Attention class, it is time for the first lesson of Urban Design 101. There are two principal means of transportation along public streets: vehicle and pedestrian. Alright, let's review:
1) Which of the following are the two primary methods of travelling in a street right-of-way?
A - riding a monkey
B - riding a unicycle
C - walking on a sidewalk
D - driving an automobile
These two means of transportation represent the source of 90% of the design decisions that factor into a street section. Therefore, if you cannot successfully design these two modes, you might as well give up factoring in the other secondary modes of transportation that may also need consideration. These days it is difficult to get the relationship of these pieces wrong. In fact, with all of the literature and education available on new urbanism, and downtown revitalization, I think you would be hard-pressed to screw this up. Now look at the picture below of the completed Fourth Street SE Bridge Reconstruction.
Do you see the problem? Ignore for a moment the seasonal daylighting and lack of vegetation and imagine this in full summertime bloom. Now do you see the design flaw? I am going to break this down and explain why the most fundamental of design considerations was ignored for this project and, as a result, the overall success is compromised.
[As a disclaimer, I need to mention a few things. This is a vast improvement upon its predecessor. The new bridge incorporates planters, quality materials, lookout niches, a narrowed curb-to-curb dimension, it includes planning for bike lanes in the future, and connects adjacent bike and walking trails in a much more safe and efficient manner. There is a lot that is HOT about this bridge reconstruction project, and without knowing the true cause of this major design flaw, I cannot pin the NOT blame squarely on the designers. As with anything in government and the "design by committee" atmosphere, this project had the potential to be screwed up at various points along the way.]
A frequent complaint of people who live in and around urban environments is that the street can feel unsafe. This can be due to a myriad of factors, but often it is the result of pedestrian-vehicular conflict (i.e. pedestrians, when walking along a street, are intimidated by vehicles). This feeling can be exacerbated by increased speeds of vehicles, and by bringing the pedestrian closer to moving vehicles. Complete streets--or streets that are designed for multiple modes of transportation--tend to make for a safer pedestrian environment because they are ultimately reducing vehicle speeds and putting barriers between pedestrians and vehicles. Thus, creating a buffer between pedestrians and vehicles is the easiest way to increase the perception of safety on public streets.
This can be accomplished through several different singular strategies or combinations of more than one.
- Grade Separation: placing the vehicle and the pedestrian at different elevations
- Boulevard Plantings: placing vegetation or trees between the sidewalk and the roadway
- On-Street Parking: Dedicating a lane to parking to create more distance between pedestrian and vehicle
So here is the fatal flaw in the Fourth Street SE Bridge Reconstruction, they did not place the planters between the pedestrian and the vehicle. This not only puts the traffic closer to the people, but it also pushes the people away from the edge of the bridge where they can take advantage of the views. This is a huge error in design and has no cost implications to reverse (in design).
There will be more bridge reconstruction projects in Rochester's future, and I hope we can raise the level of thinking about these basic urban design decisions. Frankly, this one has no excuse.