Utterly irresponsible technology

I have a simple rule when it comes to what’s OK to do while driving: If you wouldn’t want your surgeon doing it while operating on your brain, don’t do it behind the wheel.

Period.

That’s why I’m appalled at Pioneer’s announcement of a dashboard system that keeps drivers connected to social networks and local searches while they’re driving.

It’s tough enough to keep people from texting while driving. Do we really need a system that gives drivers real-time Facebook and Twitter updates?

More in my blog post on Computerworld.com: Utterly irresponsible technology.

‘Big box’ retailers don’t generate as much property tax revenue as you might think

A ‘big box’ store like Wal-Mart coming to town may look like a local tax revenue windfall. But according to an analysis of property tax revenue per acre in Sarasota county, Fla., such pedestrian-hostile developments “produce barely more than a single family house; maybe $150 to $200 more a year,” Citiwire.net reports. “(Think of all those acres of parking lots.)”

Meanwhile, a high-rise mixed-use project downtown contributed $800,000 in local property tax per acre, compared with $22,000 per acre for high-end retail shopping mecca Southgate Mall (Macy’s, Saks Fifth Ave., etc.)

“Indeed, that three-quarters of an acre of in-town urban-style development is worth more property tax revenue than a combination of the 21-acre WalMart supercenter and the 32-acre Southgate Mall.”

That’s from a presentation by Peter Katz, director of Smart Growth/Urban Planning for Sarasota county. (See charts/stats from the property tax per acre analysis).

There may be less parking acreage in eastern Massachusetts than Florida, but nevertheless, this is one interesting and useful way to view the value of various developments. Yes, there are plenty of other factors to consider (like generating employment, cost of public services, etc.) But it can be too tempting to look at the total value of property tax per development, without considering what benefits other uses might generate on the same amount of property.

5 reasons why this pedestrian trail really works: Ogunquit’s Marginal Way

Along the Marginal Way

Yes, Ogunquit, Maine’s Marginal Way has spectacular views of the ocean along the full 1.25-mile walking path, and that’s certainly a key reason why so many people use it. Not every community is so fortunate to have such breathtaking scenery for a trail. However, there are many other towns with beautiful coastlines, but without the popularity of Ogunquit’s. (One might argue at the height of summer that perhaps it’s too popular, but that’s a discussion for another time.) It’s not only the views that make the Marginal Way such an appealing walking environment.

Here are 5 other reasons it works so well, which can be applied to other trails without gorgeous vistas:

* Appealing destinations at both ends. When you walk the Marginal Way, you’re not only enjoying the views; you also end up someplace, well, worth ending up: walkable Ogunquit town center on one end; walkable Perkins Cove at the other. (And those who  don’t want to make a roundtrip  can hop a trolley bus at either end.) Something to think about when designing railtrails.

* Easy entrance/exit at several points along the trail, not just each end. There are clear, well-marked and attractive ways to join the trail at several points besides the start and finish. So you know you’re not trapped (or force to cut through places you’re not necessarily meant to be) when you start out.

* Not cut off from town. When you think nature trail, you might think of paths that go through woods or other nature areas, far removed from the sights and sounds of a city. However, the Marginal Way works so well for pedestrians of all types and not simply nature hikers, precisely because it’s not cut off from the community. While nature is on one side, the town is very much on the other. And the homes and yards looking out at the trail help give it a feeling of safety. It’s the same reason why having windows of homes or businesses close to a sidewalk in a city center makes for a much more appealing walking environment than a garage door or blank wall.

Bench along the Marginal Way

* Benches along the way. Those benches allow people who may not want to walk the full length at once not to be intimidated by the trail; and having a lot of people relaxing along the way also makes for a nicer environment for those out for a stroll.

* Great upkeep. Trash is picked up, plants are well trimmed, weeds are kept at bay. A well maintained trail also feels safer and more appealing than one with litter and out-of-control plants invading the walking area.

Better streetscapes lead to more walking

Add Scientific American to the list of those saying we need aesthetically pleasing streetscapes to encourage more walking.

Says a recent podcast:

“According to Andrew Furman of Ryerson University in Toronto [http://bit.ly/dr76ot] . . .  in many places in North America it’s just not that nice to walk. But if cities and suburbs put more effort into building better pedestrian routes, he says more people might leave their SUVs at home.”

And as I mentioned and Brett commented on a recent post, European cities and towns make much more of an effort at this — not only with effective transit systems, but with communities designed with walking in mind, not simply driving.

“With its older cities, Europe is more amenable to meandering. Think cobblestone streets and hidden gardens. But North American cities and suburbs are more modern and car-centric, which generally forces pedestrians and cyclists to always take the same, boring path from A to B,” Scientific American agrees.

Attractive pedestrian paths aren’t a frill. They’re vital to get people out of cars and walking from place to place.

We can keep living standards high while cutting energy use

“I know that these days you’re supposed to see the future in China or India, not in the heart of ‘old Europe,’ ” writes Paul Krugman in a column called Stranded in Suburbia.  But “Europeans who have achieved a high standard of living in spite of very high energy prices — gas in Germany costs more than $8 a gallon — have a lot to teach us about how to deal with that world.”

Many Americans found gasoline prices of just half that untenable. But that’s because so many people drive enormous gas-guzzling cars while living in exurbs designed to require you to drive to get pretty much anywhere or do anything. “Any serious reduction in American driving,” Krugman notes correctly, will mean “changing how and where many of us live.”

When I’m able to visit Europe, it’s always both startling and refreshing to be able to spend most of that time getting around just fine without a private car. Communities are designed so you can walk to get groceries or take dependable public transit where you need – or want – to go. Train stations tend to be surrounded by pedestrian-friendly areas, so it’s expected you can take a train from one city to another and then walk to where you need to go.

In Berlin, Krugman visited “a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

“It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.

“And in the face of rising oil prices, which have left many Americans stranded in suburbia — utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas — it’s starting to look as if Berlin had the better idea.”

The irony is that some people moved out to the exurbs in order to find more affordable housing — without factoring in the added costs of a lengthy commute. For those who, say, move beyond Rte. 495 but still work in the Boston area, the annual costs of driving can more than offset lower mortgages.

“When driving costs are added to housing costs, the institute found that, for example, the average household spends more each year in Dracut ($35,643) than in Cambridge ($28,671), and more in Stoughton ($37,513) than in Brookline ($36,846),” the Boston Globe noted in a story about a report by the Urban Land Institute released last month. And that doesn’t include the “cost” of time spent commuting.

Says Krugman: “If we’re heading for a prolonged era of scarce, expensive oil, Americans will face increasingly strong incentives to start living like Europeans — maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.”

Public Transit 2.0

The LivableStreets Alliance is hosting what looks like an interesting presentation on Tuesday, April 6 from 7 to 9 pm: How technology is improving public transit with data.

Find out how the Mass Dept. of Transportation Developers Initiative hosts transportation data that can be used by third-party software developers to build Web sites, mobile apps and more to deliver information to public transit users. That’s at 100 Sidney St. in Central Square, Cambridge, featuring Chris Dempsey, “director of innovation” for the initiative. $5-$10 donation suggested.

Residents, officials urge state to improve Rte. 9 pedestrian environment

The Commonwealth plans to do some sidewalk improvements along Route 9 as part of a Stimulus-funded resurfacing project in Natick and Framingham. However, the plans also call for eliminating some existing grassy strips between blacktop sidewalks and the roadway, instead relying on painted lines to mark walkways, Department of Transportation officials said at a public hearing tonight in Framingham.

Fortunately, several town officials objected to this idea, suggesting instead either a change of material — such as concrete — or even raised sidewalks, to “restore not the privilege but the right of walking on the right of way,” as Planning Board Chairman Carol Spack said. (That whole painted line idea didn’t work very well when it was tried next to BJ’s.)

Several officials including Selectmen Chair Ginger Esty urged the state to work on the Rte. 9 median, making a more visually pleasing separator such as has been done in Shrewsbury. Alas, due to the $12.5 million budget limit, it sounded unlikely there will be any improvements on the median for this project. However State Sen. Karen Spilka said that separately, the Metropolitan Area Planning Councilis working on a longer term Route 9 corridor study that will hopefully deal with issues such as this. “That is taking place now in a much more thorough way” than the resurfacing project, which is in design now with hopes to advertise for bids next month and start construction in April.

The project includes plans to fill in some gaps where there are no sidewalks at all, although Sue Bernstein’s query about adding sidewalks to the south side of Rte. 9 across from the reservoir near several apartment complexes, allowing people to walk to Temple Street, received a negative response (it’s not included and there are no plans to do so). It’s still unclear whether there will be a sidewalk in front of the State Police barracks, as apparently there are some security concerns.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much of tonight’s comment time was spent talking about pedestrian needs — adequate and safe sidewalks and crossing areas. One resident of a condo complex along Rte. 9 who came primarily to find out about noise issues during the roadwork, also complained how difficult it was to walk on Rte. 9. In fact, she said one night she tried to walk and ended up calling a taxi because it was so scary. Walking right next to zooming traffic doesn’t feel good. Which is why removing grassy barriers is absolutely the wrong way to go.

I added to that plea for better sidewalks, building on those comments to zero in on one of my favorite themes: Sidewalks need to be aesthetically pleasing, and streetscapes need to be walker-friendly, if people are going to use them. Simply installing concrete (or even worse, painting lines on asphalt) will not get people out on foot.

William Hanson, chair of the Framingham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, outlined several steps that could make Rte. 9 safer for cyclists, including striping a bicycle lane near traffic on ramps to give motorists a heads up that there may be bicycles on the road. He also asked state transportation officials to make sure they maintain pedestrian access during construction and ensure “the sidewalks is not a free staging area for materials.”

I also submitted written testimony to the Mass. Dept. of Transportation. If you’d like to, you can send it to Frank A. Tramontozzi, P.E., Chief Engineer, MassDOT – Highway Division, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA  02116-3973 and reference Project File No. 604991.

Aesthetics, sidewalks matter: My testimony to the state Dept. of Transportation

I delivered this written testimony to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation at a public hearing tonight on a federally funded Route 9 road resurfacing project:

Lessen traffic congestion, improve aesthetics, create a more successful retail corridor and make for happier residents. The Route 9 corridor project can achieve all this at once by keeping one goal in mind: Design for “park once, walk to multiple places.”

People who come to the Framingham/Natick retail corridor should be encouraged by the environment to leave their vehicles in one place and then go to several destinations by foot.

It dumps unnecessary traffic in an already congested area, when people feel they must get in their cars to travel half a mile or less. But that’s the case now along Route 9. Shoppers feel uneasy or unsafe trying to cross Rte. 9 on foot – or even walk on one side. There are ugly, unappealing sidewalks that are constantly broken by huge floods of traffic spilling onto Rte. 9. And extremely inadequate pedestrian crossings.

I urge you to include in this project:

• Adequate crossings that are more than lines painted on a road. We need permanent physical markers such as a raised or brick crossing — not only for crossing Rte. 9 but also the roads that intersect it.
• Traffic signal timings that don’t make pedestrians sprint across the street.
• If possible, an attractive separator between east and westbound traffic that would allow pedestrians a safe place to pause.
• Aesthetically pleasing sidewalks. The mere existence of sidewalks is not enough. If they are unpleasant, they will not be used, even if it is theoretically “possible” to walk on them.

Research has shown that most walkers need an environment with a feeling of “architectural enclosure”  making people feel “held within a space.” As the book Suburban Nation demonstrates, without that feeling of enclosure, streets don’t attract pedestrian life. City Hall Plaza in Boston is a prime example.

I know this project can’t move buildings closer to the sidewalk to compensate for a wide traffic channel. But trees and other landscaping can help separate the sidewalk from the major traffic artery nearby and encourage walking, by creating a more compelling space. This kind of landscape architecture is not a frill that can be cut to save money. It is critical if the corridor is ever to evolve from inefficient sprawl to encouraging a reasonable amount of foot traffic for trips under a mile.

For a model, I urge you to look at the busy Beacon Street corridor in Brookline, which has a vibrant pedestrian life in addition to a heavy flow of vehicle traffic. It’s no accident that there is also physical separation between the sidewalk and the traffic, in some cases by brick design and in many cases by on-street parking.

Closer locally, an aesthetically pleasing pedestrian walkway along the side of the new Lowe’s on Rte. 30 has encouraged a few more people to be out on foot. Much to my surprise, on the big Black Friday shopping day last month, I was not the only person walking from Lowe’s across Rte. 30 to Kohl’s and Shoppers World — I saw a number of people out doing the same, even though it was raining. You’ll see many more people trying to walk from place to place along Route 9 if there are sidewalks that provide a more visually compelling streetscape. That means more than a strip of cement inches away from 8 or 10 lanes of traffic whizzing by.

As the Department of Transportation’s own Web site says: “Walking is key to a successful multimodal transportation system, contributes to community quality of life, and enhances personal wellbeing.” That’s true not only for Brookline, Cambridge and Boston but for Framingham and Natick as well.

I urge the state to design Route 9 through the Framingham/Natick retail corridor to encourage – not just enable, but promote — walking between nearby destinations.

Thank you.

Also see my write-up of tonight’s public hearing.