Small spaces

I was walking from the Cultural Centre busway station to the conference centre recently and was struck by how dreadful the land in front of the South Brisbane station is. The station recently underwent a great revamp but unfortunately they didn't touch this eyesore. It really is a disgustingly ugly entrance statement for the Cultural Precinct. This doesn't really support Brisbane's City Centre Masterplan vision of 'creative activity – spaces that blur the lines between public and private and break down the barriers between institutions, industries and city life'. It could do with a sprucing up to make it an activity space of some sort.

I have posted previously about New York city's approach to creating small places. It is a very cost effective and fast way to make fantastic public places without large capital expenditure. A big advantage is that it is reversible. That way you don't have to be stuck with an eyesore like this if the land owners don't want to spend money or want to keep the land for future uses.
Wouldn't a few potted trees and plants, benches and painted pavements make a great difference here? Any landscape designers want to show what can be done to make this a beautiful people-space with no capital expenditure?

Pedestrian malls

I was tidying up me email archive and stumbled on this old article from 2009 on New York's plans (at that time) to close parts of Broadway to traffic. This was to implement the transport aspects of the plaNYC strategy to enhance the livability and sustainability of living in New York. I have posted on this topic several times but I thought this article was well worth resurrecting because it discussed the question of why many pedestrian malls in the USA failed in the 1970's and 80's giving them a bad name.

Well Times Square now has chairs and tables, yoga classes and impromptu forests in the middle of what used to be a road and it is definitely not in a state of decline - as can be seen on the Times Square web site. As well as the community benefits of this open space, there are other benefits - in April NYC launched a report on how air quality in the square has been massively improved by removing cars.
The annual report on NYC transport trends also shows several positive impacts of these and other initiatives, like huge safety improvements, reduced travel time for deliveries, increasing mode share for buses and massive increases in cycling.

But back to pedestrian malls. What makes pedestrian malls like Queen Street Mall (Australia's biggest grossing retail area) successful but meant the end of many high streets in America and England. I would say there are three keys:

Access - people need to be able to, and want to get there. The bus station at Queen Street is a big generator of pedestrian traffic through the mall, but there is also a lot of parking. It would be interesting to know the mode of access for retail customers in Queen Street mall.

Activity - retail cannot be the only draw-card. Unless people are employed or live and shop in the area there is not much attraction to go there to shop if it is not all that easy to access.

Attraction - this is as much about what is there as it is about what is elsewhere. The extent of retail offering and ease of access of the suburban shopping mall can be a killer for the CBD mall.

It is all a fine balancing act. Brisbane got it right in Queen Street. But can we create the same product at our Principle Activity Centres of Chermside, Indooroopilly and Mt Gravatt? These are built around shopping malls - a type of pedestrian mall. But can the vibrancy within the mall overflow into the surrounding area to create a PAC? And with so many cars accessing parking at the mall, how do you create a pleasant and safe environment for pedestrians around it?

Major World Cities Reduce Speed Limits

Streesblog has an article out today about 20 mile per hour (~32 km/h) speed limit zones in New York City and London. London has installed over 400 of these 20mph zones since 2001 which have contributed to 27 fewer pedestrian deaths and serious injuries and reduced serious traffic injuries by 46 percent. It's quite a compelling read: How London is Saving Lives with 20MPH Zones.

There's even talk of expanding 20mph zones city-wide. Yet in Brisbane we have speed limits twice that all across our network and even through the CBD. The knee-jerk reaction is that it's not economically feasible to slow speeds. What are the costs of slowing traffic? What are the costs of not slowing traffic?

New York City news

I met Gordon Price this week. He is the Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) and is here in Brisbane for a week. Attended a great presentation on the impending demise of motordom (car centric development) and had a look at his great selection of on-line newsletters, Price Tags. They are like study tours from the comfort of your study.

Two caught my attention: Cycling in NYC and Times Square. They give a fantastic overview of what the city is doing to support cycling and are worthwhile distributing because they are engaging and easy to read. The New York article is now out of date but it still is a good read.

(photo: NYCDOT via Streetsblog)
The news is that the Times Square experiment has now been made permanent after a report found that it was a resounding success. According to this article by Cityrealty the Mayor announced on 11 Feb 2010 that Broadway will remain a pedestrian mall through Times Square.

A report found that closing Broadway and reducing roadway capacity reduced taxi travel times through the area by 7% on average. Injuries to motorists and pedestrians are down 63% and 35% respectively. Workers in the area, visitors and businesses love it and theater goers say it improves their experience.

Transportation Alternatives

I have previously mentioned Transportation Alternatives. Here is a great video by their Executive Director, Paul Steely White. I like his conclusion 'If the greatest city in the world (New York) can make its most vulnerable road users safe, every city, I think, will want to follow suite.'
I discovered the link at the fantastic Velo Mondial blog.

Times Square update

Here is an ironic look at the new pedestrianised Times Square. It doesn't tell you much but gives an idea of what it looks like. Notice that the kerbs have not been moved or removed. The road is still there, it is just not for cars anymore.

Transport Alternatives

Transport Alternatives is an advocacy group for 'bicycling, walking and public transit'. They have some great resources to reference. Crashstat 2.0 is an incredible resource that provides a GIS map with data on the number and location of pedestrian and bicycle crashes resulting in injury or death. Not only that, It also gives incredible details from pedestrian and bicycle counts mid-block and at intersections throughout Manhattan. They have a comprehensive selection of cycling resources including information, cycling tips, bicycle advocacy and legal tips.

The Bicycle Blueprint for NYC is a fantastic advocacy resource. I am especially interested in the discussion on bicycle parking at rail and subway stations. The research done by PB in NSW on bicycle parking at stations looks into this in NSW. Cycling has huge potential as a mode of access to rail stations if only there were safe routes to the stations and secure parking. The space savings that could be achieved by providing bicycle parking instead of car parking at park and ride stations could do wonders for promoting transit oriented development.

Times Square

A visit to New York is not complete without a visit to Times Square. Well, that would appear to be what every tourist to the Big Apple thinks. The crowds of people thronging to Times Square was quite amazing to behold, and this was Easter, well before the tourist season even started.
When I visited New York in 1994 I remember Times Square as a massive intersection with some advertising billboards and some rather dodgy looking characters. In 1994 Times Square was at the cusp of a redevelopment. The Times Square Alliance (a not for profit organisation started in 1992 to improve the neighbourhood) was starting the process of cleaning up the area. Stores were boarded up, tourists were few and far between, and traffic was king.
In 2009 it was very different. The redevelopment brought people and raised the tone of the area. The Times Square Alliance has succeeded in creating a very desirable product. They promote local business and economic development, coordinate major events and - most noticeably - provide a 24 hour presence of public safety officers.
Although these men and women ensure criminals are not active, crowd control is probably one of their most important jobs. In 2008 the south-west corner of 7th Ave and 44th Street saw 134,711 people between 8:30 am and midnight on a Wednesday. By 2008 the area was suffering from ped-lock, too many pedestrians competing for too little space. Something had to be done. This article summarises the problems they identified and solutions arrived at.
One of the solutions was the redevelopment of Duffy Square which I saw and was greatly impressed with. All those people need to go somewhere and Duffy Square was a large open area that needed to be used better. Chairs and tables in Duffy Square are great for soaking up the atmosphere (and waiting for your partner to buy Broadway tickets at the TKTS booth).
But what is really impressive is the bank of seating built on top of the TKTS booth. It gives a great view of the lights and creates a sense of place, it also keeps the crowds separated from the cars. This article gives a little bit of the history. The photo is not my own - there were too many people in the way when I was there.
There is not much room for all the pedestrians and some space has been taken from cars by using bollards. The area between the bollards and the kerb was a bit of a no-mans-land. Despite the crowds on the footpath very few people stepped off the kerb. I would be interested to see how it operates in peak season.
On Broadway south of 42nd Street the city has removed a parking lane and wide stopping lane and built a public space similar to the one at the Flatiron building.
The bicycle lane along the kerb looks great and looks far better than being next to traffic just north of 42nd Street.
But I have my doubts as to how usable the cycle lane is. Pedestrians tended to wander along oblivious to the fact that they were walking in a bicycle lane. A preferable solution may have been to put the cycle lane on the inside of the pot plants. Safe from the parked cars' doors but also less likely to run into pedestrians.
What is really incredible is that I saw Times Square just before it was closed to traffic in a major pilot project to improve pedestrian safety and traffic congestion. Broadway from 42nd to 47th streets and from 33rd to 35th streets will be transformed into pedestrian plazas until at least the end of 2009 in the pilot project. Local reaction to the project is mixed. It will be interesting seeing what the results of this brave experiment will be. I predict the people will win. What will be interesting will be to see how cyclists are impacted. This will significantly reduce traffic on broadway through mid-town, but how difficult will it be to navigate through the tourists in the pedestrianised areas? I will be keeping an eye on this one.

Flatiron District

New York has done fantastic work in giving streets back to the people. I visited the Flatiron District to see the pedestrian square that the city made by taking away road space from cars. These before and after shots (courtesy of the NYDOT web site) give an idea of what they did.
What was a complex skewed intersection with the longest crossing in New York, has been transformed into a piazza that just hums with activity on a sunny day.
I took these photos on a recent visit to New York City where I was really impressed by what they are doing to increase public space, greening neighbourhoods and putting pedestrian safety first (their strategy)
The large pot plants create a pleasant environment while protecting people from stray vehicles. The tables, chairs, bins and umbrellas are provided by the city - not an eatery - and they are very busy.
The massive rocks make very attractive traffic bollards and double as benches when all the seats are taken. They also help tourists get an elevated viewpoint of the Flatiron building which is one of New York's major architectural attractions. Previously you had to take your life in your hands to get a good shot of the building.
The cost of the conversion was minimised by leaving the kerbs where they were. The conversion could be done in no time at all by just using a surface treatment similar to that used for the bike lanes. Most people don't even realise that they are sitting in the middle of what used to be a busy road. It feels just like a park.
The conversion of the intersection was used to improve the provision for bicycles by separating them from traffic. The highly visible bicycle lanes are great but I wonder how effective this bicycle lane is when pedestrian traffic picks up. More on that on my next post on the Times Square area.
Passing through the square on a rainy day was interesting. Someone is responsible for securing the chairs and tables at night and on rainy days they stay chained together. I don't know who has the responsibility in this case, but it could be a partnership between the city and local businesses.
You can see more detail on some websites linked to my last post on New York.

New York

I recently visited New York on holiday. Before leaving I did some research on what the city is doing for pedestrians and cyclists and found some excellent resources. The New York City DOT website lists several projects in NYC to give space to pedestrians and cyclists and create livable streets. The Livable Streets initiative has some fantastic resources and their video - A Conversation with Janette Sadik-Kahn - gives fantastic examples of how the Department of Transport have been making the streets of NYC more bicycle and pedestrian friendly.

In the next few blogs I will look at some of the things I saw. For now, here is something I saw on a bus stop in New York.