MARTA's Northward March

The planned expansion of MARTA transit into North Fulton has been floating around the news over the past couple of months.  Dubbed the Connect 400 initiative by MARTA (follow the Facebook page for info), it is looking at expanding transit service north 11.9 miles from the North Springs station to Windward Parkway via either Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rail or Heavy Rail (the current MARTA rail).  

MARTA’s public outreach department held three meetings in North Fulton in July gathering resident and stakeholder feedback.  The way it looks now, the vast majority of people favor expansion with 76% of both residents and employees surveyed either approving or strongly approving the initiative. Amongst residents, 11% disapprove and 8% strongly disapprove.  Light or heavy rail were the favored modes.  Amongst residents, preference is roughly split with 37% favoring light rail and 40% heavy rail while employees surveyed were 68% in favor of heavy rail.  (detailed report)

The overwhelming support by both residents and employees shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who commutes on GA400.  That said, don’t view transit as a panacea for traffic problems.  Transit only works properly in areas that are congested and it serves as a transportation option rather than a cure for congestion.  A transit line along a non-congested corridor is doomed to fail unless there is extreme subsidy to support high ridership as motorists will always choose the easier option in the absence of financial rewards or penalties.  Now that we are clear that transit will not cure congestion, let’s take a look at some of the issues and obstacles to getting MARTA rail.

Route Alignment - One of the first obstacles to overcome is whether to align the route to the east or west of GA400.  Through Dunwoody and Sandy Springs, the east side of the highway is lined by subdivisions and schools while the west side is mostly lined by apartments and commercial uses.  My money is on a west of 400 alignment but it is a point of contention to watch.

Transit Mode - The cost estimates are roughly $460M for BRT, $1.8B for light rail and $1.6B for heavy rail.  You can write off light rail immediately as it is more expensive, slower and has the mode shift disadvantage.  The real debate will be between the cheaper BRT and the logical heavy rail.  The one thing to point out is that modal shift is a VERY difficult challenge to overcome and it will cut ridership due to unnecessary inconvenience.  And before you start to balk about $1.6B, you may want to consider that the Georgia DOT is currently planning to spend just shy of $1B (one full year of DOT budget) to revamp the GA400 I-285 Interchange.  That spend could become less of a need if a robust rail solution were in place for that corridor.  They are obviously not mutually exclusive but which is the wiser investment for North Fulton and the region, $1B for 1 interchange ‘improvement’ or $1.6B to expand MARTA rail to Windward?  

Station Location - Finding the right spots for stations will prove to be a challenge.  Will the stations be dedicated to parking decks or to Transit Oriented Development (TOD)?  The current heavy rail alignment shows stops at Northridge, Holcomb Bridge, Mansell, North Point Mall, Haynes Bridge and Windward. No stop at Old Milton? Ahem..  AVALON? Gwinnett Tech?  Will North American Properties have another massive walkable development with no direct transit connections like they have with Atlantic Station?  

Crime - The boogie man of transit.  At a recent public meeting in Sandy Springs, an anonymous attendee was quoted in Creative Loafing as saying “I think it’s the lower-income people who are going to come up and start stealing.”  Even if that’s not a real quote, it’s a legitimate mindset that we have to get past.  The study Rail Transit and Neighborhood Crime: The Case of Atlanta, Georgia published in the Oct. 2003 edition of the Southern Economic Journal concluded that “there is no evidence... that suburban residents should fear that crime will rise in their neighborhood if rail lines are extended beyond central city boundaries.”

Competition - The race for more MARTA rail may just be starting.  In November, Clayton County is set to vote on whether to join Fulton and DeKalb counties as MARTA counties by opting into the penny sales tax.  If this passes, they will most certainly be dreaming about rail into Clayton county and the North Fulton line would then be competing for federal funds.  Don’t forget the Beltline transit initiative as well as other in-town corridors such as I20 and the Emory CDC area that are looking to get MARTA rail.  There will probably be a lot of hands reaching for limited dollars.  

So, if we can work through these challenges, the best case scenario is a 6-12 year implementation.  Realistically, if funding is secured and the project gets the green light, we might be riding trains in North Fulton by 2030 which will be around the same time that light rail is circling the city via the Beltline and potential rail will be going out to Clayton County if funding is there.  So, in the next 15 years, the future is looking bright for a more transit friendly metro area where we have more mobility options than we have today.

Shared Space = Mind Blown

I've been exploring the concept of Shared Space in transportation lately and am obsessed with the intersection implemented in Poynton, UK.  Shared Space is a traffic concept that gives equal rights to all modes of transportation within the right of way.  I can't explain it any better than the clip below.  

If you like what you see, I was recently able to spend some time with the designer of that intersection, Ben Hamilton-Baillie, at CNU22.  His presentation was excellent and in some cases mind blowing.  Here it is in its entirety if you are interested.

And finally, here's a presentation that I was able to find that does an excellent job explaining Shared Space and providing some additional examples of real world implementations.

So, this concept is becoming increasingly popular as it creates place, reduces traffic congestion and increases safety..  When can we do this here in Roswell?

Town Hall Roswell | Building a Walkable & Bikeable City

The 4th installment of Town Hall | Roswell is tomorrow night at Muse & CO Fine Art.  The topic is Building a Walkable & Bikeable City.  I'll be doing a brief presentation and then I'll be moderating and participating in a panel made up of Lew Oliver of Whole Town Solutions, Steve Acenbrak of Bike Roswell and Matt Foree of Bike Roswell.

Come check it out tomorrow at 7pm.  RSVP Here It's free for RoswellNEXT members and $10 for the general public.  If you purchase at the door, tickets are $15.

20 is Plenty and Other Crazy Thoughts

Earlier this year in an online forum on Reddit, I laid out my quick list about what the top transportation needs are for Roswell.  My list in no order of importance and applicable to most cities was as follows:

• Bring MARTA Rail to North Fulton
• Increase Street Connectivity
• Remove Reversible Lanes
• Build More Roundabouts
• Drop speed on ALL residential streets to 20 mph
• Build the Roswell Loop

Most of my suggestions focused on increasing transportation options and improving safety.  Interestingly, the one that got questioned was the point about dropping speeds on residential streets to 20 mph.  When I indicated that my rationale was for safety reasons, one commenter insinuated that this isn’t necessary because we don’t have a pedestrian death problem in our residential areas.  I agree and we should feel fortunate for that.  However, I think many a homeowner can point to multiple occasions where they have encountered drivers speeding recklessly on neighborhood streets.

Speed has a logarithmically negative effect on survival rates for pedestrians involved in collisions with cars.  A 10% increase in vehicle speed increases pedestrian fatality risk by 40-45%.  Data shows that when a pedestrian is hit by a car traveling at 20mph, they have a 95% chance of survival.  However, as the speed increases, the survival rate plummets.  When a car is traveling 40 mph, the pedestrian survival rate drops to just 15%.  This is just plain physics.  Doubling speed results in the required stopping distance quadrupling and the kinetic energy absorbed at impact is also fourfold.   We may not have a death problem here in North Fulton but nationwide, more than 30,000 people are killed in car crashes annually and an increasing percentage of those are pedestrians.  Ten times that number are seriously injured every year.  The costs to society are staggering but we accept it as a necessary evil to support our auto-dependence.

Slowing down to 20 mph is a radical idea that would increase safety in our communities for pedestrians and cyclists alike.  That said, simply lowering speed limits isn’t a panacea.  Drivers generally drive at the speed they feel safe regardless of the posted speed limit.  This comfort zone, the speed that feels safe, can also be called the design speed or the speed at which the road was designed to be safely navigable.  The philosophy of wider, safer, faster holds true here.  The wider the road is, the safer it feels at higher speeds.  This counterintuitively increases speeds which conversely decreases safety for everyone involved.  

We’ve all lived in or driven through residential subdivisions with streets wide enough to fit parked cars on each curb and two active lanes.  The problem with this is that the streets in suburban residential areas are rarely every fully lined with parked cars.  The end result of this is a dangerous design with wide expanses of asphalt that encourage teenagers to test their limits and rushed commuters to push the gas.  This would happen in this environment regardless of whether the posted limit was 30 mph, 25 mph or 20 mph.  It’s just not conducive to a slow drive.

That said, a 20 is Plenty campaign such as those that are having great success across Europe and the UK would be a bold step to create safer and more walkable cities.  The movement is slowly making its way to the US and is now under consideration in several cities and towns in the northeast.  New York City is considering it and some people have even gone around town putting up their own signs on light posts.  There is also research indicating that slower street speeds are linked to more social connections, a stronger sense of community, higher property values and increased walking and biking.  

It almost sounds like a no brainier.  So, this is how I would propose phasing in a 20 is Plenty campaign: 

• Step 1 (year 1-3).. Give all neighborhoods and subdivisions the option to adopt a 20 mph limit.
• Step 2 (year 4).. Adopt on all roads that have residential as  > 50% of their frontage and on any road that fronts a school or park for a quarter mile in each direction.
• Step 3 (year 1-10 and beyond).. Re-engineer streets over time to narrow lanes and install street calming devices that would encourage slower speeds.

The next time you’re driving through a neighborhood remember that 20 is Plenty.

A Tale of Two Bus Stops - An Unintentional Tactical Urbanism Intervention

I'm not sure if everyone remembers way back in early 2012 when the city of Roswell installed some more people friendly bus stops.  There were several covered shelters added around town and a number of our unsheltered stops had little seats added to the bottom of them to make waiting for the bus a little more bearable for those who choose to (or are forced to) endure the 30+ minute headways that one can often experience as a suburban bus rider...  

Anyway, I saw something a few days ago that I'm honestly shocked I did not pick up on before...  Apparently, the city has left riders at one of the more frequented stops literally standing.  I walk by here several times a week and more often than not, there are people standing waiting for the bus.  However, just up the road, maybe 200 yards, there's another stop that has two perfectly good Roswell-green seats that I've NEVER seen get used.  

Humane places don't require that people bring their own chairs to the bus stop.The previous stop pictured could use one of these green seats.

I'd say it's time for the city to move those green seats to the right bus stop. Well, unless we want more chairs to be added to the side of highway 9.  Or, maybe just add another green seat.

Also, for those who are interested, that chair is a crude form of what geeks like me who run in the planning circles, would refer to as "Tactical Urbanism."  For more on that topic and how citizens can make impactful, sometimes illegal and always fun interventions in their city with minimal effort check out the handbook on the subject: Tactical Urbanism 2: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change

America.. One Big Aesthetic Crime Scene

Roswell and North Fulton have beautiful, spacious parks.  We rave about the river, playgrounds and the trails.  Several cities are working on new parks and squares around their city centers.  It’s evident that we care about our public space.  But.. we are forgetting something.

We are neglecting the most abundant public space we own.  We are neglecting our streets.  By sheer area, our streets and roads dwarf our parks and greenspace.  Some may say that our roads and streets are fantastic.  They are wide, well maintained and orderly.  I agree, when I have my driving blinders on but when you take a look around, you realize that once you get out of your neighborhood, you are driving on an enormous automobile sewer system.  

The Swiss would probably marvel at how focused our DOTs are on ensuring the streets are functional.  The hierarchy of local, collector and arterial is beautiful in its logic.  The potholes are usually fixed quickly and the streets are generally clean.  They get paved on schedule.  That said, order and proper maintenance does not build character and foster a sense of place.  Our lanes are too wide, our setbacks are too far and our street trees have become glorified weeds.  All of this has been done in the name of safety and standards.  

The roads and streets all around this country have become one gigantic aesthetic crime scene and they are only getting worse.  Road signs seemingly multiply like gremlins.  For goodness sake look at the number of signs adorning the historic square in Roswell.  We have Tree City USA signs, Yield ahead signs, road intersection approaching signs, duplicate no left or no right turn signs and they just seem to keep coming.  Cross into East Cobb from Roswell on 120 and the signs are like a heavyweight uppercut.  Power lines are everywhere but at least they aren’t proliferating.  Pay attention to all this incoherence and it will blow your mind.

Even policies that are supposed to be a good thing have become victims of over engineering and an inflexible focus on ensuring standards are upheld rather than ensuring that the design is contextually appropriate.  Who hasn’t seen a bike lane that abuts a 45 mph road? How about the fact that every turn lane off a state highway will now have at least one and usually two no parking signs.  I love the two no parking signs on the southbound on ramp to 400 from Haynes Bridge.  What about the fact that just before almost EVERY intersection you now see a big yellow sign telling you that that intersection is approaching.  EVEN WHEN IT IS IN PLAIN SIGHT!

Worst of all, we have no idea what the difference between a road and a street is anymore.  Streets capture value and roads get you from place to place quickly but what we have created across much of suburbia is a nasty STROAD hybrid that does neither well.  

We need to start capturing value with our streets again.  The people who built Canton Street knew how to do exactly that and they did it before zoning codes and red tape.  It’s the most well known street in North Fulton and the great part of it isn’t even a half mile.  Canton St didn’t become great because of wide lanes, road signs or bike lanes.  It’s great for many reasons but the narrow lanes, sidewalks and shorter building setbacks create a sense of place like an outdoor room that people in cars, on bikes or on foot just feel comfortable in.

Our focus on wide lanes, road signs, and tiny street trees is a crime committed against our places and ultimately against ourselves.  Our streets should be places, not sewers.  Our streets should have an overabundance of art, not an overabundance of signs.  Our streets should make us want to get out of our cars and enjoy the place that they shape.

Behold.. The Crooked Creek Superblock

This is a little outside the normal NUR area of interest but I thought it was an incredible case study into the lack of foresight that many of our cities and subdivisions have around connectivity and the importance of the effective network. The case relates to the Crooked Creek subdivision in Milton that is located along highway 9 between Bethany Bend and Francis Rd on the west side of the highway.  

The golf subdivision is looking to install gates to curb 'cut-through' traffic.  (Full disclosure, I live in a gated subdivision and would prefer that the gates be removed lest ye think me a hypocrite)  There are a couple hurdles Crooked Creek must clear before it can be done and I'm completely uninformed as to the prospects but I'd wager that it passes both.  The first is the 67% HOA vote.  The second is approval from the city.  The criteria for city approval is basically whether it is in the best keepoing of the community and the city and that it does not impact the surrounding community.

The city will no longer have to maintain ~7 miles of road which is a huge plus.  But, at the same time, its grid is being clipped and there will be one fewer connection in an area that is already, and will be moreso in the future, starved for connectivity.  I'm not sure what is worth more and Milton will ultimately need to decide on that but I generally side on more connectivity and you could definitley argue that gating this subdivision will negatively impact the surrounding community.

There are ways to make roads safe, even for children, without gating them.  The main road, Creek Club Dr, is WIDE and thus encourages and accommodates higher speeds.  The lanes are 12 feet in each direction.  That's as wide as an interstate lane.  No wonder Crooked Creek has a speeding problem on their 'cut-through' road.  

Pinching in the road and adding traffic calming would significantly reduce speeds while still enabling connectivity.  I use Vickery Village frequently to illustrate a place that has high connectivity with safe driving speeds.  Anyone can drive in Vickery and kids are ALL OVER the place.  The car just isn't given free reign to drive at unsafe speeds.  Ultimately, if you narrow the roads and you increase safety.  

Gating this subdivision will hinder connectivty and will significantly reduce pedestrian and bike options for those living around Crooked Creek.  They are already almost non-existant but that doesn't mean no effort should be made to keep what little connectivity exists.

My point on this is illustrated below.  Clipping the grid, so to speak, takes what were two superblocks of 670+ acres each and creates a single superblock of 1347 acres.  The perimeter of the new 'block' is 6.3 miles.  That's 10% of the ENTIRE I-285 PERIMETER which is just a little over 63 miles.  So, you're effectively creating a mini-perimeter in Milton and those living ITP will be the only ones benefitting.  (well they will have to pay for their roads with no subsidy from the rest of the city's tax rolls)

Superblock 1

Superblock 2

Superblock 3

For additional insight, check out the NorthFulton.com article on the subject here. 

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CNU Atlanta Monthly Meet-Up

For anyone interested in the true root cause of SnowJam 2014 and potential solutions, this month's CNU Atlanta monthly meet-up will be quite informarive.  The theme is "The Day We Lost Atlanta and Answers for Tomorrow."  Rebecca Burns will be discussing her widely circulated Politico article, The Day We Lost Atlanta, How 2 lousy inches of snow paralyzed a metro area of 6 million.  We will also have Charlie Harper, exectuive director of PolicyBEST and editor of Peach Pundit to talk about advancing the transportation discussion in a post-TSPLOST world.  

Event Details

• What: CNU Atlanta T3 - Urban Talk Featuring Rebecca Burns & Charlie Harper
• When: Thursday February 20th, 2014; 530pm - 730pm
• Where: Steel Restaurant, 950 West Peachtree Street, NW, Atlanta

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image: CNU Atlanta

I'm Not Feeling "Bicycle Friendly"

Up front, I want to say that I’m an avid supporter of all things cycling.  That said, I’m not sure we are a “Bicycle Friendly” city.  We have the signs, we have the designations, the complete streets policy as well as tons of road bikers.  What we don’t have are safe streets and comfortable rides that allow kids, novices and the elderly to easily ride around our city.  If you don’t own spandex, you probably don’t bike much in Roswell and if you don’t live on a cul-de-sac or in a gated subdivision, your kids probably aren’t riding their bikes unsupervised much unless you are driving them to one of our destination parks.

Around the holidays the city even has Safe Play areas for children who received outdoor toys for presents.  The city blocks off a few parking lots at three of the city parks for children to safely play with their new toys.  This isn’t inherently a bad thing but just the fact that it is even necessary raises the question of whether we are truly a bicycle friendly community.  There will always be children who live near busy roads or in areas that are just plain inhospitable to safe cycling but there should be plenty of places to go in our city aside from a park parking lot.  If we had properly designed our city with connected streets and separated bicycle and walking paths, we would be much better off.  

The Bicycle Friendly community designation is administered by the League of American Bicyclists as part of its Bicycle Friendly America campaign and Roswell was the first city in Georgia to achieve the designation way back in 2006.  The campaign is laudable and well intentioned.  It has done and will do many great things to advance cycling.  There are five areas of measurement, known as the 5 E’s; Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation (& Planning).  The 2014 application has 90 questions across these five categories and I’m sure Roswell meets the criteria for the Bronze level certification that we have.

We have a fantastic advocacy group in Bike Roswell and there are many great events like the Criterium & Cycling Festival and the Mayor’s Ride.  The Roswell Loop is a long-term project that, when finished, will significantly upgrade pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in the city.  We will likely host a Gran Fondo road race in October which will bring between one and two thousand riders.  We have weekly rides during the warmer months and all classes of riders are welcome.  We have excellent parks such as the network of parks along the river that provide a great casual riding environment and Big Creek Park has mountain biking trails and the greenway.  Future plans call for a pedestrian and bike bridge that will span the Chattahoochee and a mixed-use trail that will make its way from the river to the square.  These are all great but don’t do much to get the general public out on their bike for everyday activities.

If you take issue with what I’m saying, ask yourself: 

• How many plain clothed women have you seen cycling in Roswell?
• How many people do you personally know that commute by bike?
• How many of your regular destinations in Roswell have bicycle parking?
• Would you feel comfortable if you children rode their bike anywhere within a half mile radius of your home without your supervision?

Likely answers: None, One, No Idea, Heck NO!

What does that say about our bicycle friendliness?  It may be semantics but I believe we are a (mostly) Pro Bike community and have miles to go before we are truly Bicycle Friendly. We need more and better bike friendly infrastructure.  Sharrows and signs are for show.  Bike lanes are good when done right but we truly need bike and ped paths.  We need to connect this city through our subdivisions, gated communities, retail centers and office parks by building mixed-use paths that will form a web of connectivity safe for all types of riders.  The city can create simple incentives to accomplish this in both new and existing developments.

Building a more interconnected city through an extensive multi-use trail network will fuel the local economy.  Bicyclists tend to shop locally.  They also tend to spend more when they shop, potentially due to gas savings.  Property along trails often sells at a premium.  For an example of how an area can be transformed by a simple path, look no further than the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta.  The Beltline Eastside trail has been an amazing catalyst for change.  Businesses located along the trail are quickly opening up entrances that front the trail to capitalize on the foot and bike traffic and new residents are flocking to an area that even five years ago was a very rough part of town.

Bicycling is good for health, wealth, community and business.  The next time you hear about a development, ask yourself how that will impact the ability to bike in Roswell and keep pushing our leaders to become truly Bicycle Friendly.  Checklists and designations aren’t enough.  When women and children on bikes are as common as men in spandex, we will truly be Bicycle Friendly.  Until then, let’s continue to be Pro Bike.

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Big Creek Parkway Visualized

The Roswell DOT released a traffic visualization earlier this week that gives a glimpse into what a future Big Creek Parkway might look like.  I'm a proponent of this as it increases connectivity and will help reduce traffic cross the Holcomb Bridge / GA400 bridge. 

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