Tag: open spaces

Comments on Parklet Program Northampton

Comments on Parklet Program Northampton

Considerations for a Citywide Parklet Program
October 21, 2016

To: Wayne Feiden, City of Northampton

From: Stacey Beuttell and Adi Nochur, WalkBoston

As the City of Northampton considers developing parklets at various locations, WalkBoston appreciates the opportunity to provide guidance based upon a review of parklet literature, including parklet guides created by several other municipalities (see Appendix A for a full list of resources reviewed). Parklets can advance numerous goals related to walkability, including expanding the amount of open space available in a community, creating new walkable destinations at specific locations, creating new walking connections along and between key corridors and town centers, and calming traffic by narrowing vehicular travel lanes and providing visual cues to people driving. The traffic calming effects of parklets may be somewhat limited, as much of the literature recommends that they be sited on slower streets with prevailing speed limits of 25 miles per hour or less. However, this does not negate the role that parklets can play more broadly in creating a safer and more comfortable pedestrian environment.

With respect to siting parklets at specific locations, there are a number of programmatic, technical and design criteria for planners to consider. These are further detailed in the attached Parklet Site Evaluation Matrix, which WalkBoston developed based upon the literature review mentioned above. This Matrix is intended to help City staff evaluate potential parklet sites based upon their physical characteristics, as well as their potential to help advance broader goals related to walkability.

As Northampton moves forward with its parklet efforts – including several mobile parklet tests scheduled for the coming months – WalkBoston encourages the City to continue to consider issues related to community engagement, funding and resources, design, maintenance, and evaluation. While the City has already identified several potential parklet sites on city-owned land, community stakeholders may be interested in proposing additional sites on public or private property as well. Under either circumstance, the City will need a process for gauging and/or mobilizing public support to advance individual parklet projects. The City will also have to determine – potentially on a case-by-case basis – who will be responsible for designing, constructing, funding and maintaining parklets, and whether the City itself can or should provide design guidelines and resources towards these ends.

Finally, the City should consider how it might evaluate the success of individual parklet locations and its parklet program overall. A 2011 parklet impact study from the San Francisco Great Streets Project provides some insights in this regard. Through a combination of pedestrian counts, stationary activity counts, pedestrian surveys and business surveys, the Great Streets Project found that the number of people stopping to socialize and engage in positive behavior increased significantly at three parklet locations studied. With the exception of the business surveys, the Great Streets Project utilized all these methodologies both before and after the installation of the parklets. WalkBoston recommends that the City of Northampton pursue similar methodologies both pre- and post-parklet installation to gather both quantitative and qualitative information to evaluate its efforts.

Appendix A: Resources Reviewed

CityLab. “These Whimsical Parklets Promote Walkability.” July 4, 2016. http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2016/07/whimsical-parklets-spring-up-in-covington-kentucky/489794/

Livability. “From Parking to Park.” February 19, 2015. http://www.livability.com/topics/community/from-parking-to-park

Los Angeles Parklet Application Manual

Minneapolis Parklet Application Manual

NACTO Urban Street Design Guide – Parklets. http://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/interim-design-strategies/parklets/

Philadelphia Parklet Program Guidelines

PlanetShifter Magazine. “The Invisible Pedestrian.” June 30, 2013. http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2122

Redding, CA “Recommendations to Improve Pedestrian Safety” report

San Francisco Great Streets Project Parklet Impact Study

San Francisco Parklet Manual

Seattle Parklet Handbook

Smart Growth America Parklet Policy Toolkit

University City District (Philadelphia) “The Case for Parklets” report

UCLA “Reclaiming the Right of Way” toolkit for creating and implementing parklets

Burgy Village Center Walk Audit

Burgy Village Center Walk Audit

The Town of Williamsburg has engaged planning, transportation, and healthy community design experts in efforts to assess the vitality and safety of Burgy’s town center. Burgy’s town center is loosely de ned as the Route 9 corridor between Buttonshop Road and South Street. This walk audit is part of the town’s effort to address healthy aging through healthy community design.

Read the full report:
WalkBoston-BurgyVillageWalkAudit-Williamsburg

Downtown Cultural District Walk Assessment Springfield

Downtown Cultural District Walk Assessment Springfield

Springfield Massachusetts is a city of approximately 153,000 people located about 90 miles west of Boston. The third largest city in the Commonwealth, Springfield is the cultural and commercial center of the Pioneer Valley.

This walk assessment occurred in the Metro Center neighborhood of Springfield, which has been called the business, government, and cultural center of the city. Bounded by Route 291 to the north, Union and Howard Streets to the south, Federal Street to the east and the Connecticut River to the west, Metro Center is home to historic residential streets, high-rise apartment and office buildings, and a downtown retail district. The neighborhood contains several cultural institutions, including the Springfield Armory, Symphony Hall, and the Quadrangle, which houses several world-class museums and the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden.

Read the full report here:
WalkBoston-DowntownCulturalDistrictWalkAssessment-Springfield

Inman Square Walk and Bike Assessment

Inman Square Walk and Bike Assessment

Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) and WalkBoston led a walk and bike assessment in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Wednesday, November 5, 2014. The assessment is part of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT) Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Awareness and Enforcement Program, funded by the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), in association with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The MassDOT program is a collaboration among Federal, State, regional, and local agencies, along with advocacy groups, WalkBoston and MassBike, working to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety in identified high – crash areas.

Inman Square is a vibrant residential and retail district between Harvard Square and Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. The Square has several well – known neighborhood restaurants, entertainment and retail destinations. People coming to Inman arrive by bike, foot, bus and car. Unlike Harvard and Kendall Squares, Inman Square does not have a Red Line T Station.

Read the full report here:

WalkBoston-InmanSquareWalkandBikeAssessment-Cambridge

Alewife Brook Parkway Bridge Comment Letter

Alewife Brook Parkway Bridge Comment Letter

October 13, 2009

Secretary Ian Bowles
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs 100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900
Boston, MA 02114
Attn: Anne Canaday

RE: Environmental Notification Form (ENF)
Mystic Valley Parkway Bridge No. 2 over Alewife Brook Somerville, MA
MEPA # 14487

Dear Secretary Bowles:

WalkBoston has reviewed the Environmental Notification Form (ENF) for Mystic Valley Parkway Bridge No. 2 over Alewife Brook in Somerville.

Located on an historic parkway bridge, the project is a reconstruction that will add significant width to the bridge cross-section to widen the bridge sidewalks and better accommodate pedestrians and bicycles, while maintaining access for automobile traffic.

Our understanding of the project is that the DCR plans to retain the curb-to-curb width of the bridge, striping 12’ lanes with 8’4” shoulders that could be converted to bike lanes in the future. An addition of 8 feet to the sidewalks will make both directions 10 feet wide to better accommodate pedestrians and bicycles and connect to the existing and proposed multi-use paths in the adjacent riverbank parks.

While we are very pleased that the sidewalks will be widened, we urge DCR to consider the following possibilities:

  1. With the guidance of DCR, we have learned over time that a parkway is not solely a road,but a park that has a road that passes through it. The Mystic Valley Parkway is a case in point. It is a set of continuous open spaces located within neighborhoods that are densely built. These open spaces are the major parks available to nearby residents. Since roadways are but one element of the parkway, they should not be allowed to determine the character of this remarkable string of urban parks.
  2. It is difficult to imagine traffic moving more rapidly than 30 mph inside a park. That should be the maximum speed. All speed limits in the park and on the parkway roads should be made 30 mph or less to safely accommodate non-motorized traffic.
  3. The parkway and its roads are intended for non-commercial traffic only. We have serious reservations about the need for 12’ lanes for traffic if no trucks are using the bridge. Wide lanes will encourage drivers to move faster through the corridor, to the detriment on non- motorized traffic of all kinds. Since it is not a truck route and will never serve heavy trucks in the future, it seems that narrowing the travel lanes to 11’ or less could be accomplished without inconveniencing traffic. This very simple design feature would produce safety benefits for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles by slowing speeds.
  1. The shoulder of the roadway should be designed for installation of bike lanes, even if not intended immediately. The Mystic River Corridor Parks are destined to become increasingly attractive to bicycle riders for both commuting and recreation. As bike traffic grows, all parts of the Mystic Valley Parkway should be upgraded to accommodate on- road bike lanes that are sufficiently wide for rider safety. The bridge sidewalks should be reserved for pedestrians, in keeping with a long-term goal of separate paths for pedestrians and bicycles through the length of the riverbank parks.
  2. The Mystic Valley Parkway Bridge No. 2 is in line to provide major access to the future Route 16 Green Line station at the Somerville/Medford line. It has been described as one of three key routes people will use to get to the new station. That means that there will be peak hours of all types of traffic on the bridge. It should be designed to accommodate peak hour transit rider traffic on foot and by bicycle.
  3. The nearby rotary at Mystic Valley Parkway and Alewife Brook Parkway is only a few hundred feet from this bridge. This rotary is to be redesigned to bring it up to modern standards in connection with the proposed Green Line extension to Route 16. The rotary is on the walking route to the new Green Line station, a new senior housing facility, Dilboy Stadium and the Mystic River Reservation, and is currently extremely dangerous to cross, as there are NO pedestrian accommodations of any kind. The plans (or at least conceptual changes) for this rotary should be considered when deciding how to reconstruct the bridge so all the elements ultimately work together for the benefit of all the users.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this ENF. We look forward to further development of the project.

Sincerely,

Wendy Landman
Executive Director

Robert Sloane
Senior Planner

Cc:DCR Commissioner Rick Sullivan
DCR Planner Dan Driscoll
MHD Chief Engineer Frank Tramontozzi