Sustainable Land Development Today - November/December 2007 - (Page 38) MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT effective organization of the origination and destination points, for example by placing the main public parking structure behind the public square. The public square itself must also be designed as a lively place where people can sit with their coffee or take-out lunch and watch their neighbors carrying shopping bags, walking dogs, and jogging. Well-situated structured parking is also an important part of the convenience factor, reducing or eliminating the hunt for an on-street parking space and keeping the walking distance to a manageable 10 to 12 minutes. However, many people resist using a parking structure because they find many of these structures to be dark and foreboding. It doesn’t have to be so. If the interior is well-lighted and painted white or light beige with colored panels to indicate the parking level, people generally will feel comfortable using it. The alternative, a large surface parking lot, is a re-creation of the suburban shopping mall experience, which is the antithesis of a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use development. Pedestrians and Vehicles Live Together Another key to designing a pedestrian-friendly mixed-use development is the provision of alternate routes for through-traffic. Ideally, the community should be planned in such a way that the main retail streets are not used by residents or visitors to access major destination points or to travel across town by providing parallel roads a block or two away from the main street. This brings us to the question, “Do pedestrians and vehicles mix?” A number of years ago, there was a movement to take cars off the main retail street and create a “pedestrian mall,” in theory, to make pedestrians feel safer and more comfortable. Yet the unintended result can be a dull, uninteresting pedestrian experience. When cars are on the street, pedestrian movement, seating and other amenities are compacted within a 17- to 19foot-wide sidewalk between the storefronts and the curb. That’s four to six feet of space for window-shopping and outdoor dining, eight feet for the main flow of pedestrians, and another five feet for landscaping. This makes the entire streetscape feel like a vibrant, bustling place — creating an environment that feels like an exciting place to be. At the same time, pedestrians must feel that they are separated and safe from moving vehicles. Parallel, onstreet parking is the solution. It not only creates a physical buffer between pedestrians and vehicular traffic, it also tends to cause drivers to slow down, especially if streets are relatively narrow at two, 10-foot traffic lanes and two, seven-foot-wide parallel parking lanes. Moreover, on-street teaser parking contributes to the perception of convenience. In addition, at pedestrian crosswalks, strategies such as a slightly raised road surface with brick, cobblestone or concrete pavers helps to bring traffic to a crawl. Are you ready to take on the North? February 21st - 24th 2008 University of Guelph, Canada ® Sustainable Balancing the needs of people, planet, and profit. TODAY 38 November/December 2007 Sustainable Land Development Today http://www.labash08.com http://www.labash08.com
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