Revised Street Standards Improve Walkability!

COLUMBIA, Missouri

Image Courtesy of John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune

If your community is like most American communities, it's likely that cars now take top priority. Over the last several decades American sidewalks have steadily been shrinking and in some cases disappearing altogether while street lanes have widened and more lanes have been added. As a result, it can be nearly impossible to safely walk or bike to school, the store, or work.

Frustrated by this trend, a group of folks in Columbia, MO known as the PedNet Coaltion came up with a radical idea: They believed that all Columbia residents should be able to safely walk, bike, or wheel(chair) their way all around town. From any location to any location, and the experience should be enjoyable. With sidewalks on less than half of their streets, the idea was radical.

In addition to lacking sidewalks, they noticed that the oldest parts of the city were the most pleasant and easiest to navigate on foot, bike, or wheelchair, with narrow streets and wide sidewalks. In contrast, the newest neighborhoods had unnecessarily wide streets and narrow sidewalks. They began to ask "why?" What they learned is that nearly every city in America has a set of street design standards that specify such things as street widths, sidewalk widths, and distance between the sidewalk and the curb, and it turns out that Columbia's street standards had been changed throughout the past few decades, putting less emphasis on pedestrians and greater emphasis on automobiles.

The PedNet Coalition's individual and organizational members, which included residents, businesses, and non-profits rallied around their idea. They did extensive research into the street standards in other cities and began proposing that Columbia revise it's standards to ensure safe walking, biking, and wheeling. PedNet successfully advocated for the City to establish a task force to look into the pros and cons of adopting new street standards. After a 15-month process involving local homebuilders and developers, key city departments and volunteer commissions, and local health groups, the task force published a set of recommendations for revising the existing street standards.

Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman supported the suggested revisions and pointed to the many benefits of the proposed design changes:
-Economic benefits including enhanced recruitment and retention of University of Missouri employees because of the desirable community amenities and higher real-estate values
-Health benefits including reduced rates of obesity and related health issues - diabetes, stroke and heart disease, among others
-Community benefits including more cohesive neighborhoods with lower crime rates.
-Enhanced transportation system
-Increased outdoor recreation opportunities

Some developers contended that the new designs would be more expensive to build, raising the cost of housing. To address these concerns, PedNet brought in national experts to testify that the new residential street standards could be built at little or no additional cost.

After a 3-year process, members of the Columbia City Council adopted the new standards:
-narrow residential street widths from 32 to 28 feet
-widen all residential sidewalks from 4 to 5 feet and install 5-foot sidewalks on ALL streets
-include 6-foot bike lanes on all arterials and major collectors
-include an 8-foot shared-use path on one side of arterials and major collectors

The resulting new standards will better accommodate more bicyclists, pedestrians and wheelchair users and will slow automobile traffic through neighborhoods. The standards apply to all new construction and major repairs (when feasible) on existing streets. Columbia city officials feel confident that the new standards will enhance the lives of residents and help Columbia better compete with other college towns, such as Madison, WI, Boulder, CO, and Davis, CA, towns that draw prospective university students and faculty away from Columbia.

Local street design standards can be a highly effective tool for ensuring bicycle/pedestrian friendly environments, increased safety, and a bolstered economy.

THE PROCESS
The process began with initial meetings of interested parties. This turned into regular meetings and an unofficial Street Design Standards Working Group. The working group started a dialog with the city council, and as a result, the city council formed an official "Street Design Standards Advisory Committee" that did extensive research on street standards across the country. The Advisory Committee kept the Planning/Zoning Commission and the City Council in the loop throughout the process and finally put forth their official recommendations. Proponents of the new standards wrote Op Ed articles in the local newspaper to keep the public informed about the proposed changes. The city held a series of public meetings to gather resident and business input. These meetings were heavily attended by supporters of the new standards--residents and businesses alike that saw the new standards as important for quality of life and the local economy. At the end of a three year process, the City Council voted to approve the new standards which were adopted June 7, 2004.

Ask Yourself: Can children in your community safely walk to school? Are the sidewalks in your community wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs? What are your obstacles to walking to the store?

If the newer streets in your community are nearly wide enough to land a jumbo jet, yet the sidewalks force you to walk single file with your sweetheart, it might be time to re-examine your local street design standards, too. A great place to start is by attending local city council meetings to learn about your current standards.

For more information, contact the PedNet Coalition: pednet@pednet.org and visit their website www.pednet.org.