Drive Me Out to the Ballgame

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you are aware that the Atlanta Braves have reached an agreement with Cobb County to move the team to a site just outside the perimeter at the 75/285 junction.  This was quite a shock to the region and it has huge implications.  

There are a number of reasons behind the move that have been analyzed ad nauseum in the local and national media.  The details are too meaty to dive into however there are some promising aspects and some very depressing aspects of this deal.  Ultimately, the Braves wanted either a new stadium or a renovated Turner Field and required a lot in return.  The City of Atlanta couldn’t (or wouldn’t depending on whom you ask) compete with Cobb at the moment. The Braves want to get closer to their fan base which is understandable and Cobb is attractive.

Renderings of the proposed stadium show a conceptual mixed use development to the west of the stadium that could work to engage the area and bring a walkable urban environment into the Cumberland area.

The biggest and most laudable piece of this entire deal is the Braves’ commitment to creating a mixed-use destination that can function 365 days a year rather than a single use stadium that operates 81 to 90 days a year.  They envision this being the anchor development for a ‘walkable’ destination.  I’m not sure they will ever achieve true walkability in that area as there are just far too many wide roads and long distances between destinations.  That said, I truly wish them success.  The more walkability in the burbs, the better our region will be.  Unfortunately, my prediction is that it ends up being an over-priced, half-baked “mixed-use” destination full of national brand retailers and chain restaurants.  

The real concern, however, are the traffic implications of this move.  Roswell & East Cobb, in just three short years, Santa Claus, in the form of Cobb County Commissioner Tim Lee (the man behind the curtains on this deal), will be dropping a HUGE lump of coal in your stocking.  You can look forward to 81 traffic inducing home games, 50+ of which are on weekdays, most of which are at 7pm, putting more cars on your already clogged highways and arterials.  Will it be traffic Armageddon?  No, because we already have that at the 75/285 and 400/285 interchanges.  Traffic on Braves game nights will be straight from the bowels of hell.

The map of 2013 Braves ticket sales provides clarity into why the move north makes sense. This will notably change traffic patterns.

Say you’re heading from North Fulton, South Forsyth or even parts of Gwinnett and you want to take in a night game at the new Cobb stadium.  How are you going to get there?  Today, the current debacle that is 400 south to 285 east will take you at least 45 minutes.  That’s before adding a few thousand more vehicles trying to make that trip.  You can probably bank on 75 minutes plus from Alpharetta to the new stadium.  As an alternative, you might try your luck heading through Roswell and East Cobb by taking surface streets over to Marietta.  Adding another 1,000 or so trips through some of the North Fulton and East Cobb intersections will do wonders for the collective psyche of drivers who live around those areas (that’s us). 

To their credit, the Braves and Cobb County (and I’m sure GDOT now that they’ve been informed of the move) will get to work on solutions to get Braves fans to the new stadium.  They’ve talked about a tram or streetcar from the Cumberland area to the game as well as new ramps from the interstates into the parking area for the stadium.  That will be accommodative and will mitigate some of the problems but it’s a drop in the bucket.  The one thing that is missing is real transit access.  Your only option will be to drive and that’s something that Cobb GOB chariman Joe Dendy is determined to maintain.  After the announcement he was quoted as saying; “It’s absolutely necessary the solution is all about moving cars in and around Cobb and surrounding areas from our north and east where most Braves fans travel from, and not moving people into Cobb by rail from Atlanta.”

There you have it.  The solutions proposed will look at adding more capacity to already choking highways.  If we haven’t learned by now that more lanes induce more driving and solutions solely focused on cars have yet to rid us of congestion, then I’m not sure we will.  But, I never expected Cobb to understand this.  Maybe once the nightmare begins, we will finally wake up to our 1 mode solutions and start making better transportation decisions.  But for now, the baseball mantra in Atlanta is.. 

“Build it and they will (only) come (by car).”

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Stacked Flats Coming to Roswell

This is a cross-post from my monthly column, Community Design Matters, in The Current.

You can call the project whatever you want; apartments, stacked flats, too dense, gentrification, revitalization, progress, catalytic.  But, no matter where you stand, it increasingly looks like we will soon see the first major redevelopment in Roswell’s historic district under the new Groveway code.  Lennar Multifamily is planning on dropping $43 million+ into the parcel of land where the Frazier Street Apartments currently sit and the Roswell City Council allowed Lennar to take a major step forward last month when it approved the site plan by a 5-1 vote.  It should come as no surprise to readers that I am a proponent of this project.  I actually purchased a home in April that quite literally backs up to this project, not in small part due to my strong convictions about the project’s value to the surrounding community.

That said, there have been no shortage of arguments made as to why this is a bad idea.  These tend to center around six main themes; Density, Mix of Uses, Cars, Schools and Displacement.  If you were able to attend the May 13th City Council meeting you would have seen Chris Cassidy, Regional VP, Lennar Multifamily, address these concerns with the council and audience.  Here’s a recap with color. As far as density is concerned, this project will be 32 units per acre (320 units on 10 acres) which is an increase from the roughly 16 units per acre currently.  Given the cost of the property and need for profitability, this is the optimum amount that Lennar believes is suitable.  Additionally, people living in close proximity to amenities is what creates truly walkable places.  

Another big concern was that it did not adhere to the Groveway code because it was not mixed-use.  First, there are many varieties of mixed-use from vertical to horizontal.  Second, not every building or parcel in our historic district needs to be mixed use and the code does not require that.  All mixed-use all the time is a nice vision but realistically, it doesn’t always work.  Putting space for retail on the ground floor doesn’t magically bring a business to fill it. Ideally, these apartments will provide patrons for what should eventually be a vertical mixed use parcel right next-door where the Value Village and Southern Skillet strip mall currently sits.  These apartments will be the spark needed to finally get that parcel redeveloped.  

Probably the single biggest concern centered around the car.  Yes Roswell, we are preoccupied with our cars, but not just our own cars.  We are preoccupied with everyone else’s cars and what they do with them.

The evil twins of Traffic and Parking came up numerous times and were addressed well by Mr. Cassidy.  On parking, Lennar feels that the number of spaces they are requesting (a variance, as they are requesting fewer spaces than our minimum parking reqs. require) is appropriate given the usage in other similar properties.  They have found that they require approximately .9 spaces per room in similar projects.  This means that the 420-445 that they are considering would be appropriate and they will tweak the # of spaces to meet the number they feel is appropriate.  Big concerns were raised by councilman Igleheart as well as others in the audience that this would not be enough and the “what if’s” were flying.  But, you must remember that apartments are rarely 100% leased, people vacation, take business trips, work at different times and some don’t even have cars (some).  The point is that you don’t build the church for Easter Sunday and we shouldn’t build our parking lots with excess capacity.  It’s a waste of space and money.

It’s as simple as this.  Lennar and Mr. Cassidy understand apartment parking needs far more than an ordinary citizen going off their gut feelings.  If Lennar isn’t interested in doing more projects in Roswell, it would be shocking considering they are putting such a sizable investment into the heart of our city.  Gambling on parking requirements and upsetting the city seems like a losing deal for them.  Additionally, we want walkability in this area.  NOTHING kills walkability more than the blank expanses of surface parking lots.  Mr. Cassidy referred several times in his presentation to the Highlands of West Village project in Smyrna as being a good comparison for what they are looking to construct here.  The parking allotment there is roughly the same as what they are looking to do here without any significant issues.
The car dominated another discussion which was about what cars do when they aren’t parked.  Arguments were raised that the traffic counts would be unbearable and that we would grind to a halt in that part of town.  The city’s traffic studies suggest otherwise (these are the same people that were crazy enough to suggest that the round-a-bout would not be a total disaster).  Lennar had the most conservative analysis possible done.  They did not remove the Frazier St Apartments traffic from the count and added the estimated traffic from their project on top of that.  The models showed increased traffic but not significant enough congestion to warrant concern from DOT. 

The concerns raised about the impact to schools would normally apply.  The only problem is that the demographic that Lennar is targeting generally won’t have kids or won’t have them living with them.  Thus, Fulton county’s estimates of 168 to 265 students borders on absurdity.  The true number will be much lower than that and comparable properties say that the number may even be in the single digits but it is more likely between 10 and 20.  That does not account for the displacement of the school age kids that are currently living there which could end up with an overall reduction to Roswell North, Crabapple Middle and Roswell High.

Another concern raised, which I agree with, is that the current conceptual name is not appropriate.  Canton City Walk tries to play on the success of Canton Street and the fact that the target demographic will desire walkability.  However, it just doesn’t sit well with most people who hear it.  That said, the name is conceptual and will be reviewed by Lennar.  I have even heard that they may be open to suggestions.

Finally, there were some folks in the audience who were appropriately concerned with the designs.  The initial concept was exactly that, a concept.  Lennar has worked extensively with our city staff and their team of architects and advisors to put together a project with a design that will reflect some of the history and vernacular of Historic Roswell while also incorporating a new feel.  Mr. Cassidy stated that the designs had “significantly changed” since they were initially released.  Having seen them, I can agree.  The new designs should go before the Historic Preservation Commission for final approval on July 17. 

It is exciting to see a project that increases walkability, brings unique residences and cleans up the heart of our city coming to us in the near future.  if all goes well, we could see construction begin toward the end of this year and we might have some new neighbors sometime next year.  Once that happens, the true power of proximity and walkability will start to be realized in our historic district.

Why is Holcomb Bridge the worst road in Metro Atlanta?

If you are a resident of Roswell, Alpharetta, or even Johns Creek, there is a phrase that you are absolutely petrified to see when driving anywhere in Roswell: Holcomb Bridge Road.

Why is that?  It's because the traffic and congestion on this road is by far the worst in nearly all of North Fulton.  Among the many, many reasons for this congestion (i.e. WAY too many lights...), the worst of them has to be the complete lack of coordination between the stop lights.  We are all forced to drive light-to-light catching every single red light along the way.  The worst part of it has to be when we look ahead down the road and see large sections of the road completely empty because we're all back, stuck at a red light.

When I say "coordination between the stop lights", I am referring to the concept that is, for some reason, foreign to the city planners of Roswell, Alpharetta, or any other town in the Greater Atlanta area (including Atlanta).  The idea is that the lights are timed so that once the first light turns green, the next stop light will turn green 10-15 seconds later, and then next light will turn green 10-15 seconds after that, etc.

Cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, and even Los Angeles (WHAT?!) have coordination of stop lights to help traffic moving more smoothly during peak rush hour times.

Now, I do understand that people will say "Holcomb Bridge is two directions... how do you do that on a 2-direction road?"  The solution is: coordinate in the direction of rush hour traffic.  For Holcolm Bridge, coordination should happen in the direction of 400 in the morning and away from 400 in the afternoon and evening.

Lastly, and this is just perfect, the AJC had an article from March 2011 ("Turning Georgia's Traffic Signals Green") stating that the DOT was beginning an initiative to start coordinating lights throughout Metro-Atlanta and even named Holcomb Bridge Road specifically as one of the major arteries needing repair... Well, needless to say, I think there has been absolutely no action in those 2 years and things are just getting worse with the continual population growth in North Fulton County.

So, until Roswell or Alpharetta, figure out the most basic of road planning concepts (that even LOS ANGELES figured out), I'll continue to avoid Holcomb Bridge Road like the plague...  And I hope, for your sanity, that most of you do as well.

The Pollution We Don't See

This is an enhanced cross-post from my montly column, Community Design Matters, inThe Roswell Current.

They are there for our safety.  To protect us from others and ourselves.  They inform us and guide us.  But, until you sit back and look at all of them in their glory, you don’t realize that they suffocate us, degrade our environment and tell us just how stupid others think we are.  Most of them serve a purpose but many of them are redundant.  Virtually all of them have a colored front, a shiny back and are supported by a cheap steel bar.  They lack any level of charm and are often put in precisely the wrong place. 

I hope this isn't occurring frequently enough to warrant a sign

What I’m talking about are signs.  Just look around the next time you are at an intersection.  You would be hard pressed to find a place that has fewer than 10 signs of some sort visible.  We don’t accept litter, we regulate air and water pollution.  However, when it comes to sign pollution, the polluters know no bounds.  Case in point is the recent courtroom victory of georgia billboard companies versus north fulton cities that don’t want billboards polluting their cities.  Rather than siding with the people and the cities, the court has ruled that North Fulton cities must reimburse the billboard companies $4 million.  Get ready for more billboards!

Here’s a sample of the sign pollution that goes largely unnoticed every day: 

Entrance, Do Not Enter, Wrong Way, Stop, Yield, 4 Way Stop, 3 Way Stop, Yield to Oncoming Traffic, Keep Moving, Slow Traffic Keep Right, Blind Driveway, No Trucks, No Parking, Parking, Compact Cars Only, Handicapped Parking, Fire Lane, Turn Arrows, No Turn Arrows, Speed Limit, Round About Ahead, Stop Ahead, Speed Bump, Speed Hump, Dip, Gas, Lodging, Food, Mile Marker, No Left Turn, No Right on Red, Watch for Pedestrians, MARTA, Kiss-Ride, Airport, Low Flying Planes, Speed Monitored by Detection Devices, Slow Children at Play, Animal Crossing, Thru Traffic, Hospital, School Zone, Walk, Don’t Walk, Neighborhood Watch, Adopt a Highway, Body of Water Notice, Watershed Notice, Bridge May Ice in Winter, Use Headlights When Raining, City Limits, County Line, State Line, Overhead Clearance, Commemorative Road Markers, Keep off Grass, Historical Markers, Memorial Highway, Memorial Bridge, Tourist Interest Signs, Highway #, Billboards (electric and traditional), Subdivision Signs, Street Signs, Shopping Center Signs, Store Signs, Exit

Are half of those are even necessary?  Do we really need to be on the look out for Low Flying Planes and in the know that Speed is Monitored by Detection Devices?  Do we really need 8 Wrong Way signs at one off ramp?  Head on collisions are tragic but most are caused by drunks who would miss a hundred wrong-way signs. 

Are we truly safer with all these signs or is it DEsigns that make us safer?  There is a concept in Europe called a woonerf devised by a radical traffic engineer where all traffic signs and signals are absent.  It looks like chaos but it’s actually much safer than a standard intersection.  Why?  Because drivers are forced to pay attention.  When a driver feels uncomfortable, the driver pays more attention.  When drivers pay more attention, they crash lest often.  Our roads have been designed to make it easy to not pay attention.  Their straight & wide designs forgive us for texting, eating, looking down and generally not focusing on the road.

Do we need more signs or do we need better roads?  The next time your DOT wants to put up another sign, think about the true necessity of that sign and ask if we need a new sign on that road or a redesign of that road.

Above, I mentioned a woonerf which is a signless intersection.  The Strong Towns Blog which I follow regularly recently had a post with a number of video links that illustrate the power of the signless intersection.  This one was my favorite because it illustrades how the same intersection works with and without lights.  There are several more videos that get into more detail and examples that you can check out here.

Now, where could we put in a woonerf and create a shared space in Roswell?  I think there are two spots in particular that would serve as a perfect testing ground..  They are the Norcross St. and of Webb St. intersections on Canton St.  Traffic is slow enough that cars, pedestrians and bicyclists can all interact well with eachother.  I would go further and propose that the speed limit be reduced from 25 mph to 15 mph from Goulding south to Magnolia.

These are the types of ideas we need to be thinking about and implementing.  They are cost effective, decrease traffic and safer when implemented correctly.

image: fanpop.com

Weekly Top 5 - Cars, Conservatives, Alpharetta, Congestion, Innovation

Each week, New Urban Roswell brings you our Top 5 most interesting and thought provoking articles about urbanism and neighborhoods.  We sifted through about 100 articles this week to find the top 5.  We hope you enjoy.

Beware the 18% - New Urbanism Blog

Embedded in this article is a very interesting statistic that goes beyond the headline.  That statistic is that the average annual cost for owning a mid-size car in the US  is $9,519 when you factor in all pertinent costs and assume annual mileage of 15,000.  That’s almost 65 cents a mile!  It’s a statistic that’s just crying out for some common sense. Much of the current debate in Atlanta is about the Transportation Investment Act and the fact that 48% of the money is allocated to roads... this statistic tells me that we might want to consider lowering that.  Assuming that you have a 10 mile commute, your round trip is costing you about $13!!!  WOW!  Bet you didn’t think about that.  We need to start building walkable places where people aren’t forced to use their car and can even consider reducing their car ownership.  The automobile is a drag on our national wealth. 

Smart Growth for Conservatives - Bacon’s Rebellion

This is a highly interesting read if you are at all concerned about he politicization of common sense.  In the preface to this post, Bacon comments that “efficiency is efficiency... cost effectiveness is cost effectiveness.”  The current dichotomy is Sprawl (Conservative) vs Smart Growth (Liberal) and that isn’t going to cut it as reality begins to smack us in the face more and more frequently.  The argument in this post is whether the top-down liberal solution or the bottom-up conservative solution is best.  As a staunch independent, I think a little of both is needed.  An additional excerpt from the preface:

The logical, if somewhat extreme, outcome of the conservative dismissal of Smart Growth is the anti-Agenda 21 movement, which connects non-existing dots between the United Nation’s Agenda 21 sustainability agenda, President Obama’s green policies and efforts in Virginia’s cities and counties to implement Smart Growth. Thus, in this conspiratorial mindset, anything resembling Smart Growth is seen as part of a larger movement to undermine American freedoms and liberties. Frighteningly, this movement has gained momentum in a number of Virginia counties and created a distraction from the real issues.

If you really have some time and are interested, you can listen to a panel that Mr. Bacon was on at CNU 20 here.

Three Simple Ideas for Cities - Strong Towns Blog

This is a great posts that throws some ideas and thoughts out on how some small, experimental ideas could improve the overall development picture of towns and cities.  The three ideas that are thrown out for consideration are building a local building bank, moving to land value taxation rather than building value taxation and encouraging/allowing code free zones where a city can experiment with what an area with no zoning would develop like.  I feel that experimentation of this nature is not only a good idea but necessary to move into the next generation of development in this country.  The systems we have now are dysfunctional at best and toxic at worst.  

Alpharetta City Center Plan Stirs Concerns About Green Space - Live in Alpharetta

All I can really say on the newly revised plans for Alpharetta’s city center are WOW!  The plan as it is would create an incredible mixed-use destination that is quaint, people focused and inherently local.  This plan is about a mile away from Avalon but it is extremely different in the way it will interact with people.  I think once both are done, there will be no question that this project will win the ‘lovability’ contest. Great work Alpharetta!  I’m more than a little bit jealous that Roswell’s neighbor city seems to be a step ahead of us in redeveloping it’s urban core.

Rethinking the Economics of Traffic Congestion - The Atlantic Cities

Is traffic congestion really a drag on economies and productivity?  This article looks at areas with low congestion and compares them to areas of high congestion and asserts that congestion is a byproduct of a healthy economy.  You can’t get around it.  They found that when traffic delays went up, GDP also increased and that the correlation was statistically significant. Here’s an excerpt that helps make sense of it:

How could being stuck in traffic lead people to be more productive? The relationship is almost certainly not causal. Instead, regional GDP and traffic congestion are tied to a common moderating variable - the presence of a vibrant, economically-productive city. And as city economies grow, so too does the demand for travel. People travel for work and meetings, for shopping and recreation. They produce and demand goods and services, which further increases travel demand. And when the streets become congested and driving inconvenient, people move to more accessible areas, rebuild at higher densities, travel shorter distances, and shift travel modes.

Town Planner, Bulb-Outs, Rickshaws and Food Trucks

Historic Gateway Master Plan Contract

It's looking like the city may be awarding a $110k contract to a team led by planning and landscape architecture firm jB+a at Monday's council meeting.  This comes as a surprise and small disappointment to us as two of the three finalists for the contract were Tunnel-Spangler & Walsh (TSW) and Duany, Plater-Zyberk (DPZ).  These two firms are at the forefront of New Urbanist planning.  TSW master planned Glenwood Park, Woodstock Downtown and the modification of the DPZ Vickery Village town center plan.  DPZ is known most notably for their designs of the towns along the beaches of South Walton, Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach.  

Comparing the three firms, it's quite obvious where the experience is.  DPZ has master planned over 200 villages and town centers.  TSW has master planned over 100.  jB+a has a more challenging resume to figure out in the master planning area but they did do work on the Sewanee town center and presented plans that they did for the downtowns of Mooresville, NC and Macon, GA.

When you're in the market for a heart surgeon, who do  you want performing the procedure? A Resident (JB+a), A General Surgeon (TSW) or the Best Heart Surgeon in the World (DPZ)?

I'm sure jB+a and team will do a fine job but I can't help but think we missed an opportunity to get a world class planner into our historic district.  (Click here for the memo)

Bulb Outs on Mimosa

We love this.  The city is planning on taking down a number of no parking signs along Mimosa.  You know how we love those road signs.  While they are at it, they will be installing 8 bulb outs along the street to bring curbs closer to the traffic lanes.  This will improve crossings and aesthetics and help reduce speeds on the road .  The project will also add 7 parking spots along the street bringing the total to 141.  Here's a link to the proposed map.

Rickshaws on Canton

Here's another recent item that we love.  Anything we can do to promote regular, everyday bicycling in the historic district is a good thing.  Having bicycle cabs (pedicabs) will definitely do that.  Continued visibility of bicyclists on the road is a key to improving bicycle safety.  When we see moms and kids regularly riding their bikes in the historic district, we will know that we are a truly bicycle friendly community.  But pedicabs are a great start.  I can't wait to take a ride on one.  I just hope they will come all the way down to the square. (Link to Story on the Roswell Patch)

Food Trucks

The Roswell Neighbor reported last week that the city is looking into how it can accommodate the rapidly growing supply of food trucks in our metro area.  Currently no food trucks are allowed to operate in Roswell however there have been some that have applied for permits.  However, we do have a 'food truck' inside INC which severs some sweet street food.  Personally, I haven't had the opportunity to enjoy any of the food trucks in the metro area (save the King of Pops) and it would be nice to have that opportunity here in Roswell. Check out the Atlanta Street Food Coalition's website to see what trucks could make their way out to Roswell one of these days...

Could We Use a Traffic Garden?

I thought this video was really interesting and wondered if something like the traffic garden in the clip could work here in the US. The Netherlands has done an incredible job reducing the death rates on its roads over the past 50 years and I can't help but think that it's ideas like this that help make a difference.

I also thought it was interesting that the speaker used the term 'traffic exam' instead of driving exam when he was referring to the test his daughter had to take before getting on the road. It's definitely a different way of thinking.

Why I'm a Car Hater...

30,797

I got to thinking about this when I read about two fatal auto crashes today in the AJC.  One was a pedestrian killed when crossing Roswell Rd in Sandy Springs earlier today and another was a crash in Milledgeville where two Georgia College freshmen from Gwinnett were killed.

First, let me tell you that cars are incredibly useful.. I have two.  I’m not getting rid of them.  I’ve owned 6 different cars in my life.  I liked them all and loved some of them.  We need them because we can’t function ‘normally’ without them.  But, the more I think about it, they all suck in ways that you don’t normally consider when you’re driving around.  Here’s why I hate cars:

• Safety - They kill people.. they kill LOTS of people.  Driving a car on a daily basis is the most dangerous activity that most Americans regularly participate in.  Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people aged 5-34 in the US.  Your odds of dying in a car crash in any given year are about 1:6500 (est.).  This equates to roughly a 1:83 lifetime chance of dying in a car crash.  Traffic fatalities vary greatly in a given year and usually range from 30k to 40k.  There were 30,797 in 2009.  Fortunately, US fatality rates have been declining in recent years.  Now, we’re all going to die but traffic fatalities are frustrating because most are preventable in some way.  My Solution: Build places that don’t rely on the car to function.
• Cost - Car related costs account for around 20% of most American families’ expenses.  That’s a lot of money to spend on a depreciating asset.  It does get you around but so do your two feet.  The average car costs about $8,000 per year to own and operate.  Most families own two.  So, let’s just say most families have one nicer car and one older car and conservatively call it $12,000 per year.  Let’s start the counter at the age of 25 and say we own a car through our 75th year.  That’s $600,000 in money that could be significantly reduced by cutting back on car ownership.  That’s not chump change.  Neither is this, the US spent $959.9B on road construction and maintenance in the 12 mos ending July 2011.  That’s almost a Trillion.  Let’s not forget the estimated lifetime medical costs from serious auto injuries.  This totaled roughly $99B in 2009, third behind cancer and heart disease.  That’s just the crashes that occurred in 2009!!!  That a Trillion in 10 years.  These are all budget busters.  My Solution: Build places that don’t rely on the car to function. 
• Health - Aside from safety, they are a health hazard.  Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxides all pose health hazards.  Additionally, car pollutants combine to form ozone which influences asthma, most notably in children.  We also need to consider the amount of time people sit on their rears commuting burning virtually no calories.  It’s no coincidence that as our sprawling development pattern has permeated the countryside, our waistlines have sprawled out in a highly correlated direction.  Finally, let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of serious injuries that are sustained in car crashes.  These are all REAL problems that could be mitigated.  My Solution: Build places that don’t rely on the car to function.
• Sanity - Just watch drivers.  People get crazy when they get behind the wheel.  Observe yourself and you might find that you act differently too.  How do you react when a car suddenly gets in front of you on a road versus when a person suddenly gets in front of you on a sidewalk?  The car is a bubble that creates distance and mutes communication.  Speeds beyond 20mph take humans beyond speeds that we have evolved to function at.  This takes us into an environment that we aren’t as equipped to function in.  We don’t know how to react and we have no real way to communicate and thus we resort to anger or conflict.  We need to stop the insanity.  My Solution: Build places that don’t rely on the car to function.

To dive into these concepts in more depth, check out the book Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.  It should be required reading for everyone on the road.  There are also some good facts on the CDC’s Motor Vehicle Safety page as well.

If we build places that don’t rely on the car to function, we’ll have a lot more good people around for a lot longer.  We need to stand up against widening roads, building unnecessary roads and decreasing connectivity.  Our congestion problems can be solved by getting people out of their cars, not by encouraging the same behavior that causes the congestion.  This will in turn save thousands of lives.

This post is in memory of all my family and friends who have died in car crashes.  

Watch & Learn: Can Removing Traffic Signs Increase Safety?

Readers, watch out! You might think I'm a little crazy here but at least check out the video. I've been having more and more issues with road signs lately. I think it has to do with my belief that our roads are oversigned. You could spend more time reading the signs on the sides of our roads in some places than you actually spend paying attention to the road you are driving on.

No, you might think this is a safety issue but I'm not sure that it is. There have been numerous studies showing that removing signs altogether may actually increase safety due to drivers becoming more aware of their surroundings. Here's a link.

Now check out the video and see a 'shared space' in action.

Now, do I think we could get away with something like this in Roswell? I'm not sure but I think there may be some areas where it could work like the southern end of Canton Street and the new Round About at Norcross St and Grimes Bridge. I'll leave you with this example of over signing.

Traffic Misconceptions

I was reading a local blog recently and came across a tongue in cheek post about traffic in Alpharetta.  The premise was that Alpharetta is doing all these nasty things that will actually make traffic worse.  There were a number of misconceptions in the post and it concerned me that there might be some confusion on these points down here in Roswell as well.  

As a member of the Roswell Historic Gateway Community Advisory Group, I am aware of the challenges of balancing traffic capacity needs with livability and aesthetic needs.  So, I decided to compile a number of common traffic misconceptions together and elaborate on them for the benefit of my readers.  

Many assumptions that would seem to be logical at first glance actually end up being mostly incorrect when put to the test.  One of the biggest is the assumption that density brings traffic.  Residential or commercial density with no where to go and nothing to do creates traffic as everyone has to leave their home by car to do even the most mundane of tasks.  That's just one misconception of many that we will address below.

Making Roads Narrower Creates Congestion - The conventional wisdom is that narrower roads bad for traffic like narrower arteries are bad for your heart. This is moderately true.  First, let's look at a little info on lane widths.  The authority on highway and road designs, the AASHTO Green Book, recommends that local roads be between 9' and 12' in width, collectors be between 10' and 12' and that arterials be between 10' and 12' with 11' being the minimum in rural areas.  

Now, those are some really wide lanes if we decided to go to 12' in all areas.  That would mean that a four laner with no shoulder and no median would be over 48' in width.  That's quite a bit of real estate.  Now, let's say we narrow that down a bit to 10' and think about what it will do to the flow of traffic.  Well, not much according to several studies.  The worst of which shows a 6.66% decrease in flow while the best shows no meaningful change.   

Narrowing lanes also makes the driver more vigilant and in turn causes the driver to drive more slowly which flies in the face of the next myth.

Narrow Lanes Cause More Accidents - Believe it or not, this isn't actually true in all cases.  Studies show that narrowing a lane from 12 feet to 10 feet has no noticeable impact on the number of accidents that occur on the street.  So, the concern of increasing crashes when lanes are narrowed is not actually a concern at all.  However, if you take lane widths down below 10 feet on a non-residential road, you will likely experience an increase in collisions.  

The historic district currently has narrow lanes in many areas and they work just fine for both capacity and safety.  They also work pretty well contextually helping to create a sense of place.  We have character and capacity with relatively narrow lanes.  What we really need to do is kill the reversible lanes (which is a stated objective of the historic gateway project).

Mixing Pedestrians with Cars Creates Congestion - Putting pedestrians ON the road with cars would definitely wreak havok on traffic and local ERs.  The assumption is that making roads pedestrian accessible increases traffic.  Mixing pedestrians with cars doesn't impact traffic either way unless there are other factors at play.  However, if properly designed, a highly walkable environment encourages people to get out of their cars and walk.  There is less of a reason for cars to be present.  Thus, we could make the assumption that there would be fewer drivers.  Generally, if there is high pedestrian traffic and high automobile congestion, it is because the location is a desirable location.  It is not because the pedestrians are there.  Building a road that accommodates pedestrians will not in itself create traffic.  However, if you build a place that people want to be, you might see some traffic.

Roswell already has one area where pedestrians are very active.  That is Canton Street near the Atlanta Street/Alpharetta Hwy intersection.  The traffic there isn't due to the pedestrians, sidewalks, crosswalks or narrow road widths.  The traffic there is due to the demand of the location.  If we wanted to widen the lanes and add more lanes and take away the sidewalks, we'd be losing something very special that many other cities envy.  Build places that people want to be and you're going to get some traffic.

High Density Development Creates Traffic - This one is legitimate under the assumption that you pack people into condos and create a dense SINGLE USE environment.  Single use environments are a sure fire way to create traffic.  Mixed use development can induce traffic as well but it doesn't have to. It really depends on whether the street network is set up to provide multiple routes and whether there are enough destinations within the mixed use area to encourage people to walk significantly more than they would in a less dense environment.  Perimeter Center is a bad example.  Atlantic station is an excellent example.  This study by the the Transportation Research Board concludes that a doubling of residential density coupled with an increase in nearby employment, transit and mixed use can decrease vehicle miles traveled by 25%.  

No one is calling for Atlantic Station in Historic Roswell.  However, working on gridding the street network to provide more connectivity and driving, biking, walking options should be a strong focus of any redevelopment that occurs in the area.

Lowering the Speed Limit Creates Congestion - This one actually is true.. but not as much as you might think.  The reduction from 45 mph to 35 mph is only about 3% of capacity.  To go from 45 to 30, you're going to cut capacity by slightly more than 5%. So, you're really looking at trading capacity for safety.  A collision at 30mph is significantly less damaging (especially to a pedestrian) than one at 45 mph.  I've included a telling chart on pedestrian death by speed.

If we want a safe environment for everyone, we should design the street from the river to the square for 30mph and enforce a 30mph limit on that stretch.  It's 1 mile of road and 30mph isn't going to kill any commute. You go slower than that on 400 sometimes.

So, what are real solutions to traffic?

First, remember that traffic isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Most of the time, it means that you are somewhere that people want to be.  However, Americans collectively spent almost 500,000 years stuck in traffic in 2007.  That is more than double the 14 hours the average person spent in traffic in 1982. This was not because America was narrowing roads, building bike lanes and walking more.  It was actually because we were spreading out, widening roads and trying to run every errand in our car.  Food for thought when thinking about how we want to move forward.  Below are some of the best tools out there for traffic mitigation.  There are too many small tools to list so I'm sticking to the big ones.

Zone for Mixed Use Development - The objective here is to reduce the nubmer of trips that residents, workers and visitors need to make while allowing the flexibility to drive if needed.  Atlantic Station is a phenomenal example of MU development.  A study of AS residents showed that after moving into the neighborhood, residents experienced a remarkable 73.5% reduction in daily vehicle miles traveled.  If you have visited AS, you would notice that there is a quality public realm that encourages walking and pedestrians and cyclists are able to safely cross roads and cars can still freely move though the networked street pattern.  

We need both vertical and horizontal mixed use in the historic district.  This will create the interesting and walkable environment that the vast majority of the residents here are looking for.  When I say vertical, I'm thinking of a maximum of 4 stories with retail or office on the ground floor.

Network your Streets - Connectivity is a key to reducing traffic congestion.  The problem with the suburban land development pattern and the amount of traffic we experience is that in far too many cases, there is only one reasonable way to get from point A to point B.  In an environment where the road is networked, there are many different routes to get to the same destination. 

As previously mentioned, we need a better more connected network

Find Reasons for People to Use Their Cars Less - This could be any number of things not the least of which is $3.60 gas.  Create meaningful neighborhoods. If more neighborhoods had shopping, jobs, parks and entertainment closer to the actual residents, those residents would drive less.  This takes us back to the Atlantic Station example above.   

You'll notice that I don't have transit on this list.  A large misconception about transit is that it should relieve congestion.  It actually has very little to do with congestion.  Rather, it creates modal diversity and offers redundancy and flexibility within the system.  It also allows the underserved 30% of the population that can't or shouldn't drive to function in society without being a drain or a risk.

I hope I've made some sense here and I'll be happy to provide studies that affirm the statement above upon request.  Additionally, if you are ever curious about the hidden causes of traffic, please pick up the book Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.  It should be required reading for new drivers.  His blog is www.howwedrive.com and is very interesting.  

images: HelloAtlanta.com, SafeRoutesInfo.org, CNU