There are a number of reasons to create safe, walkable streets. The first is simply to enhance safety for those currently walking. For the Longwood Community this need has been tragically accentuated first by the death of an eight year old who was killed while attempting to cross Middle Country Road. Then approximately a week later a second individual was killed while attempting to cross Middle Country Road this time in Selden. Finally, a 10th grader was killed while attempting to cross CR 83. Every year in the United States about 7000 pedestrians die and 110,000 more are badly injured in traffic accidents. Most of these deaths and injuries occur among young children, the elderly and young adults. (U.S. DOT, National Bicycling & Walking Study) Making streets safe, for our children, our young people, and the elderly is certainly reason enough to create walkable streets.
However there are other compelling reasons to make streets walkable. Think of communities in which walking is pleasurable; Huntington, Port Jefferson, Bellport, parts of Smithtown, Stony Brook, Greenport, Sag Harbor, South Hampton, and than think of Rt. 25 in Selden and Centereach, in fact think of Rt. 25 in Middle Island A communitys quality and vitality is dependent upon its walkability Walkable streets encourage people to visit many different kinds of shops, and thus promote small scale, locally owned businesses which keep tax dollars within communities. Walkable streets create a vital and alive street scene.
Additionally planners have long been aware that pedestrians, by their mere presence, make streets safer. Jane Jacobs, in her The Death and Life of Great American Cities advocates streets which are alive, and diverse and which provide for “eyes on the street.” Such streets reduce crime, and prevent costly vandalism.
Walkable streets not only increase safety but also enhance communities by allowing people to socialize. Our streets, particularly our main streets, serve as our primary public realm. If they do not encourage interaction, and communication our communities wither. As James Kunstler points out in Home From Nowhere, the word community shares the same root as to communicate. We need to create communities which allow us to communicate, streets which encourage us to build connections. Such connections are after all the essence of communities. Encouraging walking also obviously helps us to achieve important environmental goals such as promoting clean air, and clean water. Finally, walking is healthy!
What makes a community walkable? To create walkable streets the issue of safety must be combined with the issues of access, and comfort. Creating safe sidewalks which are underutilized is counter productive. Thus, if we truly want to create walkable streets we must focus on safety, access, and comfort.
Safe streets must have a system of continuous sidewalks, not ones which start and stop randomly as they do along Middle Country Road. This piecework of start and stop sidewalks creates extremely hazardous conditions for the pedestrian. Safety is also enhanced by the inclusion of crosswalks in street design both at intersections and mid-block. Many cross walks are currently painted with a type of textured paint which drivers can feel as well as see. Other crosswalks are perpendicular in design, and include pedestrian refuge islands.
Safe streets also include pedestrian activated signals, street trees, access for people with disabilities, and appropriate lighting. There are additional planning devices that can be called upon depending on the traffic volume of the roadway. Such devices include medians, flares, or bulbouts which reduce crossing distance, and serve to slow traffic down, and where necessary grade separated pedestrian walkways.
Our second issue of access is enhanced by simply connecting important origins, and destinations. People must be able to easily get from their homes to important destinations without getting into their cars. Thus, every community should identify typical school walking routes, and then specify those roads which are in need of sidewalk enhancement. Routes to commercial areas should likewise be identified, along with routes to parks and other recreational centers. Missing sidewalk segments along major roadways should be identified and mapped. Providing convenient, direct routes to important destinations is the key to building a walkable community. Access is further enhanced by land use patterns which are complementary and diverse. These land use patterns are the antithesis of our current patterns of strip development, and segregated use. Finally, a main street which mixes forms of transportation will provide choices, and thus increase its walkability.
An extremely important ingredient to the building of comfortable streets are street trees. Street trees serve as a barrier between traffic and the pedestrian and thus provide the pedestrian with a sense of protection. Further trees provide thermal comfort. Compare walking across a hot parking lot to walking down a tree lined street. The pedestrian likes to feel protected from moving vehicles. Besides street trees some areas have used on street parking, and bike lanes as additional buffers.
Creating a walkable environment is good for communities. But as is apparent walkable streets are not created without pressure from community groups. As community organizations we need to place pressure on the DOT, DPW, and the Town Highway Department to plan and build multi-functional streets which will enhance our communities.
Who's Who? For information about this author and our consultant team click Here
