Encouraging Active Transportation in Tucson By: Loran Shamis Mentor: Arlie Adkins, PhD. Sbe 498 Fall 2015 Table of Contents
Download 9.34 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Connectivity Case Study: Portland, OR
- Connectivity Case Study: Minneapolis, MN
- Connectivity Case Study: Austin, TX
- Unbalanced Transportation System of Tucson
| Figure 11: Google Maps
The yellow stars indicate the intersections most populous with pedestrians and the green diamonds indicate the intersections most utilized by cyclists. It is easy to see that the intersections that are most concentrated with pedestrians and cyclists are the junctions along the low LTS ranked streets. Connectivity Case Study: Portland, ORThe Portland Bureau of Transportation is dedicated to increasing ridership of bicyclists and decreasing drivers among the city. One of the strategies the city has implemented is their guide signage system. At various locations along the city’s vast network of greenways, signs can be found directing cyclists to key destinations. The signs also state the distance to those destinations as well as the average time it will take to arrive. Another connectivity strategy that Portland has applied is the use of sharrow flowers. These are arrows painted at the junctions of greenways directing cyclists to the next bicycle friendly route they can chose to follow. Lastly, one strategy Portland is using is creating smaller block sizes. This helps particularly well with pedestrians. The block sizes in Portland are 200 feet by 200 feet, the smallest in the United States (Urban Planning 101- Block Sizes, 2015). Having these small block sizes allows there to be more connections, equaling more places for pedestrians to cross. The city also utilizes mixed-use development in order to create a more diverse built environment. With higher diversity in the types of development within a neighborhood or a block, pedestrians and cyclists are not required to travel extensive length to reach daily obligations. The combination of small block sizes and mixed-use accommodate traveling by bicycle of by foot.
Minneapolis has provided a couple astounding and impressive investment projects in order to improve connectivity within and around the city. For example, the city contains America’s first bike freeway, Cedar Lake Trail. The freeway runs along an unbroken railway line, allowing cyclists and pedestrians to commute without concern for traffic lights and stop signs. The 9-mile corridor connects the western suburb Hopkins to downtown Minneapolis to the Mississippi river as well as crosses several low stress bike routes within the city. The Cedar Lake Trail helps to provide a port of entry into Minneapolis then provides points of dispersal throughout the city. Cedar Lake Trail is not the only bike freeway; Minneapolis also has the Midtown Greenway which is also exclusively for non-motorized traffic. Between the two facilities, trails, off-road networks, suburbs and St. Paul are all accessible through the means of active transportation. Additionally, the planning entities of Minneapolis recognize that high-speed, multi-lane, arterial roads can create barriers for active commuters. It can seem intimidating to cyclists and pedestrians to cross several lanes of traffic. Therefore, the city has invested into building off-street bike bridges throughout the city; one being the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge. The bike bridge was built in 2007 and is worth about $5 million. Martin Olav Sabo Bridge is built over the Hiawatha Avenue, which is comprised of 7 lanes. Now, the bridge is utilized by an average of 2,500 riders a day. Lastly, Minneapolis has the largest network of pedestrian bridges in the world. The Skyway Pedestrian bridges assist in connecting buildings above street level and are solely utilized by pedestrians. The bridges connect about eighty blocks throughout the city, or about 7 miles of bridges (Great American Infrastructure: Minneapolis, 2012). The main reason these enclosed bridges exist is due to the harsh winters Minneapolis experiences. If these bridges did not exist more people would feel inclined to drive short distances rather than walking a couple blocks. The Skyways also contain maps to help orient and guide the user throughout the network. These pedestrian bridges are great strategies to encourage walking as a mode of transportation when weather conditions are not ideal.
However, Austin strives to make further progress by identifying more gaps in the bicycle network. Therefore, the Austin Bicycle Master Plan outlines the infrastructure in which the city is investing $151 million. The plan consists of 200 miles of new miles of on-street infrastructure as well as 47 miles of off-street infrastructure (2014 Austin Bicycle Master Plan), also known as Urban Trails. The Urban Trails are more expensive than on-street infrastructure; however, they are important connecters in order to reach all ages and abilities. Austin also recognizes that it may not be feasible to install protected bike lanes or urban trails; therefore, the plan prioritizes installing painted bike lane barriers. Unbalanced Transportation System of TucsonThe monetary investment and developmental investment prioritizes vehicular travel in Tucson. Active commuters experience the unbalanced investment mostly through the comparatively poor conditions and insignificant existence of infrastructure. The Pima County Transportation Budget distribution from 2014 to 2015 is depicted in the table below. The categories of engineering and planning are the sectors in charge of planning and designing sidewalks and bike paths. The pie chart below the table depicts the percent distribution that is dedicated to engineering and planning compared to the percent of everything else. 
Furthermore, PAG stated in the most recent 2009 Regional Plan for Bicycles that the $2.1 billion Regional Transportation Plan dedicates “$60 million for Bicycle, Pedestrian and Shared-use Path facilities… [to] be constructed over the 20-year term of the RTA plan (July 2006-June 2025)” (PAG Regional Plan for Bicycling, 2009), which quantifies to just under 3 percent of the Regional Transportation Authority plan’s budget. The 2040 Tucson Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) lists all the roadway projects of Tucson that are planned or committed for implementation for the next 30 years. Within that list of roadway projects, 14 of the 202 projects include funding for multi purpose paths, which quantifies to about 3.4 percent of the total cost of all the 202 planned projects (2040 Tucson Regional Transportation Plan, 2010). Then of the remaining 188 projects, which do not include the multi purpose paths, 41 include plans for sidewalks and bike lanes, amounting to about 13 percent of the total cost of the total 202 projects (2040 Tucson Regional Transportation Plan, 2010). The RTP also outlines the projects for bicycle and pedestrian planned and committed projects. The total amount set aside for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure equates to $536,619 compared to roughly $10 million that is dedicated to roadway projects (2040 Tucson Regional Transportation Plan, 2010). There have also been several instances in the past when funding for pedestrian and bicycle programs have been cut in order to sustain the funding for major roadway projects. The most recent for example was 2014 when more than $14 million was removed from the bicycle and pedestrian budget (Mckisson, 2014). This was due to the economic recession of 2008 causing less than expected revenue from voter approved half-cent sales tax dedicated to the Regional Transportation Plan. It was assured that “named projects” such as Grant Road and Broadway widening projects, would still receive the funding required in order to execute their implementations (Mckisson, 2014). The funding for these “named projects” would come from cutting the budgets dedicated to categorical projects, such as greenways, pathways, bikeways and sidewalks. The majority of the category projects experienced a 17 percent cut in funding (Mckisson, 2014). The RTP also states the number of miles of projected infrastructure for both roadways and for bike and pedestrian infrastructure. The total length of roadway infrastructure amounts to 677.91 miles and the total length of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure amounts to 443.96 miles (Tucson Regional Transportation Plan, 2010). Of the total length of bike and pedestrian infrastructure, 60.3 is dedicated to shared use path construction and multimodal facilities, 153.75 miles are dedicated to bike boulevard improvement and 218.11 miles are dedicated to bike lane and restriping. The present state of the Bike Boulevards also depicts how automobile infrastructure is prioritized over facilities for active commuters. Below are images of intersections of Tucson’s low stress corridors for bikes that are considered to be ideal conditions for active commuters:   Directory: arizona -> bitstream -> 10150 10150 -> Amphitheater High School’s Outdoor Classroom: a study in the Application of Design 10150 -> Scientific and Scholarly Classifications are not “Naïve”: a comment to Begthol (2003) 10150 -> Scope and methodology issues arizona -> Date: February 11-12, 2017 Location: 7301 E. Brown Rd, Mesa, az 85207 School Director: Dr. Wendy Truvillion; 770-364-3643 or 602-764-6016 arizona -> 702 Reform Negative swsdi 2015 Solvency arizona -> From: Public Policy Polling® To: Interested Parties Subject Download 9.34 Mb. Share with your friends:
|