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WCEL
> Issues > Urban Growth and
Development > Smart Bylaws Guide > Part
4
Smart Bylaws Guide – Part 4
4. Increase Transportation Choices through Land Use Decisions
The layout and design of streets shapes the culture of a
neighbourhood. Streets affect mobility choices, safety in public
places, and the quality of human interaction. They form the largest
segment of public space in a community. The issue is how to design
streets to increase the mobility of people and goods, the
accessibility of transportation, and the quality of streetscapes.
The best street standards create a pleasant streetscape where
walking and cycling infrastructure is built in, and cars travel at
safe speeds. Pubic amenities, such as sidewalks, transit shelters,
bike parking and high occupancy vehicle lanes support the desired
users. Parking is limited but other transportation modes are
efficient and comfortable. It also means managing the demand for
roads by prioritizing investment in infrastructure for
non-automobile transportation.
The Move to Active Living
Transportation engineers, municipal governments, public health
agencies, community organizations and fiscal responsibility
advocates are all embracing “active living.” Active living is a
way of life that integrates physical activity into daily living.
Land use plays a crucial role in creating active living communities,
which support pedestrian, bicycle, and recreation activities
integrated into all neighbourhoods. See, for example, the Institute
of Transportation Engineer’s papers on active living at www.ite.org/Conference/
Active transportation is an integral component of active living.
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Smart street design includes:
- A street and block pattern of an interconnected network
that provides many routes for travel in the neighbourhood and
disperses the impact of automobile traffic. Block lengths are
between 90 and 240 metres (300 and 800 feet), with an average of
150 metres (500 feet). With rectangular-shaped parcels, an alley
can provide rear garage access and eliminate curb cuts and
driveways on the street;
- The use of lanes for blocks where the parcel sizes are smaller than 420
square metres (4,500 square feet).
- A hierarchy of streets within the interconnected grid with
right-of-way width, pavement width, number of lanes, sidewalks,
landscaping, and design speed clearly described;
- Streetscape features such as sidewalks, street trees and other landscaping,
lighting and crosswalks shown with clear graphics. Sidewalks should be at
least 1.5 metres (5 feet) wide in residential areas and 2.7 and 3.7 metres
(9 to 12 feet) in mixed-use and commercial areas. Parkway strips or "street
furniture zone" of 1.5 to 3 metres (5 to 10 feet) buffer pedestrians from
traffic and allow tree planting, mailboxes and light posts. Crosswalks
should be provided mid-block if the blocks are longer than 90 metres (300
feet).
- adapted from Local Government Commission
and Steve Tracy,
Smart Growth Zoning Codes 2003
Historic towns
featured streets that were connected in a grid network to provide
different routes for travel and disperse the impact of traffic. An
interconnected grid system of streets shortens the distance between
destinations, making trips by bike and on foot more attractive. It
is also used to connect transportation types by building in transit,
bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure – both at major
destinations, such as shopping and office areas, and along safe
travel corridors for the different modes.
Wide suburban roads may empty automobile traffic quickly onto
arterial throughways, but they do not provide a safe route for
children walking to school. Many municipalities are more closely
tailoring street standards to their intended uses to decrease the
cost of construction and maintenance. Avoiding excess road widths
also ensures that traffic speeds fit into the character of
neighbourhoods. Many municipalities are using traffic calming to
retrofit streets to reduce vehicle speeds.
Studies have demonstrated that residents are four times more
likely to be hit by a car on wide curving suburban streets than they
are on traditional narrower grid pattern residential streets. The
most significant factors in frequency of accidents are street width
and street curvature. As street width widens, accidents per
kilometre per year increases exponentially, and the safest
residential street width is 24 feet.
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In smart growth neighbourhoods, parking lines the streets to
create a buffer for pedestrians and reduce the amount of land
dedicated to off-street parking. Working with curb extensions at
intersections and mid-block, on-street parking also helps to
decrease the speed of traffic. The parking requirements in most
zoning bylaws are intended to meet peak parking demand for
non-residential developments, but are underused for most of the
year. Strategies such as shared parking, minimum parking standards,
counting on-street parking as part of parking requirements, and
locating parking lots behind buildings minimize the impact of
parking on neighbourhoods.
Transportation demand management focuses on reducing the demand
for road capacity, rather than building more costly road
infrastructure. Techniques include increasing transportation
choices, adopting land use patterns that encourage non-automobile
forms of transportation, and trip reduction or carpooling programs.
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