Supporting multiple transportation modes

While trolling the Internet for photos of sidewalk curbouts (I’ll post that story another time), I stumbled upon this image from streetsblog of a street in an unidentified European city.  What I find striking is the total number of transportation modes that can reasonably share space and still keep everyone moving toward their destinations.  I count five:

Pedestrian: The sidewalks have ample width to support 3-4 people walking abreast, or pairs of people passing in opposite directions.

Bicycle: The bike lane on the inside of the parked cars is an interesting design.  I’m not sure if the bike lane is wider than what one would find on the street, but there is plenty of room for the cyclists to avoid getting "doored" by exiting car passengers.

Automobile: On-street parking helps with providing a protective buffer between vehicular and ped traffic.  This design also protects cyclists.  There is also off-street parking noted by the big blue P on the left.

Light Rail: If you look closely in the street you’ll see two sets of rails.  Contrary to what many people believe, automobiles can very safely share right-of-way with rail cars.  San Francisco and Portland are well-known examples in the States.  This design is common in other parts of the world.

Bus: This one isn’t in the photo, but more obviously can run in the same lane as cars and streetcars.  Take a look at Market Street in San Francisco and you’ll see a mix of streetcars, electric buses, cars, taxis, cyclists, and pedestrians.

There are a couple of things missing from this scene.  There is no furniture zone on the sidewalk for plantings, benches, and lighting that encourage a lively street life.  There isn’t really room for it, unfortunately, but there are often trade-offs in street design.  Tree cover is also missing, but this could easily be remedied with periodic planting zones in the on-street parking.  Many public works engineers believe that trees are a hazard, but studies show that plantings of varying heights are effective in calming traffic and contribute to the buffer between car and non-car traffic.

In the United States, we growl about having freedom of choice about how we travel and then ironically hop into our large cars, clog the interstates and arterials, and complain about how poorly the transportation system works.  Many actively fight against sharing asphalt with different types of travelers.  Numerous traffic studies and real-life examples show that providing facility for a range of transportation options increases the overall efficiency of the system.  In some cases, reducing vehicular lanes counterituitively improves the street’s ability to accommodate more cars.

It’s time we rethink how we fund road and highway construction and mix in a bit more thoughtful design along the way. 

Michael Beavers