I picked this up off the ITE E-Newsletter Vancouver Sees Future in 'Scramble' Intersections, Toronto Sees Congestion
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/20/vancouver-sees-future-in-scramble-intersections-toronto-sees-congestion/
Reassessing the Pedestrian Scramble
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/09/chris-selley-reassessing-the-pedestrian-scramble/
News Articles: National Post
Two news articles describe ongoing efforts to institute "pedestrian scramble" intersections (often known as Barnes Dances) in Canada and the US at the same time existing "pedestrian scramble" applications are being removed. The effects on pedestrian-vehicle conflicts and on pedestrian and vehicle throughput are presented.
Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Walk21 Davie Street Walkshop
Gordon Price hosted the Walkshop on Davie Street that took us to the West End, the neighborhood that he lives in. We started at the Seawall, which is a very important backbone to the City's transportation infrastructure. It was great to hear Gordon talk about the history of the community and the challenges he had in getting developers to do the right thing. He has a lot of experience related to the use of the streets, the choices that were made at the local level, and the big picture, which he shared at the plenary session.The seawall has a lot of use throughout the day and is a place where people go to get a break from the City
. Gordon described how the City pulled together a lot of vacant land and worked with a developer on the master plan for this area. The developer chosen was not a Canadian or American (an Asian country I can't recall), which describes the density (most American developers probably wouldn't have had the same vision) and the layout which reminds me of something similar that I have seen in Japan, which I would describe as more complex. As we walked up Davie Street, we found that the mix of developments was more diverse. There was a nice section of old warehouses that had been converted into live-work space. This area reminded me of the Pearl District and specifically on NW 13th Avenue in Portland. Both areas have links to transit (streetcar vs. subway). The planner from the City of Vancouver described that the docks are managed by the City, so they control the space and manage the cafes quite carefully to get the desired outcome of a livable space that attracts conventioners and people that are looking for a unique setting. The docks are wider than ours and thus they have an opportunity to do quite a bit more with the space than we have in Portland.
The outdoor seating was heated and sheltered from the wind. I thought the heating was unnecessary but definitely would have been appreciated by my wife.
There were quite a few big flat screens for watching TV and it brought the restaurant experience into the public realm.
They had sort of an odd take on garbage dumpsters and left them out in the open to maintain the district's gritty feel. This surprised me because as the owner of the public space they could have come up with a more creative solution (the Dutch co-locate them underground) to eliminate the use of space on the street.
As we walked north through the City, I was definitely the only one of the bunch taking photos of the traffic signals and the lighting, which is so similar but different in subtle ways.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Vancouver BC Bicycle Left Turn from the Right
We have been studying an application like this in Portland associated with the Portland to Milwaukie Light Rail line. The application in Vancouver was on Burard where there is a heavy amount of traffic denstined to the bridge. In this case, it appears that they want to separate the heavy traffic destined for the bridge with those that desire to make a left turn across two lanes of traffic. To facilitate the maneuver, they provide space in the top of the T of the intersection to get out of the through bike lane and complete the turn on the next signal phase. A brilliant solution to a problem, essentially a jughandle where a right turn is made to make the left.
Walk 21 Conference Venue : Everything is Going to be Alright
The folks at Walk21 have it figured out. When you have a conference pick a good venue. The conference reception was held at an Art Gallery well positioned to get people networking and finding ways to exchange ideas. There was a great number of folks mingling and talking about a wide variety of topics at the meeting.
I had a good opportunity to discuss some of my ideas for what makes a Walk Friendly Community with Carl Sundstrom, who is involved with writing up the standards for the rating system. Clearly, there are some elements of signal timing and engineering details that should be a part of any rating system and it is up to progressive communties to find ways to share their best practices with others.
Earlier in the day on the Walkshop around Vancouver BC, I had the good fortune to talk with Gordon Price, who was one of the Plenary speakers from the early set. It was great talking with him and I knew him from his earlier speaking engagements in Portland. We discussed the downtown pedestrian environment (he commented how he thought one way streets actually worked quite well in Portland) and I shared with him that we were progessing traffic at speeds of 12 to 16 miles per hour (he thought it was 22 miles per hour - maybe the metric conversion playing tricks on him). He said Portland was his second favorite City, which I am unsure if he was being honest about, but he seemed like he was quite sincere. I described the concept of quarter cycle offsets which is actually quite hard to explain as an elevator speech, it's something I should work on because it is a powerful outcome and a good reason to favor one ways streets in a downtown setting.
I had a good opportunity to discuss some of my ideas for what makes a Walk Friendly Community with Carl Sundstrom, who is involved with writing up the standards for the rating system. Clearly, there are some elements of signal timing and engineering details that should be a part of any rating system and it is up to progressive communties to find ways to share their best practices with others.
Earlier in the day on the Walkshop around Vancouver BC, I had the good fortune to talk with Gordon Price, who was one of the Plenary speakers from the early set. It was great talking with him and I knew him from his earlier speaking engagements in Portland. We discussed the downtown pedestrian environment (he commented how he thought one way streets actually worked quite well in Portland) and I shared with him that we were progessing traffic at speeds of 12 to 16 miles per hour (he thought it was 22 miles per hour - maybe the metric conversion playing tricks on him). He said Portland was his second favorite City, which I am unsure if he was being honest about, but he seemed like he was quite sincere. I described the concept of quarter cycle offsets which is actually quite hard to explain as an elevator speech, it's something I should work on because it is a powerful outcome and a good reason to favor one ways streets in a downtown setting.
Walk 21 Transforming the Automobile City
I am in Vancouver BC this morning attending the Walk 21 Conference and this is the insert in the Globe & Mail newspaper.
The consciousness around walking and car culture are very interesting and it seems that more people in Canada are aware of the urban conditions. I think this is primarily due to the fact that many of the large unviersities are in the urban context.
The program schedule started off with a fantastic array of speakers including the conference organizers and the City's Director of Streets, Neal Carley.
One of the speakers on the docket was Gordon Price, who was an elected leader in Vancouver who talked about Motordom and the Wars Between Pedestrians and Cars between 1920s and 1940s. He offered some wonderful context related to the growth of streetcars and the rise of the automobile.
He cited Vancouver's example of Construction of Streetcar by decade which was a steep incline to death in the 1930s when automobiles took over.
1889 to 1899 16.1 miles,
1900 to 1909 37.2,
1910 to 1919 50.2,
1920 to 1929 10.3
He highlighted the three elements needed in Vancouver and other communities as:
Gordon Price highlighted the term "Motordom" in the book Fighting Traffic – The dawn of the motor age in the American City. He defined Motordom as an alliance of engineers, etc that “Socially reconstructed the purpose of the street”.
A good example of this was the term "Jaywalker", where a Jay is a hick – a person that doesn’t know the rules of the City. Pedestrians "need" to stay in between the lines. So, in 1920s there was a war on the car because new drivers had problems with safety, but in the 1930s the car had won and we have been accomodating the car for the past eight years. Streets are places for movement of vehicles.
He highlighted that "the car is fabulous, we love it. It’s a freedom machine." Moving forward we have to figure out how we change the guidelines in the Transportation Planning Handbook by the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
He went on to discuss how ITE principles resulted in efficient, free, and rapid car traffic. What could be wrong with that? It’s universal. We have been focused on Auto-Dependent Urban Planning. The car isn’t going away, nor should it. It does things that the car can only do. BUT when you Design for Car, you get three things:
Once you design the roads, then you have to get parking. Motordom drove out all of the other choices.
It was an insightful presentation highly relevant to the audience.
The consciousness around walking and car culture are very interesting and it seems that more people in Canada are aware of the urban conditions. I think this is primarily due to the fact that many of the large unviersities are in the urban context.
The program schedule started off with a fantastic array of speakers including the conference organizers and the City's Director of Streets, Neal Carley.
One of the speakers on the docket was Gordon Price, who was an elected leader in Vancouver who talked about Motordom and the Wars Between Pedestrians and Cars between 1920s and 1940s. He offered some wonderful context related to the growth of streetcars and the rise of the automobile.
He cited Vancouver's example of Construction of Streetcar by decade which was a steep incline to death in the 1930s when automobiles took over.
1889 to 1899 16.1 miles,
1900 to 1909 37.2,
1910 to 1919 50.2,
1920 to 1929 10.3
He highlighted the three elements needed in Vancouver and other communities as:
- Sufficient density – single family homes and higher
- Good mix of uses
- Walkable distance (3 blocks to transit maximum)
Gordon Price highlighted the term "Motordom" in the book Fighting Traffic – The dawn of the motor age in the American City. He defined Motordom as an alliance of engineers, etc that “Socially reconstructed the purpose of the street”.
 |
| Detroit 1917 Campus Martius picture showing amazing mix of uses |
A good example of this was the term "Jaywalker", where a Jay is a hick – a person that doesn’t know the rules of the City. Pedestrians "need" to stay in between the lines. So, in 1920s there was a war on the car because new drivers had problems with safety, but in the 1930s the car had won and we have been accomodating the car for the past eight years. Streets are places for movement of vehicles.
He highlighted that "the car is fabulous, we love it. It’s a freedom machine." Moving forward we have to figure out how we change the guidelines in the Transportation Planning Handbook by the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
He went on to discuss how ITE principles resulted in efficient, free, and rapid car traffic. What could be wrong with that? It’s universal. We have been focused on Auto-Dependent Urban Planning. The car isn’t going away, nor should it. It does things that the car can only do. BUT when you Design for Car, you get three things:
- Big and Simple,
- Flat, and
- Uniform (limited chances for making a great place).
Once you design the roads, then you have to get parking. Motordom drove out all of the other choices.
It was an insightful presentation highly relevant to the audience.
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