MODERN TIMES
Art Hobson
ahobson@uark.edu
NWA Times 2008
Traffic calming
Some
love it, some hate it, but nearly everybody has by now noticed it: Traffic calming has at long last come
to Fayetteville. The speed humps,
roundabouts, "bulb-outs" (protrusions at street corners and
elsewhere), and street narrowings should be seen as part of a broader change
since a noticeably greener mayor and council took charge in 2001.
The
biggest and most welcome change has been more thoughtful city planning focused
on a high quality of life for all citizens. Business interests have certainly not been ignored, but now
there's a healthy balance of economics with broader human concerns. Inspiring expressions of this broader
focus came in 2004 and 2006 with an amazing series of town meetings or
"charettes," with all Fayetteville residents invited and hundreds of
our most active and caring citizens participating in many days of discussions
all over town. Mayor Coody and
City Planner Tim Conklin (who, sadly, is leaving us for a new post in
Springfield, Missouri) brought in the forward-looking "new urbanist"
Dover-Kohl planning team to lead the process.
The
result was two extraordinary planning documents: the Downtown Master Plan and City Plan 2025. These are absolutely central to the
development of our city. Mayoral
and city council candidates need to give us a clear statement of their own take
on these documents. Prospective
city planning commission appointees should demonstrate their understanding of
and agreement with these plans.
Both
documents recognize the automobile as a major challenge. The Downtown Master Plan's leading
principle is "a superbly walkable environment Édesigned for pedestrians
first." Recommendations
include small block sizes, reduced and slower traffic, on-street parking,
sidewalks everywhere, trees next to curbs as traffic calmers, and narrower
streets. City Plan 2025's six
goals include appropriate infill, discouraging sprawl, traditional town form,
and a livable (not car-centric) transportation network.
Progressive
cities worldwide employ traffic calming to achieve such goals. The idea is that streets should help
create and preserve a sense of place, that they should encourage people to
stroll, gaze, meet, play, shop, and even work alongside cars, without being
dominated by them. Traffic calming
began as a grass roots response to automobile disruption in German and Dutch
cities in the 1960s. "Slow
streets" (20 mph) developed throughout Europe in the 1970s. A wide variety of traffic calming
techniques developed since then, and contribute mightily to Europe's high
quality of life. In the U.S., such
places as Berkeley CA, Seattle WA, and Eugene OR began calming their traffic
around 1970.
Traffic
calming has such advantages as less noise, less pollution, more walking, and
more bicycling. Dozens of
international studies document greater safety. For example, the American Journal of Public Health found
that children living near traffic calming devices were 50 percent less likely
to be hit and injured by an automobile in their neighborhood. Traffic calming increases the value of
property due to lower traffic volume, slower speeds, and safer streets. Many housing developments now include
traffic calming in their initial street design because homebuyers find it
attractive.
Stimulated
by the Downtown Master Plan and City Plan 2025, Fayetteville is now re-living
the experiences of Berkeley and other cities. We've learned that transportation is not just about traffic
flow; it's also about quality of life and the vitality of our
neighborhoods. In 2004,
Fayetteville asked its traffic consultant, Bucher, Willis and Ratliff, to
propose a traffic calming policy.
That policy, which you can find at the city's website, urges reduced
neighborhood cut-through traffic, reduced speeds through neighborhoods, more
walking and bicycling, and controlled intersection traffic flow, and describes
specific techniques such as speed tables to achieve these goals.
This
policy is a necessary response to decades of automobile overuse. Because of America's massive
subsidization of driving (all studies show that gasoline's
"externalities," not paid by gasoline taxes, amount to $5 to $16 per
gallon), we have far-flung suburbs and car-oriented shopping characterized by
gigantic impersonal stores, expansive parking lots, and freeway-style
"roads." Because of
Fayetteville's past pattern of approving every proposed residential scheme that
developers could dream up, we are now sprawled far out into what should be countryside,
and transportation into town is crushing the central city.
Suburbanites
are frustrated by the long commutes needed for everything from dropping Johnny
at school to buying milk to getting to work. They are in a hurry to get through all the residential zones
between them and their destination, and if they can't find a freeway they
naturally move through the smaller city streets at excessive speeds, usually in
excessive numbers.
This
process has destroyed downtowns and central neighborhoods all over
America. The resounding conclusion
of Fayetteville's 2004 and 2006 planning charettes was that we don't want this
here. Traffic calming is an
inevitable consequence of this conclusion. I can tell you that the Washington-Willow Neighborhood,
where I live, loves traffic calming.
I see much more of it coming, all over town, in the future.
National
and international developments might help us. The escalating price of gasoline is simply one sign that
America's transportation system has become unsustainable. Expensive gasoline will force
re-consideration of sprawling suburbs, big box stores, and the freeway
lifestyle. Already, people are
moving back into towns, far-flung housing is declining in value, and downtown
real estate is increasing in value.
We can see the beginnings of a humane transportation policy in the city's actions since 2001: Traffic calming, trails, sidewalks, infill, a more restrictive planning process, restrictions on sprawling development and, above all, respect for the Downtown Master Plan and City Plan 2025.