Last week I met with City of Nanaimo Manager of Transportation, Jamie Rose and the City's lead on the
Downtown Mobility Hub Project, Transportation Planner Amir Freund. We walked and chatted in the 800m downtown zone currently under study.
We talked about, among other things,
how the culture of the built mobility environment changes and reinforces user behaviour, good and bad; the importance of the unbroken connectivity within the pedestrian network; the urgency to address Front Street now with a tactical intervention (apparently plans are in place for Front St road diet in 2021).
It was good to hear recognition that
street design elements directly determine vehicle speeds and therefore the comfort and safety of vulnerable street users, on foot, in wheelchairs, on bikes, with walkers, pushing baby strollers, etc. And that narrow travel lanes, much more than any amount of signage or education or enforcement, slow vehicle travel speeds.
We looked at
sidewalk bulges with zebra crossings on Fitzwilliam (observably safer as drivers read the difference in the design of the space they’re entering and respect it). I asked why at, for instance, Selby and Franklyn only 3 of the 4 sidewalks are marked across the intersection.
The unbroken pedestrian network would line all sidewalks across all intersections in the downtown core.
The
traditional short block street grid has been proven to support walkability and neighbourhood commerce. Nanaimo’s north-south streets are too long creating the need for
mid-block crossings ideally with sidewalk bulges and zebra crossings. These are being done in some cities very economically with paint, fixed pylons and planters. In Nanaimo I’d say 300 ft is the longest someone should have to walk without a safe and inviting way to cross the street.
My concerns remain as I detailed in this earlier post
Nanaimo Downtown Mobility Hub Project : I fear what might be hiding in the weeds. In particular concerns about staff understanding...
“the nature of the task itself. We’re looking at some of the biggest and most important public space in city. Fixes and modernization of this public space are not at core technical problems, not problems of engineering or problems of landscape architecture, tho both of those are essential once the vision and design have been established. It’s at core a problem of urban design and the technical process has to be preceded by a process of visioning and design lead by a professional urban designer with first hand experience in establishing walkable urban centres inclusive of the most vulnerable street user.”
Each of the city’s systems is co-dependent on the other systems. Focusing solely on transportation without careful study of impacts on public space; the local independent shopkeeper economy; social equity and inclusion; arts and culture, etc requires a more holistic approach, systems thinking, an understanding of the organized complexity at work in a downtown core.
This morning’s walk (the new coffee bar at the north end of Chapel is open and looks great) took me across Front St, car speeds thru the crosswalk when I’m halfway across, then on my back across Front from the harbour a few minutes later a SUV brakes very reluctantly and inches into the crosswalk when I step out and a pickup truck heading south slams on the brakes with a great squeal.
ReplyDeleteA block later a chap gets my attention from across the street, comes across and wants to tell me how fed up he is with risking getting hit by a car every day when he walks downtown. He lives in the Pacifica tower and he’s angry. He wants enforcement and speed bumps and he’s not too interested in safer street design. He feels downtown has declined since the improvements to Front St and the conference centre.
If the City were to do a tactical intervention to calm Front St they’s have huge support from him. And he wouldn’t be alone. We need to slow the cars downtown and we need to do it with real urgency.
I'm still not very clear on how receptive Rose and Freund where. It bothers me a little bit that a private citizen has to point these things out to seasoned planners. Wouldn't they have at least as much skill identifying these issues and be prepared to advocate for the changes you recommend.
ReplyDeleteMost of what we talked about is well known to them, chapter and verse, as it is to anyone who looks at the research, does the reading. They’re not advocates or activists, they’re engineers. There are clear signs that if the political will (Council) would assert itself the risk averse stuck-in-its-ways administrative arm of our City Hall would respond positively.
ReplyDelete