Since streets are in the news quite a bit these days (Northmoor widening, Washington Street narrowing, Adams and Jefferson possibly converting from one-way to two-way), I think this is a good time to raise awareness of how much impact our streets have on our safety and quality of life, and how they can be made better. Research and experimentation being done today in coastal cities is proving that new approaches to street design can net huge benefits for communities.
Ian Lockwood, Senior Transportation Engineer at the community planning and design consulting firm of Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, is featured in this little video explaining traffic calming measures that were implemented in West Palm Beach, Florida, and how those measures produced increased economic activity, lower crime rates, and a more liveable community.
The same kind of interventions could be implemented here in Peoria. See if you don’t see any similarities to Peoria’s streets in this presentation:
Hat tip: Pat McNamara
Cj and Pat McNamara: A bullseye! Yes, we definitely need to move away from Peoria’s beggar mentality and have a predictable plan from the form based code to have the scenario of developers and investors clamoring for opportunity to make Peoria a successful city. Great piece of footage!
Problems regarding the street plans: West Palm Beach obviously has a great number of parallel roads that can handle a “spreading out” of the traffic. Trying to narrow up Knoxville, Sheridan, or University would be a nightmare. The next streets over in between them are all residential, and deflecting traffic onto them would be suicide.
Can you imagine a “roundabout” at Knoxville and War Memorial? Good Lord. I’d bet 90% of our north-south traffic is on 4 roads at any given time. There are no alternatives if you’re going north-south. The sheer volume of traffic, if you narrowed these 4 lane behemoths down to 2 lanes, would creat nightmarish traffic jams. Short of turning other north-south roads (virtually all residential) into “traffic flow” points, I don’t see how such a set-up could work.
I do like the ideas of putting trees in the medians; colored concrete; stamped concrete; but again, this is Illinois and concrete CRACKS. You spend a lot more for those amenties to break down in a much, more shorter time span than in West Palm Beach.
Most of Peoria’s problems are also tied to economic uncertainty, and the amount of poverty we have. We certainly can always do better, but we have to work within the constraints we have. West Palm Beach, even with the problems it had prior, has weather and tourism to play with, which we normally don’t. Form based codes are a good idea, too, I think… but will it stifle most of the business that Central Illinois tends to attract?
Prego Man:
There are roads in Canada which survive very well with no cracking and that is a very cold climate — why? because the base has been dug so deep that the top layers do not crumble and deteriorate over the long term because the proper foundation was laid. Same with Peoria, if we continue to do the same old same old — we will get the same old same old and then we will be worse off. It is not a matter of doing something new that is the answer, rather proven strategies which have actually worked — concrete data and such — rather than build it they will come and incomplete plans. We cannot continue on the fluff and no substance trail that we have been on for years — that is why Peoria is in such bad shape by having tried to put bandaids on tough social issues and development strategies and played the part of the beggar and now we are reaping the whirlwind.
Granted, we in Illinois cannot do what people in Palm beach can, but the truth is that what we are currently doing is not working. Why not try something drastic?
As a pedestrian myself, there are only a few streets that I dislike crossing on my way downtown for work or on my way to the grocery store. Both University and Main are problematic, as is Sheridan. While they are both busy, the problems aren’t the existing traffic necessarily, but rather the speed at which the traffic goes and the drivers’ disregard for pedestrians. Slowing the traffic in those areas may encourage commuters to use the interstate more, but it could also be a boon for the Renaissance Park area by creating the need for more businesses as more people choose to walk instead of drive. There should be no reason for a college student to drive from campus to One World or to Avanti’s, but I see it all the time. Making that area more pedestrian friendly only helps increase business to existing small businesses, creating the need for more businesses.
Perhaps in the long term, catering to the pedestrian and beautification of the city would encourage people to move back from the ever-widening suburbs. The traffic is part of what people dislike about the city. Who wants to walk their dog across University or Main as they currently are? Anyone who owns a home or business here has a far greater interest in what happens in the city than someone who lives in the suburbs or on the outskirts. It wouldn’t solve all of the problems, but I think it would go a long way toward solving some.
Having spent 2 full weeks in West Palm Beach last year for work, their plan does not work as described. Traffic is horrible there. The presenter even says they tried to make more congestion to force people into public transportation. Anyone else wonder where all the cars are in all of the pictures that were shown?
Not much regarding public transportation in that video other than acknowledging that pedestrian friendly roads creates congestions which in turn makes publc transportation viable. Well if you don’t have a plan for public transportation then all you do is piss off a lot folks. Peoria’s Heart of Peoria plan is delightfully devoid of any commentary on public transportation. The current draft for the form based code changes looked devoid of public transportation solutions.
If you narrow a road to 1 lane going each way, having a pull off lane for buses makes sense. The Europeans know this. What should a bus stop look like? Design? Bus stops need to be pedestrian friendly too. How many bus stops? Where? Why do our buses stop anywhere and everywhere? Doesn’t this impair scalability and cause increased traffic difficulties? Nada in the HOP plan.
Light rail? Turning somone’s 30 minute commute into a 45 or 1 hour commute might suddenly make light rail more desirable. Plan? What would the conditions be to make it viable? Study? Nada.
Bike/hiking trails…. should be planned for.
one more thing… the city and the county should insist that all new developments adhere to New Urbanist principles and meet a density requirement that is supportive of narrower roads and public transport.
Mahkno — Excellent observations. The Land Development Code (LDC) regulates private use/form of land, whereas bus stops and streetscapes are a public responsibility. Thus, streets and bus stops and the like are not going to be reflected in the LDC. They should, nevertheless, be accounted for in the public-works planning and in the Heart of Peoria Plan. I’ll pass that along to the commission. Thanks!
MDD — I talked to Pat McNamara tonight and he was just there within the past few months and said it’s exactly as depicted in the presentation. I haven’t been there, but I know Pat, so I’m going to have to go with what he says….
West Palm Beach is a nightmare for people to get around in, if they’re using a vehicle. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that if you go from 4 lanes to 2 lanes, traffic problems are going to ensue. I lived in that area for 2 years, and believe me, you do not want to drive there. On top of that, there are still a lot of empty store fronts. It might look pretty, but it’s also pretty much a traffic mess.
This resembles the Streetscape plan that the movers and shakers in Peoria Heights were talking about a couple years ago. Taking Prospect from 4 lanes to 3 lanes, and still having parallel parking available. Because there is no other north south road in Peoria Heights above the bluff, this would have been hellish. But the rich folks there did not give a damn, although the voters did. The idiots in favor of that plan were voted out. Democracy works in grand ways sometimes.
Before anyone subscribes to these theories, go and check out the finished product. Because everything looks so nice in the photos, it’s easy to jump on board. Go to West Palm Beach for a week, and see how you like it. I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that it would make what traffic problems we already have in the Peoria area into something that drivers would explode over.
Traffic problems? In Peoria? (laughing hysterically, tears rolling down my face at the COMPLETE ABSURDITY of that thought). Even at the height of the construction along I-74, traffic here was a breeze. Some people need to get out more.
The city of West Palm Beach itself has a population comparable to Peoria’s whole MSA (Wikipedia 2005 estimates of ~98,000 for the city, ~350,000 including unincorporated areas) … but Palm Beach County has a population of 1.2 MILLION with a population density DOUBLE that of Peoria County (221/km2 vs. 114/km2), not including tourists and the annual winter Great White-Haired Migration. If you look at our Tri-County region – which has about the same land area as Palm Beach County – the population density is 1/3 of that in Palm Beach County (75/km2 vs. 221/km2). Maybe THAT is why they have more traffic problems, especially in the winter when Midwestern folks tend to visit. Let’s blame the usual suspect – higher population density (more people, more cars, more traffic) – rather than the street plans depicted in this video.
For those wondering about public transportation in West Palm Beach – they do have a commuter rail system (again according to the Wiki entry – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Rail).
Peoria has NO traffic problems – slow things down all you want, and traffic congestion will still be minimal.
Ohh god … now it takes me 15 minutes to get from one end of town to the other instead of 10 … Ohhhhhhhhhh Nooooooooooooooooo …
Narrow away, by all means!