Federal Transportation Policy
from What's Next for ISTEA?, by Edward McMahon (Planning Commissioners Journal #27, Summer 1997)

Public investment in transportation has profoundly changed American society over the past fifty years. Our country is one of the most prosperous and mobile in the world. Our transportation system is unparalleled in its ability to move goods and people. While transportation spending has brought benefits, it has also created problems such as air and water pollution, scenic degradation, loss of open space, and fractured communities.

ISTEA recognized these problems and established the Transportation Enhancement Program to mitigate some of the negative impacts transportation projects can have. It did this by setting aside 10 percent of each state's Surface Transportation Program funds for a variety of environmental enhancements, including activities such as: landscaping and scenic beautification; mitigation of water pollution caused by highway runoff; rehabilitation of historic transportation facilities; removal and control of outdoor advertising; and construction of trails and bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Over the past six years, while ISTEA has provided $155 billion for highway and bridge construction, it has also channeled over $2.6 billion -- into sidewalks, bike paths, trails, and other transportation enhancements.

To gain a perspective on this level of investment, over the 18 years prior to passage of ISTEA, only about $40 million nationwide was spent for bicycle paths, trails, and other pedestrian facilities. This was true even though federal transportation dollars could have been spent this way. Clearly, ISTEA, by setting aside funds for non-motorized transportation and other transportation enhancement projects, ushered in a sea-change in federal transportation policy.

Edward McMahon is a land use planner, attorney, and director of The Conservation Fund's "American Greenways Program." He is former president of Scenic America, a national non-profit organization devoted to protecting America's scenic landscapes. McMahon is a regular columnist for the Planning Commissioners Journal.

The Land Use - Transportation Connection
from Access Management: An Overview & Guide for Roadway Corridors, by Elizabeth Humstone & Julie Campoli (Planning Commissioners Journal #29, Winter 1998)

"It is critical to keep in mind the close connection between land use and transportation. Highways provide access to land which enables the development of that land. Land uses generate vehicle, pedestrian, bicycle, and transit trips. In order to manage traffic along a highway, both land use and transportation strategies are necessary. To manage one without the other will result in congestion, deterioration of the highway corridor, and resident, business and landowner dissatisfaction.

Not all highways influence land development in the same way. For example, interchanges attract industries and warehouses, whereas local streets pose problems for these uses due to weight limits, neighborhood conflicts, and limited maneuvering space.

Highway systems can be barriers or connectors between land uses. For example, interstates bisect communities and limit their interconnection to a few underpasses, overpasses or exits. Alternatively, local street networks connect destinations within communities.

Traffic congestion and delays affect the desirability of doing business along parts of a highway corridor. Improvements designed to ease congestion often attract more traffic requiring more improvements in the future. Increased highway capacity may result in the spread of development to peripheral areas, leaving vacant and abandoned areas behind.

Traffic volumes and choices of mode of travel are influenced by the location, density and mixture of land uses. Communities that separate land uses reinforce driving as the mode of choice. Low density land uses also encourage driving and require longer travel times. More people walk in compact, mixed use centers.

The layout and design of land uses can affect the choice of mode of travel. Low density commercial and residential developments, often with big road setbacks, large lots and low density, can discourage walking and bicycling. Buildings set far apart by vast parking areas, liberal landscaping and wide access roads discourage walking between uses. Connected sidewalks, attractive walking environments, and pedestrian crosswalks in compact settlements encourage more walking trips.

Land use planning and access management need to work together. When communities plan for the future, they should be aware of how their land use plans will affect the levels of traffic, appearance, and points of congestion on highways."

Elizabeth Humstone is Director of the Vermont Forum on Sprawl, and a long-time planner. Julie Campoli is a landscape architect and principal of Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, based in Burlington, Vermont.

Interchanges are the "Front Door" to Many Communities
from Gateways: Creating Civic Identity, by Suzanne Sutro Rhees (Planning Commissioners Journal #21, Winter 1996)

"The approach to a city or town is usually along a highway, often by way of an interchange with a limited-access interstate. The interchange area is susceptible to its own set of problems. It tends to attract commercial travel services -- gas stations, fast food, motels -- usually in a uniform franchise-architecture style. If an excessive amount of commercially-zoned land is made available, additional strip commercial uses can proliferate, creating a new business district that can eclipse the real downtown and increase traffic congestion. Some municipalities are trying to avoid this result by designing the highway interchange as a "front door" to their community. ...

How can a region, city, or small town begin the process of creating a gateway? A good starting point is for the planning commission to identify the gateway concept in the comprehensive plan, and then promote its implementation through the zoning ordinance, and reviews of development proposals. For example, where new roads or highway interchanges are planned, zoning districts can be created for adjacent lands, with guidelines and incentives for gateway development.

Land use regulation is equally important to preserve the integrity of "constructed" gateways. The visual impact of a specific gateway site or corridor, whether it be a gate, a set of columns, or a tree-lined median, can easily be diluted by overly obtrusive signage and commercial development unless suitable regulations are in place. ...

The new emphasis on gateways and corridors reflects a growing trend toward "place-making" -- creating identifying landmarks that, in a national landscape grown increasingly homogeneous, help the traveler to distinguish one place from another, and give residents and businesses a renewed sense of civic pride." "

Suzanne Sutro Rhees, AICP, is a community planner with BRW Inc. in Minneapolis. She also edits "Planning Minnesota," the state's APA chapter newsletter, and is the author of "Reinventing the Village," (PAS Report No. 430, 1991) and Planning for New Downtown Development (which appeared in PCJ #9).

Pedestrian Networks
from Taming the Automobile, by Richard Untermann (Planning Commissioners Journal #1, Nov/Dec 1991)

"Very little attention has been given to the functional needs of pedestrians -- witness the often deplorable maintenance or lack of sidewalks, the narrowness of sidewalks, and their obstruction by poles, fences, garbage cans, and illegally parked cars. Witness also the long waiting times at crosslights. A well functioning pedestrian street also needs: land uses along it that provide for daily shopping; access to public transport; places where pedestrians can wait and easily cross the street; sufficient sidewalk width; and adequate parking.

Pedestrian safety is also critical. The safer pedestrians feel on the street, the more they will use it. Being safe means not being in actual danger. Most streets in American towns have sufficient warnings and actual barriers between people and cars that accidents can be avoided. But feeling safe and comfortable on the street has to do with the perception of danger. If traffic volumes and speeds are intimidating to pedestrians, they will not feel comfortable using the street.

The First Step: A Network of Sidewalks and Crosswalks

Completing a safe and serviceable sidewalk network that connects residential neighborhoods with shopping, transit, schools, parks, and work is the first step in providing for pedestrians.

Pedestrians simply must have their own space, safe from the nuisance and danger of passing cars. Sidewalks should be at least five feet wide in residential neighborhoods; eight in commercial districts. They should be separated from moving traffic either by using planters, greenbelts, extra sidewalk width, or a row of parked cars. This type of separation would constitute a major change from our current sidewalk design practice of installing narrow sidewalks immediately adjacent to streets, and then prohibiting parking.

A number of other changes to the land use pattern can create a better pedestrian environment. These range from having buildings closer to the street -- instead of being set back considerable distances -- to developing mixed use centers, containing residential, commercial, and office uses, at major intersections.

Increasing residential densities can also work to improve the pedestrian environment. Higher densities often lead to more pedestrian activity. ..."

Richard Untermann is Professor Emeretus of Urban Planning at the University of Washington. He is the author of Accommodating the Pedestrian: Adapting Towns and Neighborhoods for Walking and Bicycling, and has written several articles for the Planning Commissioners Journal, most recently Sidewalk Essentials (PCJ #27, Summer 1997). Untermann now resides in Santa Barbara, California, where he works as a consultant on planning and design issues.