank, also under construction.

The other intersection—Bank/Saint Paul—is a 3-way stop with a fourth leg entry/exit to NBT Bank building parking areas—eventually the continuation of Saint Paul St to Cherry St as part of City Place development. There is considerable pedestrian traffic with banks, restaurants and service businesses along all four streets. Currently the pedestrian traffic includes considerable traffic connected Burlington High School housed at the former Macy’s store.

The cost of mini-roundabouts is small. Generally they do not require moving any significant amount of existing curbing.  Relocation of crosswalks may be done and, of course, circular raised central areas installed.  Mini-roundabouts share the current US and Canadian now about 9,000 roundabouts remarkable pedestrian safety record—not a single pedestrian has ever been killed on a marked roundabout crosswalk through 2020. Here in Burlington at it 75 traffic signals two pedestrians have died since 1998 on marked crosswalks. Here in Vermont our five downtown roundabouts in 52 years experienced only a single pedestrian injury resulting in just bumps and bruises.  Overall, our five downtown roundabouts average one injury per decade, 0.1 injury per year. The 20 Burlington high crash intersections average 1.4 injuries per year!   Roundabouts reduce speeds and speeds are the enemy of pedestrian safety!

It takes little time to design and install mini-roundabouts. Using competent designers, involving the community, and installation can be measured in months, not years. Note that too often advocates for bicycle and pedestrians end up unnecessary constraining vehicle travel.   

Note the proposal for use of mini-roundabouts along the first five of six cross streets intersections on west end of North St in the Old North End, all five on the Vermont high crash list.  The “Convert Most Unsafe Vermont Community Street to Safest with Roundabouts” also employs mini-roundabouts (see blog February 28, 2022 at TonyRVT.blogspot.com ).

Finally, the effect of the four downtown mini-roundabouts is magnified by the fact that on both Bank and College Streets at Saint Paul to the east there is just one block to the Marketplace which itself slows traffic to a crawl and reenforces the traffic calming by the four mini-roundabouts—and vice versa, the Marketplace intersections at Bank and College benefit from slow approaching traffic from the west and
 drivers traveling west through the Marketplace mostly aware of the ease of movement once past Church Street.  


Tony Redington
Walk Safety Advocate
TonyRVT99@gmail.com  @TonyRVT60
TonyRVT.blogspot.com

4/30/2022

Photo of Manchester Center, VT mini-roundabout on Main St

Burlington Sidewalks are "Shared Paths"

 
Burlington Sidewalks are “Shared Paths”—Aim for Ped Only
                                Sidewalks!

    —The differences: North Ave Plan, Champlain Parkway and
     Parkway RIGHTway

Confusion exists on what is a sidewalk, a bikeway and a shared-use path here in Burlington.

Actually with only one exception all Burlington sidewalks are shared-use paths as bikes are allowed to travel there along with pedestrians.  As a senior most of my bike riding has been on sidewalks as there are practically no protected bike lanes (cycle track) yet in the City.  Streets with painted bike lanes are not safe in general, and prohibitively unsafe for less skilled and older/younger cyclist who all are consigned to the sidewalk system.

Note we can exclude here any discussion of the Burlington Bikepath and similar pathways.  The Bikepath is a recreation path—it is not a transportation facility, a facility marked by being lit and maintained year round.

The one exception in the City to bicyclist use of sidewalks technically are the adjacent streets of the Marketplace, South Winooski Ave from Pearl to Main Streets, Main St from South Winooski Ave to Saint Paul St, Saint Paul St from Main St to Bank St, Pearl St from Saint Paul St to South Winooski Ave. Add to this the Marketplace itself, though cyclists do use the Marketplace in the early a.m. when service vehicles and trucks are allowed from Pearl St to Main St.




      North Avenue Plan (2014) Creates the Mold

While not intended, the North Avenue Plan (North St to Plattsburgh Ave) created the mold of how to define the role of sidewalks and bike accommodations on our City streets. With a goal of “highest safety for all modes” the Plan calls for cycle track end-end-to-end along with a separate sidewalk while employing safest-for-all-modes roundabouts at key intersections.  Cycle track would be in the form of a 5 foot wide lane on each side of the Avenue with either a curb or other physical separation from the vehicle lanes.  

What was not discussed by the Advisory Committee in the North Avenue plan process or the plan document was the implication that cyclists would with few exceptions would be expected to use the cycle track and the sidewalk—instead of being shared-use—becomes a dedicated pedestrian sidewalk.  The term used in addition to “complete” street in accordance to the Vermont complete streets statute during the North Ave plan was “equality street.”  Equality street described each mode—pedestrian, bicycle and motor vehicle—being provided its own dedicated, safe, mobility space.  

So when the cycle track and roundabouts complete the renewal, nay transformation, of North Avenue the sidewalk there is no longer “shared-use” but dedicated pedestrian space with cycling mostly prohibited.

    Champlain Parkway/Champlain RIGHTway and Shared-use

The grassroots Pine Street Coalition arose in 2015 while the Burlington Walk Bike Council reviewed reviewed the complete lack of basic walk and bicycle accommodation in the Champlain Parkway design.  Pine Street adopted the reasoning of the Walk Bike Council and in 2016 the Walk Bike Council endorsed the Pine Street “Redesign Guidelines.”  

The Pine Street design, now its “Champlain RIGHTway” (RIGHTway) design features a dedicated two-way bikeway and sidewalk from Queen City Park Rd through to Kilburn Street/Curtis Lumber, about two miles.  Pine Street and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance (VRJA) position on the current design of the Parkway is leave Pine Street from Kilburn Street to Main Street alone, and instead bypass King Maple via the railyard to Battery Street Extension, now the $20 million federally funded Rail Enterprise Project (REP).  Pine Street and VJRA RIGHTway extends the sidewalk and dedicated bikeway along the REP to connect to the Bikepath at Maple St.

In addition to the dedicated bikeway, RIGHTway recommends additionally cycle track along the Parkway route.

What has not generally recognized is the RIGHTway dedicated two-way bikeway means no pedestrians!  And the RIGHTway sidewalk adjacent the bikeway does not allow cyclists!  This design approach copies the mold first set in the 2014 North Avenue Plan.

The RIGHTway approach follows the highest level of safety approach in the North Avenue Plan, a “complete” and “equality” for all modes street.  This mirrors the new US Department of Transportation Roadway Safety System Strategy, our national Vision 0 approach to no serious and fatal injuries.  The national strategy requires addressing racial and low income equity and climate change as part and parcel of safety infrastructure investments. The strategy includes a “Safe System Approach” and “Safe System Intersections” when investing in roads and streets.  The point here is that the current Parkway “shared-use path” pales in comparison to a dedicated sidewalk and dedicated two-way bikeway in RIGHTway.  

         Pedestrian and Bicycle Classification

There is no readily available pedestrian and bicycle facility classification in general use today.

A sidewalk classification might be: Class 1—Pedestrian Only and Class 2—Pedestrian Shared Use.  For cycling: Class 1—Bicyclist Only (bikeway or cycle track) and Class 2—Bicyclist Shared with pedestrians.

Intersections are critical for safety, the roundabout being the standard as it cuts serious and fatal injuries by about 90%.  The only other intersection which provides equivalent safety is the all-way stop.  Signals are to be considered only where a roundabout is unfeasible.


Tony Redington
Walk Safety Advocate
TonyRVT99@gmail.com






 

Convert Most Unsafe Vermont Communuty Street to Safest with Roundabouts

 September 1, 2021 Rev. 3 February 28, 2022

Convert Most Unsafe Vermont Communuty Street to Safest with Roundabouts

Historic Old North End North Street: Low Cost Conversion of the Most Unsafe and DangerouS  Vermont Community Street to Vermont’s Most Safe, Low Speed, Pedestrian Friendly Street!

                                                  Summary 

One thing parents well know, there is no safe route to Sustainability Academy/Barnes Elementary School along North Street in Burlington. 

This policy analysis recommends mini roundabouts along Vermont’s most unsafe and dangerous street right here in Burlington—North Street from North Avenue to the west to North Union to the east with five of six cross intersections on the state’s high crash list of 111 statewide. The roundabout is the only intersection type on the Federal Highway short list of pedestrian safety “proven countermeasures.” A mini roundabout, is the most likely application in most of the North Street intersections meaning about one injury crash per intersection every few years versus 0.6 injuries per year per intersection now in the most recent tabulation. North Street roundabouts might approach the record of the other five downtown roundabouts of one injury per 50 years (half century) per intersection. And injuries at a roundabout are less severe than at signals. Right now the five high crash intersections total expanded to a decade of an estimated 32 injuries compares to one injury per decade tabulated at the five downtown roundabouts!

The five Vermont downtown roundabouts with the 52 years of data in Manchester Center {3}, Middlebury and Montpelier averaged just one injury per decade—0.8 car occupant injury, 0.2 pedestrian injury, 0.0 bike injury—none serious. Roundabouts can be expensive as costly utility work often is involved in a project unrelated to the roundabout itself. However, with mini roundabouts used where there are right-of-way constraints, a factor present on North Street, the mini can often be installed with the same safety performance of the bigger sibling for as little as $50,000.  The mini roundabout cost is in the neighborhood of traffic calming.  It is not far from the cost of three sets of one concrete cylinder flower pot and two white plastic stakes ($17,000) installed at several Burlington intersections. Besides you do not have to tend to the flowers at a mini roundabout! 

 

For the historic Old North End (ONE) dating from the early 19th century, North Street remains the most active community centered street featuring numerous retail, business and institutional land uses. Sustainable Academy (Barnes) Elementary School is just a block from the now Old North End Community Center, formerly Saint Joseph’s Elementary School. A variety of restaurants, convenience stores, residential buildings, ethnic retail markets,Vantage Press, Dion Locksmith and Bissonette Properties, as well as the locked Elmwood Cemetery are all found between along North Street between North Avenue and North Union Street. As well, there are four high crash intersections—all four cross intersections located between North Avenue (west terminus of North Street) and North Union Street to the east. Of the six intersections North Avenue, Park Avenue, North Champlain Street, Elmwood, North Winooski and North Union Street are on the VTrans latest high crash intersection list—the only cross intersection along the stretch not on the State list? Elmwood/Intervale and Park Avenue both considered a problem intersection in the neighborhood. 

North Street Important Demographics A key to understanding the dilemma of North Street lies in great part to the unusual demographics of Burlington. In a state with 71% of households owning their home and 29% renters, Burlington is almost the opposite 36% owning their home, 64% renter households. VT Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski and Rep. Curt McCormack who has headed the House Natural Resources and Transportation Committees represent the poorest in the City including practically all the ONE and some of King Maple neighborhoods which contain the only census tracts with excess of 80% with low and moderate incomes, King Maple with the highest concentration of persons with brown and black skins in the state—and the 30% representative district households have no car access and therefore are pedestrian and transit dependent for their transportation. The safety on streets like North Street is absolutely essential. In fact Burlington overall has 26% of its households with poverty level incomes with King Maple and ONE along with Winooski (29% of households with poverty level incomes) together representing the historic economic engine of Vermont, now a corridor of poverty. (A poor family of four means a weekly income at most of about $500.) North Street—Site of Many Injury and Non-injury Vehicle Crashes The four high crash intersections in a five year period averaged 3.8 injuries a year all four intersections in five years (19 injuries all four intersections over five years) plus 3.2 reportable fender bender crashes (“Property Damage Only” or PDO) (64 all four intersections PDO crashes in five years). See table 1. North Street clearly is a victim of the growth of the New North End (NNE) which sent increasing numbers of vehicles destined for downtown, mostly via North Ave, Park Avenue and North Champlain Street. North Winooski and North Union intersections carry the historic traffic continuing today between downtown Burlington and Winooski, a route dating from the days of Ethan and Ira Allen. 

The North Winooski Avenue-Riverside Avenue was not only the Allen’s era route, it was the route of the first trolley line built in the 1880s and continued in operation until 1929. With North Street featuring four of just 111 high crash intersections in the Vermont list, clearly it is a prime candidate for being the most unsafe and dangerous community street in Vermont! ONE leaders have been concerned about safety along North Street. It was a discussion item act the Arts and Business Network ( https://www.oneabn.org/ ) several years ago but it had to wait in line for the Winooski Corridor study now completed. In 2020 a Department of Public Works draft plan included a demonstration of a mini roundabout at the high crash North St/No. Winooski Ave intersection along with a second at Decatur/No. Union/No. Winooski. That demonstration was cancelled for the current construction year from lack of funds, reportedly, and a Public Works representative said there is no consideration of a North Street corridor study. 

Why Traffic Signals which Generate Crashes, Congestion and Delay? All five cross intersections along the west end of North Street (North Ave, Park Ave, North Champlain and Elmwood/Intervale, and North Winooski) are signalized while North Union is a three-way, all-way stop (North Union is one way northbound). Historically as vehicle traffic surged post World War II urban streets quickly became locations of congestion and the only choice to relieve the congestion which handled more traffic than simple signs: the now ubiquitous traffic signal. Traffic engineers had little choice as traffic increased, the traffic signal or limitless congestion and endless queues. But there was a price to shifting from signs to signals—injury crashes increase, particularly for the vulnerable—those who walk and bike—would increase as would car occupant injuries. 

Prime factors in increased injuries and crashes—signals versus all way stop intersections, for example—include higher speeds of vehicles traveling through on green and vehicle which fail to stop which cause, for example, the deadly T-bone crash. For pedestrians the high speeds at signals contribute to the 20% higher pedestrian casualty rate at signals versus all-way stop control and equally safe roundabouts (source, FHWA). So, careful protocols were established to minimize the tradeoff of safety and mobility, called signal “warrants.” This was the status of traffic management until the advent of the modern roundabout which began to make its appearance in the United States (and Vermont) in the 1990s, getting its start in 1966 in the U.K. While slow to become the standard it is today, NY State Department of Transportation and two Canadian Provincial Ministries of Transport (British Columbia and Alberta), for examples adopted regulatory “roundabouts first” policies between 2005 (NY) and 2010. A U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) definitive study in 2001 determined American roundabouts cut serious and fatal injuries by “about 90%.”

A half century of Vermont downtown roundabouts found a single pedestrian injury (not serious), four non-serious car occupant injuries and 0 bicyclist injuries. Consider the five injuries in a half century of service for downtown Vermont roundabouts versus four North Street intersections generating 3.8 injuries a year! As important the stunning tabulation this year of record of now 9,000 roundabouts in US and Canada has yet to experience a single pedestrian death on a marked roundabout crosswalk!  This compares to Burlington during just the the 1998-2020 period at just 75 signalized intersections, 2 pedestrian hit in crosswalks were killed (Barrett St crossing at Dominos and Shelburne Street crosswalk at Home Ave). 

As important, Burlington, Vermont and the nation have been falling behind in road safety to a terrible degree. When the first roundabout in the US was built in 1990, the US and UK were safest in road fatalities per mile of travel in the world—UK still remains at the top—while the US has dropped to 18th with 21,000 pandemic level of excess road deaths yearly. Even in covid 2020 when travel miles dropped 12%, fatalities per mile of travel increased 8%! As concerning is the trend since 2010 in pedestrian deaths—up 50% with Hispanics 50% more likely to die per population than white, Black people almost twice that of white-non-Hispanic. 

The two Burlington pedestrian deaths during 2010-2021 (and continuing in 2021) contributed to the upturn in national pedestrian deaths—up 46% in the latest reports. The US Congress, states’ transportation departments and metropolitan planning organizations like Vermont single one, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) are well aware of the dismal road death pandemic and in 2013 U.S. laws required all federally funded highway projects to reduce fatal and serious injuries, mandating state and CCRPC to adopt five year objectives for reductions, revised during subsequent five year intervals. Unfortunately for Federal Highway Administration as well as most states and metros (including VTrans and CCRPC) with about two years of the first five year reduction targets in face of the surge of deaths and serious injuries in 2020 while vehicle miles declined 13%, most all will likely fail their first five year targets! 

Note that all neutral and advocate groups for safety—American Automobile Association (AAA), American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and GEICO—have as first on their list or near the top of actions for safety, the installation of roundabouts and conversion of existing traffic signals to roundabouts. The new Vermont road death factor: an estimated 22 deaths per year from long term exposure to allowed tailpipe admissions. While road fatalities in recent years about 60 per year, we have learned recently in University of North Carolina research that there is another set of road deaths directly related to long term exposure to tailpipe emissions. ( https://ie.unc.edu/2021/06/08/new-study-identifies-leading-source-of-health-damages-from-vehicle-pollution-in-12-states-and-washington-d-c ). As a summary of the report states: “states experienced substantial health impacts from vehicle emissions and can gain health benefits from local action.” The recent study involving a number of northeastern US state identified the numbers by state and the annual loss of life in Vermont, 22 deaths, expands the annual Vermont road death number by about a third to about 80 deaths yearly. 

While electric cars, hopefully, will be the dominant vehicle type years from now, certainly for a generation the long term deaths from internal combustion cars will continue to exact a toll on Vermonters. It is very likely that built up urban areas—like Burlington’s ONE and King Maple neighborhoods—with congestion and vehicle delay causes a higher level of long term exposure fatalities than living and/or working in a country setting in Charlotte. Since roundabouts cut intersection emissions from vehicles up to one third, the roundabout aids in reducing the pollution load to residents and workers in our admittedly congested city streets. 

An Affordable Investment Quickly Makes North Street a Model of a Safe Community Street —Applying the lessons learned from the AARP Vermont Pine Street Workshop (2014) and Environmental Justice Process in the Champlain Parkway (2019 to date)

First and foremost the North Street intersections in question are best served by roundabouts, likely a mini roundabout like Vermont’s first and only one in Manchester Center. The mini roundabout has the same, or even better, safety record for all modes. Second, any consideration of roundabouts along North Street needs to have all six intersections evaluated in a reasonably short corridor study—the study is not to make signals better, it is to establish roundabout feasibility and utilize experienced (read national practitioners) as part of the consultant team. Actual design of roundabouts for the corridor could be done in a matter of weeks, certainly within a 12-month period. 

An analysis of 5-year and 1-year injury and "Property Damage Only" (PDO) crashes at the five North Street intersections is instructive. This can be calculated easily from the 5-year recent VTrans High Crash Location Report series, 2012-2016. The cost of a fatality used is $1.5 million, $88,500 for an injury and $11,300 for a PDO. Since mini roundabouts are cheap, crash cuts and injury cuts (72% injury cuts alone) with an overall well over $1 million for all five intersections in a year more than covers the five intersections made walkable and safe!  This ignores the real benefits of tens of thousands of hours of reduced vehicle and pedestrian delay (real dollars for business trip delay), stress on all users, and increased economic activity enabled for nearby businesses. Add to this the traffic signal caused excessive climate heating emissions and the now known 25 yearly estimated Vermont deaths from a lifetime of vehicle exhaust pollutants.   

Table 1: Vermont Agency of Transportation High Crash Location Report 2012-2016 Data on the Five North Street Burlington State High Crash Intersections

#23 [Place on list of 111 Vermont high crash intersection list—1 worst, 111 least worst] North St/North Champlain St 0.220 [intersection name and milepost] 5 years/21 crashes/5 injuries/17 PDO [years of data recorded, total crashes, total injuries, property only crashes {PDO}] ($30,219–estimated cost per crash); Total Crashes (per year): 21(4.25); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $635,000 ($126,900 per year) 

#40 Park St/North St 0.280 5 years/19 crashes/4 injuries/16 PDO ($28,147\–estimated cost per crash); Total Crashes (per year): 19 (3.8); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $535,000 ($107,000 per year)

#46 North Winooski (Alternate 7)/North St 1.620 5 years/19 crashes/3 injuries/16 PDO ($23,489–estimated cost per crash); Total Crashes (per year): 19 (3.8); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $446,000_($89,200 per year) 

#87 North Union St/North St 0.300 5 years/15 crashes/0 injuries/15 PDO (3-way-stop) ($11,300–estimated cost per crash) Total Crashes (per year): 15 (3.0); Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $170,000_($34,000 per year)

#110 North Ave/North St 0.180 5 years/20 crashes/4 injuries/17 PDO ($27,305 estimated cost per crash) Total Crashes (per year): 20 (4.0);  Total estimated crash cost for 5 years: $546,100 ($109,220 per year)

Cost really is not a significant factor as roundabouts at the five high crash intersections would certainly reduce crash/injury costs by about half in a five year period, a $2,177,000 value based on half the total cost estimates, above. A set of roundabouts would likely cost as little as $50,000 each, certainly far less than $2,177,000 million. As analyzed elsewhere a roundabout replacing a high crash intersection on the 20 Burlington intersections in the VTrans list would conservatively result in one less injury per year, a saving of $88,500 and two less PDO crashes, a saving of $22,600—or $111,100 per converted intersection per year. An installation of a mini roundabout on a high crash North Street intersection would easily be paid for in savings in about a year, assuming about $50,000 base cost for a roundabout. Some of those savings are to police department costs of incident management, reports, etc., and other City savings include the trips by emergency equipment and personnel to crashes and then to UVMMC. 

Table 2: Summary Data on All Five North Street High Crash intersections (2012-2016) 

Total Crashes 90 total all five intersections:

18.0 crashes per year all five intersections

3.6 crashes per intersection per year —16 injuries in five years, 3.2 injuries per year all five intersections, 0.64 injuries per year per intersection

84 property damage only (PDO) crashes, 16.8 PDO crashes per year all five intersection, 3.4 per PDO crash per intersection per year

Total estimated crash cost for 5 years all four intersections: $2,177,000 ($435,000 per year), $87,000 per intersection per year

Note: There are many crashes involving no injury which never “reportable,” i.e., never enter the crash counts by police departments and the state.  If estimated total crash is $3,000 or below, no reports are necessary. 

  

Tony Redington February 28, 2022 TonyRVT99@gmail.com

Two Year Environmental Justice Rules Application to Parkway Design Results in No a Whisker of Change

Frustration and consternation remains that after 2 years of applying new Environmental Justice regulations to the obvious current Parkway design injustice to low income (26 of Burlington residents have poverty incomes, a population mostly in King Maple and Old North End neighborhoods); and blatant injustice to the community of color (King Maple largest such community in Vermont).   

Frustration and consternation the result of two years was nothing of outreach and hearings, etc., and not one design change!  No recognition even of known degrading of safety, air quality, and livability, particularly along Pine Street part of the Parkway which cuts King Maple in two!  Not even an admission that in King Maple there will be more traffic, higher speeds, and degraded walking conditions and increased pollution are not a bad thing!

Tweets on 2 year Environmental Justice rules application to the Champlain Parkway with unanimous opposition at the one hybrid 2021 hearing and not a whisker changed in the hurtful, obstolete and global heating design!! Here are some recent tweets in this regard.

     "US Transport Boss Pete/VT Fed Highway chief Hake/VTrans Secretary Flynn last Friday after 2-year look leaves untouched Champlain Parkway blatant racial/low-income injustice in King Maple community of color. South Ender Carolyn Bates montage reflects reactions of many. Add Mayor Weinberger to this group! #btv #vtpoli"

      "Champlain Parkway 2-year Environmental (In)Justice work completed a design trifecta of planet heating and upped road injuries. Add Mayor Weinberger to the non-perform list!. #btv #vtpoli"

     "Robust[ed] System of Transportation" says Burlington Public Works director on WCAX. $100 million spent on 2.3 miles Parkway through the South End and not one inch of sidewalk, not one inch of safe bikeway/protected bike lane. That "Robusted!" #btv #vtpoli Go RIGHTway! ]

Red Light for Traffic Signals

The current Champlain Parkway design calls for 6-7 new traffic signal systems, a technology considered pause and dangerous in every way.  Here is a tweet announcing Freakonomics feature on roundabouts replacing signals:

“Traffic signals in most cases belong in recycling bins (highly toxic for pedestrians!). "Should Traffic Signals be Abolished?" on Freakonomics. City of almost no signals left (about 140 roundabouts, a dozen signals) Carmel, IN Mayor Brainard https://freakonomics.com/podcast/roundabouts/ #btv #vtpoli"

Burington—A Pedestrian or Bicycle Injury Weekly

Pedestrian and bicycle injuries are a weekly occurrence in Burlington.  The Champlain RIGHTway reduces bike/ped injuries versus the increase inherent in the current design. 

My recent tweet:  “Numbers in BTV are clear, about one pedestrian or cyclist injury weekly and two car occupants (from recent 5 year data set). BTV has 20 high crash intersections on state list, each 1.5 injuries/year average. City has not addressed any of these. #btv #vtpoli"

 

Roundabouts the Intersetion Standard, RRFBs not a Substitute

Locust Street—Roundabouts on Both Ends of Street? 

Next June we all know a roundabout gets going on the east end of Locust Street, a street home of a church, a church school and a major city playground. Two of the three Three Sisters streets go north from Locust along with another popular residential street, Hayward. The street slopes down slowly from east to west with a rather sharp decline approaching its west end on Pine Street with Parkside Terrace on the north corner and Callahan Park on the southside, a bus shelter on the east side perhaps about 100 feet south of the intersection. Callahan Park also continues a north/south pedestrian way for students who travel to and from Champlain School. 

Somehow, Locust Street either end has intersections with major change in the last decade. But are they the right changes? And what do the changes mean to safety, particularly for pedestrians? Pedestrians remain the "apartheid mode" with few efforts at high quality safety transportation investments to benefit the pedestrian, more often than not in our urban areas a person of color. 

We all walk but few bike!) Also, somehow, the west intersection of Locust, a T junction, is largely untouched by the Champlain Parkway, either in the current controversial design (my personal feelings set aside) or the coalition promoted Champlain RIGHTway (Pine Street Coalition, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and Fortieth Burlington, LLC [Innovation Center]). (Not to say the RIGHTway coalition of three groups are truly all ears for any grassroots suggestions!!) While most have an opinion about roundabouts or at least know about them, few have given much thought to the City’s Department of Public Works (DPW) increasing use of RRFB’s (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons) installed mostly without even bothering to do much analysis of intersection management choices. So about 2013 or early 2014 during the Mayor Weinberger administration the first RRFBs were installed along Pine Street. I call them fireflies because along Pine Street at night where there are several one sees them light up sporadically like fireflies. In part because there is no clear priority for pedestrian safety in the City (its’s the apartheid mode remember) not much attention has been given to the RRFB versus the acknowledged safest pedestrian intersection which is the all-way-stop, versus the traffic light which is the true enemy of the pedestrian.

Defining the differences, particularly in regard to safety, is important even if one does not care about pedestrian since the City has about a third of its traffic high crash intersections, with our a quarter, 20, on the current VTrans high crash intersection list—those intersections average 1.5 injuries a year. Our five downtown VT roundabouts average one injury a decade (0 bike injuries in 52 years recorded and one pedestrian non-serious injury). Burlington experiences about two car occupants a week and one either a cyclist or a pedestrian injury (2012-2016 data). The RRFB The RRFB started as proprietary product and owed much of its success to a great extent from advertising and public relations activity (something roundabouts and all-way-stops lack!). 

 Traffic engineers for three generations have lived off traffic signals installations and their management—many without much knowledge of RRFB performance have apparently succumbed to their allure—and cheapness, about a tenth the cost of a traffic signal (about $175,000 median price). What do we know about the RRFB? The 2008 first research mostly centered on its first use for mid-block crossings—BTV is doing this too. A more recent study, 2020 is fairly comprehensive but still centers on mid-block or mid-block with a significant private entry: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Programs/ResearchDocuments/SPR814Final.pdf As an aside, it would nice if DPW began to seek research and analytical support in their decision making. Too much of Burlington transportation—Regional Planning too but to a lesser extent, staff as well as consultants—remains cookbook and ignoring major changes, sometimes rapid like bicycle treatments evolution at roundabouts, now proceeding. 

What we should ask and demand is transportation investments based not just on comprehensive cost benefit (sill in its infancy here in Vermont), but also on the “science,” transportation research. In a word we need a Fauci overview, the science, in our transport decisions. The 2020 Racism as a Public Health Emergency and 2019 Climate Change Emergency, both new City policies, must be afforded more than check the box response at DPW and CCRPC. So, privately promoted RRFBs are new, little research is available, particularly on use at intersections. It is true that mid-block crossing use may have benefit cost benefits versus very expensive ($1 million on up) HAWK and Pelican treatments—which do better than RRFBs but not when benefit cost is involved—still a tradeoff of cost for pedestrian injuries which is still involves careful thoughtful decision. RRFBs at the Locust St intersection.   First, the Pine Street RRFB intersection treatments apply mostly to crossing Pine Street but not along Pine crossings themselves—i.e., Marble, Locust, Howard marked crosswalks. Second, we have no thorough research on RRFB versus the normal and equally highest level of safety all-way-stop and roundabout. We must analyze alternatives because single-lane roundabout with central islands can be quite expensive, but mini roundabouts (recommended up and down Pine Street by Dan Burden in the AARP 2014 Pine Street Workshop report with preliminary feasibility designs provided for Pine/Maple Street intersection on page 1) can be quite cheap and obviously superior in safety (and most everything else!). Consider the fact that within the first few months of installation, there was a critical pedestrian injury at the Locust Street/Pine Street RRFB—more serious than any pedestrian injury (the one!) in a half century of downtown VT roundabouts tabulated. One critical injury does not mean we should reject RRFBs, but it jogs the mind and connects the new roundabout at one end of Locust, the mini recommendation of Dan Burden (58th on the list of great urbanists in recorded time) for every intersection south of Main Street, and, yes, the very fact the intersection has been unaddressed in the Champlain Parkway over half a century.

So, first, does an all-way-stop make sense at Locust/Pine as that is the traditional traffic engineer correctly staged most safe for pedestrians. Actually we have an all-way-stop at both Pine/Maple and Pine/King about seven blocks away—it is safe for the many pedestrians (most students using to access school buses a.m. and p.m. are persons of color). And yes, there is no anecdotal of pedestrian crashes there. But for sure anyone who travels, works, or lives along Pine Street knows at traditional drive time p.m. experience regular 4-7 minutes queues to clear the Maple Street intersection northbound. That would likely be duplicated for the downtown bound stream at Locust as well. The alternative roundabout here because of tight space, the mini-roundabout. First, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) lists the roundabout as the only pedestrian safety “proven countermeasure” and is the only intersection type on the list—FHWA might consider adding the all-way-stop to pedestrian proven safety countermeasure list. Yes, Roundabouts at Each End of Locust Street Since an all-way-stop means unacceptable addition at busy intersections of more queuing with vehicle delay and increased climate heating in violation of our 2019 Climate Change Emergency policy—the roundabout becomes the default choice—which in addition to pedestrian safety equal to the all-way-stop (signals FHWA tells us generate a 20% higher pedestrian crash rate than either all way or rounds) also results in sharply lower crash rates for vehicles, reductions in climate change emissions and pollutants, drops in vehicle delay and motor fuel consumption, lower maintenance cost and not eventual replacement costs (signals have a limited lifespan, even RRFBs), improved scenic quality, and certainly some safety benefit for cyclists if only through traffic calming of speeds two-three blocks in all directions. 

 At Locust/Pine most of the land, at least on three quadrants of publicly owned (the Park and either City and/or Burlington Electric Department on the westside assure no right-of-way acquisition issues. So, the costs of a mini-roundabout would be low and development time a few weeks of design and public review process followed by construction in the next normal season—usually installing (like at Shelburne Street Roundabout) in June after both elementary schools are closed. Price would be mid-five figures likely. Certainly for costs, comparing mini to RRFB, the roundabout wins easily. So let’s proceed with a scoping of a mini-roundabout at Pine/Locust and provide the safest street in the City with a roundabout at either end?—for a lengthy roundabout dogbone round duo!! RRFBs at Shelburne Street Roundabout? Why? For some reason RRFBs are to be installed at the Shelburne Street Roundabout in spite of the fact that not a single pedestrian has every died on the 9,000 US/Canadian roundabouts on a marked crosswalk through 2020 (two deaths on marked Burlington the roughly 75 traffic signal crosswalks since1998). 

If one were concerned about improving pedestrian safety at a roundabout which cuts serious or fatal injury upwards of 90% there are certainly better, cheaper engineering choices one would be expected to take. First, one could narrow entries/exits to 10 feet (see Keck Circle in Montpelier or Grand Union in Manchester Center) versus the practice of VTrans of 12-15 feet wide entry and exit lanes. In other words, reduce area of pedestrian exposure—a principle often and thankfully employed by our DPW. No costs involved but certainly some resulting reduced speeds beneficial to pedestrian safety. Second, one could employ raised crosswalks which has been done in a few cases elsewhere. Again, no cost. The problem is if you get roughly about a 90% average decline in pedestrian safety, then additional expenditures need to be carefully considered and not controversial. Narrowing entries and raised crosswalks do not engender anything negative. A signal without some scientific support? Raises serious concern the signal could increase ped injury rate. RRFBs which are not the best practice at an intersection and where there is no science to support it, is very questionable at a roundabout (why at a roundabout, for example, but not at an equally performing safe intersection type, the all-way-stop?). I myself avoid where I possibly can ever using an RRFB at an intersection, instead of venture carefully onto a crosswalk, making sure a vehicle driver sees me and yields, then halfway across repeat with traffic in the opposite direction. The reason? Like at a roundabout (sans signals) its safety depends not only by design (medians restricting crossing to one direction of traffic at a time, vehicle speed constraints) but also by making safe crossing include an alert pedestrian self-protecting and a driver yielding—neither with any distraction like a signal. Those are absent at a traffic signal—any traffic signal which interferes with accountability of driver and pedestrian, therefore accounting for the relatively poor signal pedestrian performance and the superior roundabout pedestrian performance. 

     Locust/Pine Roundabout and Bicyclists

Right now the Locust/Pine intersection provides no treatments applicable to the bicyclists. The Locust/Pine roundabout would provide significant safety improvements. First, a standard ramp—off on approach and ramp-on at the outgoing leg would be provided—same as at the Shelburne Street Roundabout. This “choice” of take the roundabout lane or shift to pedestrian mode and benefit from the safer pedestrian crossings is a safety improvement over the current configuration. The cyclist entering Pine Street from Locust clearly gains as a stop is no longer necessary, reduced speed conditions mean easier integration to traffic, etc. For bicyclists traveling south the roundabout offers an easier left turn against slowed northbound traffic and the off-on ramping now absent. 

Final Note 

My TonyRVT.blogspot.com includes a recent monograph application of roundabouts along North Street which is termed the most dangerous community street in Vermont and through adoption of mini roundabouts potentially becoming the safest. In addition there is the archive the monograph and walkability Burlington which first saw the light of day as a six part series here on the BWBC listserv.

Tony Redington September 19, 2021 TonyRVT99@gmail.com TonyRVT.blogspot.com @TonyRVT60

Bringing Renewal to the Historic Burlington-Winooski Axis, Now Vermont's Povertyville Section

4/9/2021 Draft Burlington-Winooski, the Two Centuries Old Historic Economic Axis Engine Declines to Vermont’s Povertyville Section—Ready for Renewal from the 1980-to-Date Devolution towards a String of Urban Pearls for the 21st Century? …A future Burlington-Winooski as a Shining 15-Minute Shangri-La Urban Corridor “The gods of the valleys are not the gods of the hills” Ethan Allen 1770 “There must be a radical redistribution of political and economic power in this nation and in this town” Mark Hughes, director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance speaks as Burlington officials and 30 organizations declare “Racism a Public Health Emergency” July 2020 The Current Burlington-Winooski Axis Decline Extends Back Decades Since the early 1980s about every Vermont major economic indicator save the education export economy crept slowly down or stagnated in Vermont. This mirrored the trends of loss of good paying manufacturing jobs which spurred the post-World Ward II economy upward ending about 1980 then moving to decline—what significant real growth incomes occurred in the last four decades in the slow-growth states of the northeast and mid-west rust belts tilted to the well-to-do. This recent trend impact on the historic economic centuries old engine of Vermont represented by the Burlington waterfront to Winooski City riverside “axis” has been most pronounced and profound. During both the post-World War economic boom ending about 1980, subsequent decline population and wealth shifted away from built-up Burlington and Winooski to the suburbs and rural Chittenden County towns. For almost two centuries the two cities remained the economic engine of Vermont but since the 1980s their role faded. For Vermont, the 1960s investments by then Governor Hoff in being the first state in the nation to buy their critical major rail operator (the Rutland Railroad) and literally birthing the ski industry with two unprecedented major speculative public ski road investments—helped the state avoid the empty storefronts and dominating skeletons of former manufacturing facilities as the 1980s and 1990s progressed. Springfield in 1960 was the home of a major portion of the machine tool industry of the nation! A critical player in the manufacturing industry of the day. The Springfield incomes of a unionized workforce were the highest in the state and the slow but sure economic decline as the industry atrophied left the community begging a state prison to rescue its depressed economy. Compared to northeastern New York and all Maine except for the area a two hour drive from the Boston metro, Vermont faired relatively fairly well only because of the ski/tourism and educational economic sectors growth until the plateau of the ski economy in the 1990s followed by education plateau in student numbers beginning in 2010. For Vermont that buffering of economic and social stagnation arose from the baby boom education bulge in its colleges during the 1990s and first decade of this century which plateaued in 2010 and now succumbs to the demographic collapse of college age population. And yes that boomers boomers were the first ski generation. The education industry future seems even more murky as record lows in birth rates in the northeast and nationally continue. Not even mentioning distance learning and the competitive disadvantage of norther New England state universities with the highest tuitions in the nation. Private St. Michael’s College, for example, planned ahead for the student bust and carefully with full participation of the college community managed the 16% decline from 1,900 students a decade ago to the 1,600 today. UVM and the State colleges systems did not plan—as is obvious now—as educational bankruptcy measures are in place for the state colleges and UVM’s modest 3% drop in students in fall 2020 signals the first statistical slight downtrend dating back to the peak year 2010. UVM’s current approach to the future appears unplanned and undirected. The drop of direct employment by IBM in Essex Junction of about 8,000 at its peak in the 1980s to now about 2,300 at successor Global Foundries—still the State’s largest private employer—gives the best evidence of the past and continued manufacturing decline. UVM rates as the largest Vermont employer excepting state government itself. The pandemic has given all a pause to reflect on our economic and social history, and ask the question where do we in Burlington Winooski “axis” go from here in a predominantly rural state where among many challenges is the requirement to sharply reduce non-renewable resources to stop global warming? Of course, Vermont never really possessed non-renewable energy resources in the first place. Note that over half the Vermont non-renewable resource consumption centers on petroleum fuels used to power the motor vehicle dominated transport sector. Longer History View and Recent Arrival of “Povertyville” To ask the question where do we go from here, consider Vermont and most important the driving engine throughout our history being primarily the story of the economy of Burlington and Winooski. Those two communities began with transportation centered along the Burlington waterfront accessing markets by water and Winooski riverside manufacturing production driven by the Winooski River waterpower. The Burlington waterfront where transportation to markets occurred was centered—first just to the lake and northward to Canada, then with the Erie and Champlain Canals accessing markets south the New York City and the west in the 1820s, then amplified by the arrival of the railroads in the mid-1800s, finally redirected into the “modern” highway oriented economy with the completed interstates here in 1982. That original economic engine spread from the Burlington waterfront to the Winooski falls area—more or less defined today by the King Maple neighborhood and Old North End (ONE) in Burlington onto really the entire geographically small Winooski City itself, where former manufacturing along the riverside drew from the immediate residential areas fanning outward to that City’s borders. It is fair to say that Burlington/Winooski with its waterfront as a harbor for exchange and movement of goods along the the manufacturing along its own and adjoining Winooski mills not only became the “economic spine” of the Vermont economy during Ethan Allen era ending about 1800, but also became a permanent dominant economic fixture of the state. First, reflecting the changing economy during the era of waterborne traffic until the railroads came into prominence, then the auto age emergence early last century followed by the interstate. Ironically, the completion of the interstate coincided with the overall crest and shortly thereafter relative stagnation of the Vermont economy which endures today—the Burlington Winooski axis being the primary victim. From the beginning of the interstate era the historical “spine of the Vermont economy,” Burlington and Winooski population and influence declined. Once the majority of Chittenden County population, Burlington now amounts to less than a quarter—both Winooski and Burlington populations outside of Burlington’s New North End have been in decline for decades. Again, a surge of students population growth from 1990 to the present day helped to mask this population downtrend trend. From 2000 to 2010, the Burlington population small population growth was entirely attributable to the increase in the college age numbers along with a small but important immigrant population of New Americans. The slow deterioration in Vermont through suburban carcentricity was mirrored by the decline of historic built-up Burlington and Winooski into a poverty belt. Today Census data shows King Maple/Old North End/Winooski City feature poverty rates of residents of 26-29% compared to under 12% for Chittenden County and Vermont. This poverty belt seems an unlikely candidate for a caterpillar to butterfly transformation—but that is the very opportunity which appears to exist through undertaking some key public investments today. These investments do not differ a great deal from the kind of investments which led to the successful transitions in the past, including those of Ethan and Ira Allen period themselves. And one must not forget the native American population which Ethan himself engaged with in his full lonely winters near Salisbury trapping furs to take back each spring to sell in order to support his family back home in Massachusetts. (Little wonder Allen stood up for his Indian allies when all were captured in the ill-fated foray to capture Montreal and his subsequent imprisonment as an enemy combatant by the British.) Housing The renewal of the historic Burlington-Winooski corridor remains central to this thesis in order to repair, remediate and expedite a natural economic and community potential ignored for decades. That both transportation and housing elements are key to this process can no longer be ignored. The decision to expand bike lanes and shift road space away from parking has been well underway now for years. Those changes are significant and show a change in community viewpoints but still incremental—in the right direction but only point to the larger issue of community renewal requiring a far more extensive change in transportation infrastructure combined with changes in housing. Housing programming must address the low and moderate income. Housing is not a subject here but the raising of the issue nationally and in Vermont to a priority is a clear indicator that transportation change must also be matched by making safe and sanitary housing available to all regardless of income. That President Biden and Vice-President Harris who proposed universal housing vouchers (30% income rent max) is an encouraging sign of kind of movement critical in the housing area. Enter the 15-Minute City Approach to Urban Design, Urban Life Transportation and land use go together—it was the lake as a transportation mode and waterpower of the Winooski River as a power source for manufacture that created with the presence of developable land adjacent the Burlington-Winooski axis in the first place. Consider for a moment past compact community design thinking in town and city planning. Creating complete new towns and idealized city designs became a cottage industry in the late 1800s in England with “Garden Cities of Tomorrow” by UKer Ebenezer Howard the leading proponent and movement leader who actually built more than one “new town.” Several more have been built since in a practice that can be found now scattered across the globe in one form or another. Reston, VA near Washington was one such American “new town” experimental community developed in the 1960s. Howard ’s base design involved a circular community with a one-mile radius featuring a public “white palace” and park in the center with rings outward of retail/commercial, housing, and heavy industry with rail—passenger and freight—at the periphery. All told 30,000 residents would live within the “garden city”—slice off the New North End, compact the rest around the waterfront here in Burlington and that is not so far off from the “garden city” concept and population. What is important is the garden city was accessible to just about everyone on foot, easily accessible when you add provision today for light rail and bicycles. Cars which consume about 25% of urban lands today in satisfying parking and road street needs prevented compact development worldwide. Just the opposite, particularly in America. The car age and pro-car policies and subsidies for homeownership jointly produced American sprawl since World War II. Canada is a perfect counterpoint as their urban areas are at least half again more dense, explained in great part because Canada does not subsidize either homeownership or cars. Canada levies a $1 Cdn per gallon of gasoline, a national tax used for general fund purposes—it has no federal highway program. It has no significant homeownership help. The U.S. has used its under 50 cent gas tax to support the highway system! The U.S. sprawl was created by intentional public policies and expenditures! The garden city from an urban planner perspective really is the pre-cursor to the “15 minute city” ideas advocated by urban planners today—to the extent feasible meet as many human needs within a 15 minute walk/bike/transit trip within a small geographic area (see https://www.15minutecity.com ) Burlington-Winooski: Pedestrians, Environmental Justice, Remediation and Structural Redesign There exists a confluence of forces making the Burlington-Winooski poverty corridor, Povertyville, ripe for a hoped for community transformation and renewal. The corridor already has in place a significant density, an historic rail network radiating in three directions from the Burlington waterfront. Except for re-establishing light rail in a configuration not that dissimilar to that of a past trolley history, a safe walkable/bikable/transitable area is easily installed. The major barriers to transportation the in Burlington and Winooski “poverty corridor” remain like most older urban center lack of walkability, about century removed from trolley service, and presence of numerous, dangerous/delaying new fangled traffic signals. Until this century with the late in the game U.S. use of the modern roundabout technology using stone age materials, little was done to repair the car-ravaged urban environment of modern America. Simply for decades to accommodate the car we wiped out existing urban space, much of it to park cars and build parking garages. Older urban space increasingly became the home of low income and BIPOC populations—symbolized by the traffic signal which when compared to a modern roundabout, especially kills, injures, delays pedestrians and overall pollutes, uglifies and heats the planet. The forces today at work include emergency demands for reductions of non-renewable resources both because they are unavailable in states like Vermont and because of commitments at all governmental levels to reduce consumption of them in order to stop the increasing world temperatures rising with just the continuation of status quo. That half Vermont use of non-renewables sits in the transport sector dominated by the car and clearly reigning in car subsidies—particularly parking and general government funds—means transportation will be a continuing dominant element of public policy in regard to global warming. Cutting car subsidies and homeownership subsidies which promulgated sprawl are not enough. There must also be a commitment to safe, energy efficient transportation—read transit, walking and bicycling which only thrive in relatively dense corridors and communities. The old urban areas and corridors have all the ingredients to respond to the demands and opportunities for a reduced carbon life—in a word the densities already exist there. High densities, transit services such as they are, and potential for walkabilitating through use of roundabouts are obvious. Except for the Church Street Marketplace neither Burlington or Winooski score particularly well on walkability—the 20 high crash state intersections mostly in the Old North and downtown alone testify to that. It was the very threat of cutting King Maple in two with the Champlain Parkway which led to our understanding of how the traffic signal in built up areas becomes a weapon of economic, social, and racial injustice—and the converse principle—how to reverse the historic destruction of livability forced onto the urban fabric by accommodation of the car through traffic signals which in turn literally injures the low income/BIPOC residents at higher rates than whites and embodies the context of both unlivable urban space as well as heightened incentives for use of motor fuels on most to move to lower density areas. In a word transportation inefficiency—read poor walking, biking and transit conditions—worked and works now directly opposite to efficient density and energy/resource use reduction which only density can provide! So the now two-year process of Environmental Justice discussion of the Champlain Parkway leads to an understanding of both the opportunity to renew Povertyville, but also its absolute necessity. That absolute necessity does mean a makeover of transit too, primarily in the form of light rail infrastructure! Without light rail combined with density there can be no successful economic renewal and only a continued shift of population to other northeastern metro areas who will have solved the transportation/energy equation. Nationally in a slow but sure fashion light rail has begun to return to major urban areas. It is the arch enemy of the car! Nearby, when Vermonters are allowed in Montreal again they will see nearly completed light rail line ready for use next year, the current $6 billion project already is set for a $10 billion expansion! Beginning in 2022 one no longer will have to drive onto Montreal island, no longer have to braves the wilds of to get to Trudeau International Airport. Just jump on the automatic light rail line at the large retail complex the Vermont side of the Champlain Bridge and safely, quickly, and comfortably travel to downtown, Trudeau Airport and a dozen other locations. See map and schedule—Brossard southern terminus to downtown set to open in 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9seau_express_m%C3%A9tropolitain Base information: https://rem.info/en/light-rail Already being expanded: https://www.rtands.com/rail-news/extended-light-rail-line-in-montreal-will-be-one-of-the-longest-in-the-world/ Burlington along with adjoining towns went through a light rail study in the 1990s with an agreed on first step a line between the waterfront and UVM/UVMMC via the Marketplace. Extensions to the airport and University Mall and even to Essex Jct. via Winooski were examined. The base cost of the first section from waterfront to UVM/UVMCC was about $80 million—not much different than the current $109 million planned investment in the Champlain Parkway. So, initial studies were undertaken and preferred routes determined for light rail in the 1990s. Has anything changed in the City since? Economically, socially, population, etc. Other than the trends outlined here what have been the changes—(1) increase, plateau then declines in college students; (2) stagnant “povertyville corridor” population and incomes; (3) regular decline in primary tech jobs reflected in transition from IBM to Global Foundries; and (4) Chittenden County population growth almost entirely outside Burlington and Winooski cities boundaries. One other trend is important to note. While senior population remained about 12% of the Vermont population through 2010, the major change in demographics—senior population doubling to 1 in 4 residents by 2030 and non-senior population declines (only in Chittenden County does non-senior population remain relatively constant). The statewide population rapidly slowing growth turned shifted into a slight decline 2010-2020. The implication is quite clear, only bringing in a significant change in direction of public investment can one expect these trends to suddenly change—particularly as far as the historic Burlington-Winooski corridor. Systemic change was demanded at inflection points the 200-plus years of the Burlington/Winooski axis and systemic change is required today. There must be a working with neighboring towns, a collaborative effort to change the economic and community structure of the still dominant economic driver of Vermont, the Burlington-Winooski axis. Some Thoughts on Light Rail Routes A complete background on Burlington trolley services history, the 1990s study and future potential along with exploration of the “bus rapid transit” (BRT) fad, can be found here in a paper prepared at the time of the last City Transportation Plan (dated 2011). https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/sites/default/files/Burlington_Streetcar_Briefing_Report_FINAL.pdf (BRT is notoriously expensive, energy inefficient and consumes wide swaths of urban land.) The original trolley routes were, first, Burlington waterfront to Winooski along North Winooski and Riverside which for the first few years in the 1880s were horse drawn then electrified. A line was added out along North Avenue to Ethan Allen Park, a Main Street line to UVM, and the Winooski line eventually extended to the rail connection at Essex Junction. The 1990s study included a connection to the airport as an important potential line. The study was very much in isolation without consideration of economic trends, demographics or the faintest hint of a non-carcentric community design—the idea of light rail was an add-on, a very expensive extravagance. Discussions during both the Railroad Enterprise District, recent Pine Street Coalition outreach on Champlain Parkway design and the North Avenue Corridor Plan process found significant support for a north-south light rail line, something not considered in the 1990s plan. In purely historical and community development, the prime high rail line would repeat the Burlington waterfront to downtown Winooski. That would directly address the Burlington-Winooski axis, i.e., Vermont Povertyville. The “Winooski line” would move through the Marketplace via College, then along North Winooski Ave, Riverside Ave and at Colcheter turn left to Winooski downtown. The natural waterfront to UVM-UVMMC also starts for a block or so with the Winooski line then ascends. The question is whether this line is shifted over to Main Street (a 1990s route suggested) and onto University Mall and new South Burlington “downtown.” The third line would follow the suggested north-south route from Flynn School at the north end to the South Burlington border at Pine street then very likely along Perimeter Road southward through KMart Plaza, Palace Theater, etc. Walkability, Racism and Remediation of ONE, King Maple and Winooski Downtown Light rail for the Burlington-Winooski axis is not an add-on but part of a larger multi-modal redesign starting on walkability and safety on the streets. The pedestrian mode remains the apartheid mode when it comes to street engineering and the task of remediation of this in Povertyille remains very much both a transportation undertaking and one to repair decades of transportation racism still a daily experience for the BIPOC and low income who comprise a large segment of this and other older Vermont urban spaces. Weekly in Burlington a pedestrian or cyclist suffers an injury in a car crash in addition to two crash injuries to car occupants. Nationally the U.S. road fatality pandemic amounts to 21,000 excess deaths in a nation once first, now 18th in highway safety—Burlington experiences one fatality on its streets every three years, the majority since 1998 pedestrians (3) and cyclists (1). Discussed elsewhere, the 20 high crash Burlington intersections, all but one signalized and concentrated in Povertyville each average 1.5 injuries yearly and account for 28 injuries a year while five downtown Vermont roundabouts, the new standard intersection, record about one injury a decade, all non serious in the first 52 years recorded. The point is the renewal of the Burlngton-Winooski corridor depends on both integration of a light rail network but also reparations and remediation to the area which has suffered decades of pollution and high rates of pedestrian, bike and vehicle injuries. And the victims in Povertyville of discrimination in the apartheid mode, walking, continue to be disproportionately people with black and brown skins. Tony Redington TonyRVT99@gmail.com @TonyRVT60 TonyRVT.blogspot.com A walk safety advocate, Redington is a policy development specialist with 20 years experience with the NH and VT state transportation agencies, author of several transportation research papers including some on the subject of modern roundabouts, and five years as a statewide housing planner and director of the New Hampshire Housing Commission. Since moving to Burlington in 2011 has lived car free. An Aside—Mostly Living the 15-Minute City 1976 to Date Except for about four years 1980-1984 when residing in suburb 6 miles from Concord, NH, have lived the 15-Minute City life in Concord, NH, Montpelier, VT, San Francisco (North Beach), Montreal (adjacent Atwater Metro, cycle track network) and now Burlington (within a block of the Marketplace). In all locations shopped within two-three blocks from just about all basic needs ranging from food stores, shopping, schools, employment, etc. In all that time generally never used a car to travel to work, most all vacations from 1990s on via Amtrak and extended public transit (mostly in Canada’s metro areas), and mostly (like today) within a few feet of a bus stop, a few blocks to a transit center. In Burlington, Montpelier, San Francisco and Montreal presence of a major supermarket or two was critical to the 15-minute life along with a job. In all four cities a car was not only no needed, it was relatively useless and not cost effective. Yes, the bicycle fills in the “mobility” need year round except in 0 degree weather. And as important our family learned the 15 minute life experience in Montpelier, how to use public transit, and how to live carless. Living and modeling the 15-minute City life can be inherited! So to me, the 15-minute City has been most of my adult life—it certainly was the bulk of my life growing up in Keene, NH where most years I lived within a few blocks downtown and all schools including high school. My favorite grades 1-2-3 were spent about 2 blocks from two doors north of Union Street to Court Street to School Street. Home to middle school was about six blocks and to high school varied from a couple of blocks to a half mile. All Keene home addresses were less than six blocks from the central shopping district on Main Street. Until college except for one year in the suburbs, the 15-minute life! Interestingly Keene is now home to five going onto seven roundabouts likely the highest concentration of any New England city. The historic traffic circle there—Central Square—is now bounded at the other end of the commercial/retail Main Street by a neat two-lane roundabout which acts as a gateway to the downtown and Keene State College with a the post office on one corner and the College on another—downtown three north south Main Street sidewalks on its way to renewed walkability. Tony Redington