Gary Toth following up on his reflections on the USDOT webinar, Forum on Livability.
As a career transportation geek, I found it particularly encouraging to hear talk about a new transportation planning process attached to performance measures which go beyond the overused and myopic focus solely on auto oriented benchmarks such as pavement quality, bridge inspections and level of service (congestion). To be clear, I am not saying it is bad to keep our bridges standing and safe and the roads that I use to travel to Vermont, Pennsylvania and Delaware from getting overclogged with traffic. Keep it up DOTs! However, we the public allow government to tax us because we want our lives improved and our agencies responsive. Having worked in the state DOT world for 34 years, I can tell you that most DOT insiders have lost track of that concept - and the public has noticed. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a major part of the reason why states and federal politicians will no longer vote for increased gas taxes.   Do we transportation professionals need to be hit in the head with a rock to figure this out?

USDOT gets this, as evidenced by last months webinar on Livability. So what would a more robust, 21st Century planning process look like?

For starters, it would be one which addresses environmental, energy, housing, economic, land use and development, and equity policies. There are ample models out there within some of the more progressive Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), which are the regional planning organizations mandated by federal transportation legislation. For instance, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Council (DVRPC) has generated a number of Scenario Performance Measures including amount of land development, average annual household transportation expenses, vehicle miles traveled and relationship within planning areas of jobs to housing. California’s State Bill 375 mandates Blueprint planning, which - like the DVRPC model — measures success of transportation planning against benchmarks that matter to the average citizen in every day life: how much does transportation cost eat into their budgets; is the regional planning helping folks to find affordable housing; does the transportation network help economize personal time or it is forcing them to drive around everywhere to bring kids to school, get a quart of milk, to take mom to the doctor?

These kinds of people based performance measures must count for as much (if not more) than how smooth the pavement is. Examples like DVRPC and California’s SB 375 must become the standard, not the remarkable case study.

This robust and accountable planning process must then be used to drive transportation investments. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Yet, the American public would be disillusioned to find out how much mismatch there is between long range plans and how state DOTs actually invest the transportation dollars that we provide to them. Federal law requires only that the investment plans (Transportation Improvement Plans or TIP for short) be “consistent” with metro or long range transportation plans. “Consistent” has become a term of art and is subject to strong-arming by the DOTs, which come equipped with bridge, pavement and congestion performance measures: DOTs can threaten to move money from one MPO to another if they don’t toe the DOT line. Politics also plays a big role in distorting the planning process. A majority of MPO voting members are elected officials who feel compelled to press for investment in the sub region that they represent. Fix it first projects often give way to huge investments in freeways or roadway widening. These have much more political visibility, satisfy economic interests in opening up new land for sprawling development or to satisfy the complaints of voters sitting in traffic. The end product barely resembles the plan.

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Can you see this sign? (Photo Credit: Marc Stiles, Daily Journal of Commerce)

The battle over the right to use public spaces on private property has been played out throughout the US over the last half century. Many developers, in exchange for a more favorable floor-to-area ratio (FAR) allowance, were required to build ground level public plazas.   Unfortunately, most of these plazas were public only in name; all too often, property owners and building managers discouraged people from using them, in direct violation of the law.  The problem, which continues to this day, is exacerbated by the fact that the spaces often feel private and univiting, and as a result are heavily underused.

PPS got its start in the late seventies working on many privately owned public spaces, convincing owners to make them more inviting and then adapting them to actually work for people. Rockefeller Center remains one of our strongest examples of accomplishing this transformation.  When PPS was established,  it was thought that the organization would not need to exist after a few years when everyone saw the value of making public spaces truly public and understood the simple principles for designing and managing them to be inviting to people.

Of course, the struggle continues today.  A group of city officials in Seattle recently organized a tour of these Privately Owned Public Spaces–or POPOS–to spread awareness of the issue to both the public and property owners.  During the tour, the issues at stake arose almost immediately; as reported by an article in the Daily Journal of Commerce, the group was asked by a security guard to leave the premises.  The officials politely informed the guard that they were on public property.

A press conference of the event (Photo Credit: Catherine Anstett)

Cities that have offered similar incentive programs, including New York City and San Francisco, have also continued to wrestle with this issue. Early successes there, as well as in Seattle, include new signage that clearly identifies these spaces as public areas. This is, of course, a long way from realizing the full potential of creating gathering spaces on privately owned property, for both social benefit and private economic gain.  And at PPS, we will keep working untill the last of these spaces is actually a public asset.

Bogota's Transmilenio is leading a transformation in urban mobility, but can it do more to transform urban places?

By Tom Peyton and Ethan Kent

Bogota’s Transmilenio Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) has been receiving a lot of attention recently. PPS was actually touring Transmilenio headquarters (while there to speak at a conference) the morning the New York Times featured the system on its front page. Bogotá has a history of implementing innovative public projects throughout the city including its Ciclovia program, hundreds of great new parks and widened sidewalks and pedestrian-only streets. These improvements, many initiated during the same three years as Transmilenio by then Mayor Enrique Penalosa and his brother Guillermo (Gil), have created a more civil and vibrant city.

While the positive aspects of Transmilenio as a model are significant and easily transferable, our many trips to Bogotá (and several other cities in Latin America where BRT has been implemented) have also shown that there is still great opportunity for BRT to shape development, create public destinations, spur economic vitality and support social activity. The areas along the Transmilenio lines, and particularly around the stations, are not yet meeting their full potential to help create and connect places where people want to be.

"Transmilenio" was chosen because it sounds sexier than "Bus".

Transmilenio’s manifold benefits need to be stated, as it has fundamentally changed how the residents of Bogotá are capable of moving around the city. By dedicating multiple lanes exclusively to buses along major thoroughfares throughout the city, the integrated system has created an attractive public transportation option that has drawn in new riders and drastically decreased travel time for existing users. In some cases, commutes that used to take 2 to 3 hours now take 40 minutes. The impact of Transmilenio on Bogotanos’ quality of life is fundamental. Since its opening in 2001, the system has made a transformative contribution to energy efficiency and the environment. As mentioned in the New York Times piece, Transmilenio has helped reduce the amount of bus fuel used in the city by 59% over the period it has been operating.

Generalized benefits of Bus Rapid Transit include:
•   lower construction cost, as much as only 1/5th of light rail and 1/20th the cost of subways;
•   ease of incremental implementation;
•   faster loading and travel times that allow more frequent service and higher speeds than regular bus service;
•   the option to leave the guideway thereby offering scheduling and routing flexibility;
•   capacity advantages over regular buses and street cars;
•   compatibility with intraregional service, acting as a potential bridge between local service and regional service.

Transmilenio facilities are modern, clean and efficient, but could be nicer places to be.

Along with BRT’s ability to achieve these efficiencies in mobility, BRT can do more for riders and the communities that BRT systems serve and intersect. The spaces that the public uses to get on and off Transmilenio buses could become vibrant places with small additions of amenities and programming. Waiting platforms, overpass walkways and areas where passengers get picked up by cars are focused on system efficiency rather than human comfort, social interaction or flourishing commerce. There is great potential for these numerous points throughout Transmilenio to become community and retail hubs that further reduce the need for car trips and make the city significantly more compatible with walking and other modes of transit.

An average of 1.5 million Bogota residents take part in the city's weekly Ciclovia event.

A testament to Bogota’s resourceful use of public space and the latent demand for their use, Ciclovia succeeds every Sunday in creating active and engaging public spaces. Ciclovias have been a part of life in Bogota since the 70s but the event took its current form in the mid-90s. Every Sunday and all holidays, 70 miles of roads usually dominated by automobile traffic are closed to cars from 7am to 2pm. The streets are flooded with cyclists and pedestrians moving freely about the city. Along the route of Ciclovia there are various activity destinations including free exercise classes and vendors selling food and drinks.

Similar to how city decision-makers have added visionary programming to already existing large-scale urban infrastructure with Ciclovia, there is the potential to improve the vast public spaces of Transmilenio.   Transmilenio stops and their surrounding areas are more than simply areas for moving. They are social focal points where residents from all over the city come in contact with one another and share a common experience.

Where Transmilenio connects to the street can be some of the city's best public spaces.

PPS has utilized Placemaking strategies to work on train stations and bus stops around the world but has not yet had the opportunity to work on BRT systems.  In applying Placemaking to BRT systems, questions might include:
•   Can platforms become more comfortable for waiting?
•   Can retail opportunities on the platforms, along walkways and at entry plazas make the system safer and more engaging while bringing in new revenue sources and serving the needs of riders?
•   Can station and roadway design help create boulevards that reduce the impact of traffic and improve pedestrain accessibility (as accomplished with non pre-boarding versions of BRT in Paris, France and Eugene, OR)?

The plazas and streets of Transmilenio are ready to become great places.

One relevant project we worked on was in Santiago, Chile, where a series of empty and unfriendly plazas around a busy transit station were transformed into one of the best new public squares in Latin America. Marcello Corbo (who was also in Bogota on PPS’ recent visit) and Rodrigo Jullian, co-founders of Urban Development, worked with the city and local stakeholders to invest significantly in these public spaces while also achieving significant returns from the implementation of adjacent retail.  As Corbo observed in Bogota, many of the Transmilenio stops could benefit from a similar transformation.

What other strategies can help turn BRT stops into places for community engagement? How can BRT be leveraged to shape growth, create places and tame streets while still creating the efficiency and mobility gains it is known for?

For more background, watch the Streetfilms pieces that PPS helped to coordinate on Transmilenio and Ciclovia as well as a video on further lessons from Bogota.

Graphic program of just one area of the Tempe downtown proposed in PPS' Urban Open Space framework, which comprised a fabric of more than 30 connected destinations

In 2006, PPS was hired by the city of Tempe to create a comprehensive open space plan for their downtown, which has experienced rapid growth in recent years. The plan proposed improvements for more than 30 places that made up the fabric of the downtown experience in order to create a more lively, pedestrian friendly environment with a great mix of destinations.

With the economic downturn, much of the exciting new mixed-use development being planned for the downtown has been put on hold. But Tempe’s planners understand that now is the time to plan for their public spaces, because it is just these types of spaces that will attract people and companies to downtown Tempe once the recovery takes  hold.

From an Op-Ed piece in The Arizona Republic: “City leaders are reviving the [open space] plan, saying it’s even more important during this down time to plan for and invest in public-space projects. They’re right. If these building blocks are securely in place once the economy recovers, Tempe runs much less risk of being blindsided by developments downtown and along light rail.”

Visit our website for more information about the new plans for Tempe’s downtown.  On a related subject, check out a recent article from the PPS newsletter, How Your Community Can Thrive–Even in Tough Times.

Vauban, Germany. Photo Credit: Martin Specht for the New York Times.

Eliminating or heavily restricting cars would be impossible for nearly every city and suburb in America. Yet a small car-free town in Germany profiled in this week’s New York Times has intrigued and inspired Americans to consider a tantalizing possibility: what if we didn’t need cars to perform everyday tasks?

The #1 most emailed article on the Times website (on 5/12) describes Vauban, a small, upscale German town where residents must walk or bike within town limits. The former home of military barracks, Vauban has compact infrastructure that was capable of being retrofitted  to eliminate cars. An efficient public transit link via tram to the nearest city, Freiburg, ensures that residents can commute to work.

Having been built in an era of automobile dominance, very few American communities are endowed with Vauban’s type of infrastucture.  Moreover, public transit is either nonexistent or a less than desirable option for the majority of Americans. Still, much can be done to create more walkable communities and destinations where a car is unnecessary to work, shop or have fun.

Judging by the comments on a fascinating followup post on the NYT “Room for Debate” blog post, which explores what a car-free America might entail, most people are eager for the opportunity to drive less and walk more. Contributors and commentors expanded on the myriad ways already being taken to reduce car dependence across all levels of society, from supporting government initiatives that fund transit to making personal sacrifices.

While a transition to a less car dependent America will not be easy, where there is a will, there is a way. Vauban, and the great interest it has engendered, demonstrates the possibility of creating car free districts and public interest in even imagining the possibility.

Last week while visiting Portland, OR, I stumbled upon the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center.  I was intrigued by the building and surrounding area - the square block space was inviting and offered a great place to sit and get a smoothie at the center’s café.   Inside, the building resembles a transformed warehouse with large timber flooring and open atrium.  It also offers a pleasant outdoor area surrounded by trees, plants and grape vines.  When I asked the local barista about the history of the Center, she explained that after a century of service as a warehouse for the goods of the industrial economy, the Natural Capital Center was revitalized as a marketplace that fosters the ideas, goods, and services of a conservation eco-economy.

The renovation of the brick and timber building respects the character of the original 1895 structure while incorporating environmentally-innovative materials and techniques.  Today, the mixed-use structure houses a café, clothing store, offices and a pizza parlor whose “heat exchanger” reuses the heat from its ovens to boil water for the entire building.  An eco-roof and street-level landscaping filter the site’s rainwater.

The center is accessible by Portland Streetcar, bicycle (with generous outdoor parking spaces), bus, on foot and with limited car parking, making it a community destination.  As I sat in the outdoor area I watched as people sat and enjoyed a meal, parked their bike, got a coffee and read the paper.  The scent of the outdoor garden area contains hints of apple trees, figs and herbs, making it a delightful place to eat and socialize.

The forum is a continuation of the 2007 forum (“Developing and Managing Successful Destinations”) in which Project for Public Spaces, Inc. (PPS) brought together 25 developers, government leaders and public space managers to discuss innovative strategies for managing public spaces by both the public and private sectors.

The goal of this year’s forum is to bring together leaders to discuss and envision new models for significant public, mixed-use destinations that will attract a diverse group of both community residents and visitors to a city. The forum will build upon the previous theme of innovative development and management strategies for urban development and redevelopment.

New ideas for the kinds of processes, programming innovations and unlikely partnerships that will create great places will be explored, and we will look at interesting models for developing urban spaces including destinations such as Vancouver’s Granville Island, Sundance Square in Fort Worth, Texas, and Discovery Green in Houston which all combine cultural, educational, commercial, and even industrial uses to attract locals and tourists of all ages throughout the year. Drawing from such benchmarks and the expertise of industry leaders, we seek to foster a dialogue around the creation of public, mixed-use destinations where civic and cultural institutions serve as community anchors and the local identity is celebrated.

PPS has begun work with the Texas-based Appleseed Project, seeking to reform how and where mixed use developments are built.  Aiming to bring amenities to existing communities and reduce reliance on the automobile, businessman Brett Sheldon has plans to build smaller-scale mixed use complexes to areas already populated with housing.  The developments will provide an unconventional mix of uses that is intended to create a place for the community to gather and informally interact with their neighbors.

Appleseed projects, the first of which is slated for McKinney, Texas, will be located at an intersection of two well-traveled arterials. Its focus will be a multi-purpose plaza and a family restaurant with outdoor dining, rather than the sea of parking usually found at malls and shopping complexes.  The plaza will be available to the community for a wide-range of programs that respond to their needs – everything from farmers markets to small performances and community events.  It will also offer permanent attractions such as a play area, fountain or water feature and game tables.  The small complex will be managed by a well-trained team that will work with a local steering committee to create a lively program of home-grown events.

Retail and business space will be used for local mom-and-pop shops and small businesses, adding to local vitality and providing residents with walkable options for entertainment, dining and employment. The developments will also provide small, incubator-type office space so that local residents can work close to home.

PPS will be working with the community to develop the program for the prototype in McKinney.  Seven more Appleseed projects are slated for the suburbs of Fort Worth and Dallas in the next few years.

Links:

• The Appleseed Project

• McKinney Appleseed project aims to bring development to residents [Dallas Morning News]

Despite the large number of Americans now living in cities, urban issues have been astonishingly absent from the U.S. presidential debates. PPS did a spoof article for Faking Places, the annual April Fool’s Newsletter, in which Hillary, McCain and Obama make promises for more livable neighborhoods. The glaring omission of urban issues from the national discourse is actually no laughing matter.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

“There are three times as many urbanites in America as country folk, yet you wouldn’t know it listening to the three main presidential candidates, or perusing their Web sites. Instead, you might come away thinking the United States is a collection of Norman Rockwell small towns surrounded by picture-book farms.”

Related Stories: 

The Candidates and the City [Gotham Gazette]

Urban Issues Get Short Shrift [Politico]

Candidates Largely Ignore Urban Issues [City Mayors]

All around the country residents of communities large and small are complaining about haphazard development, ugly sprawl and the loss of a “sense of community” that makes the place they live special.