ing into the details of energy certification programs, Jeff assessed that the most energy efficient suburban household (think high-efficiency compact fluorescent lightbulbs, new appliances, Prius, etc.) still consumes more energy than an inefficent urban household. Just living without a car for one week saves more energy than using high efficiency lighting for a year. How are cities are laid out plays an important role in environmental sustainability, as US cities comsume half the energy per capita as suburbs consume, and peer cities outside the US (like Vancouver and London) use even half of the energy of US' efficient cities.
-Block and street size: Austin’s downtown blocks fare well, but, right size your blocks and streets to the pedestrian scale. Skinny streets with ample pedestrian & tree space provide a safer public space; two-lane roads can handle 10,000 cars per day, but, many roads are 4-lanes of fast-moving traffic, count the cars and count the lanes to see if you can find space!
-Create connectivity: Connectivity needs to happen through large developments, especially multifamily; minimum spacing of intersections of constructed streets assists with this.
-Capacity: Increasing capacity of transportation infrastructure isn’t successfully done by adding new lanes; within 4 years of new lane construction lanes have filled and congestion is at its previous level. You need to increase capacity by enabling other transportation options, so be sure that investment in transit is part of the conversation.
-Equity: Communities often want to distribute resources equitably, but, providing minimal improvements to all areas will not make any walkable. Instead, start small and build outward. Some streets-such as those with jails-will never be good, leave these for last so energy can be focused on improving areas that have opportunity. (recommendations continue below)
-Expectations: most unwalkable places have housing and parking over-represented, and things like office, retail, dining, entertainment, recreation and worship need to be added. Since retail and schools often are constructed 15 years after housing, be certain to plan for these uses so future residents can walk to school, work and entertainment.
- One-Way Streets: convert one-way streets to two-way; one-way streets are bad for retail and walkability
-Parking design: enable parking to be shared between uses; parking is one of the wasted land uses that oftentimes is quite valuable. Where parking garages exist, require 30’ setbacks so they can eventually have liner buildings.
-Parking pricing: make changes to your parking pricing and benefits, charging more for where people want to parkland creating parking benefits districts can help to make these areas better
Follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffSpeckAICP
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