A More Sophisticated "Level of Service" Needed

The Florida legislature repealed Florida Statutes § 163.3180(10), which required the Florida Department of Transportation to adopt rules for Levels of Service on highways and thoroughfares maintained by the FDOT.  FDOT is in the process of repealing the regulations that implemented the repealed statute.

In Florida, the concept of Level of Service grades thoroughfares on a scale of "A" though "F," based on standards set by the Transportation Research Board Highway Capacity Manual and the FDOT's Quality/Level of Service Handbook.  Level of Service "A" generally means free-flowing motorist traffic while "F" means gridlock.  The concept seemed like a good idea in 1992, when the Florida adopted the statute.  However, along with other factors, including transportation concurrency, the concept of Levels of Service resulted in ever-widening thoroughfares that have become incredibly expensive to maintain.  In fact, Levels of Service became a measure impossible to attain in many instances, based on available financial resources. Interstate 4 is an "F," while the cost of raising its grade to a "D," much less an "E," as required by the Florida Administrative Code, reaches into the billions. 

Walking and biking have become increasingly unpleasant and hazardous, with hundreds of Floridians (including dozens of children) killed each year.  The wider thoroughfares ironically made driving more stressful and generated increased traffic.  A simple crossing of the roadway became hazardous, if not in a car.

The goal of enabling traffic to pass through an area quickly--think Pine Hills--facilitated economic disinvestement.  Access to properties at corners became more difficult, resulting in gas stations and other corner businesses closing and creating highway slums. 

While Florida remains on a deregulation streak at the State level, I am not aware of any local government with plans to discard the concept of Level of Service.  A more appropriate measure of Level of Service would incorporate all modes of transportation--motorist, walking, and biking--with differing weight to each mode depending on the context of surrounding development.  In a compact urban area--think downtown--walking and biking would have greater weight than on a suburban or rural highway.  The existing model, however, gives no weight whatsoever to walking, biking, or the context of surrounding development. 

As FDOT repeals these outdated regulations, I can only think, "Good riddance."   

A Better Strategy Than Widening Roads

Orange County and FDOT's knee-jerk reaction to traffic congestion is to add lanes.  We know the consequences--wider, faster thoroughfares are more deadly, helping us earn the distinction as the most dangerous metro area for pedestrians and bicyclists in the United States.

Orange County and its municipalities should look to Carmel, Indiana as a model.

Money magazine ranked Carmel, an affluent suburb of Indianapolis, the number 1 small city in America.  An article in the Indianapolis Star reports:

Notice the lack of traffic signals — there are only 38 in a city with about 400 miles of roads. Notice the lack of 4-way stops. Many have been replaced with roundabouts.  .... 
A few years ago, a five-mile trip down Keystone Avenue from 146th to 96th Street took 15-20 minutes and included long stops at several traffic lights — think SUV’s, mini-vans and Toyota’s mixed in with semi’s. It was a mess.  Today, thanks to new roundabout interchanges, there are no lights. And the trip takes about 6 minutes.

Over the past 15 years, Carmel aggressively replaced stop lights with free-flowing roundabouts and roundabout interchanges. The city has 57 roundabouts, more than any city its size in America. And there are 34 more planned in the near future.  .... There has also been aggression in the way the city has attacked traffic congestion, insisting on bike lanes, connecting pedestrian paths and even forcing developers to build roundabouts if they intend to create an intersection that could one day be a problem. 

The result of all this has been an influx of new residents, moving here from all parts of the country, the world....  

 Orange County's resistance to roundabouts represents an old way of thinking.  Windermere is a  wonderful local example of how roundabouts virtually eliminated traffic congestion--despite 20,000 vehicles passing through each day--while keeping the charm of two lane roads.  Carmel, Indiana shows what local governments can and should do on a larger scale.     

Windermere roundabout.  (Photo credit: Max Geller)  Who'd want to sit here if this was a conventional intersection?

As another person put it, roundabouts "vaporize" traffic congestion. 

Opposing Rail is Politically Hazardous

In Central Florida's most interesting Congressional race this primary season, Rep. Sandy Adams' attacked Rep. John Mica for "wasting money on things like SunRail," which she called a "boondoggle" in incessant television advertising.  Last night, the voters rejected Adams' message and re-elected Mica by a wide margin:
  
U.S. House District 7 (Rep. Primary)
147 of 147 precincts reporting
John Mica 61.2% 32,073
Sandra Sandy Adams 38.8% 20,370

Matthew Falconer ran for Orange County Mayor in 2010, stating the race was a "referendum" on SunRail.  Matt came in last place in a four-candidate primary, his anti-SunRail stance winning him just 15% of the vote against three pro-SunRail candidates.

In the spring of 2011, soon after Governor Rick Scott rejected Federal high speed rail funds and a proposed agreement under which the State would have no financial obligation for operating costs, his popularity plummeted to record lows.  Another link HERE.  More than a year later, our Governor remains fighting in recovery mode. 

When Florida Secretary of Transportation Ananth Prasad toured Central Florida communities before approving of SunRail, large pro-rail crowds met him at the Maitland and Orange County meetings I attended. The opposition was vocal but insignificant.  Having learned from his High Speed Rail experience, Governor Scott realized that the political cost of killing SunRail would far exceed the political cost of disappointing his anti-transit Tea Party base.   

Other factors certainly played a role in each instance described above.  However, I-4 is too crowded, and people spend too much time away from their families commuting to and from work or driving across the State.  The cost of building roads far exceeds the cost of building the same capacity in rail, and rail, if done correctly like Amtrak's Acela route, can even capture huge market share and turn a profit.  If I were a political consultant, and my client told me he or she wanted to run against rail in Florida, I would suggest caution.

Physically Fit Kids Perform Better at School

Another study is out, not yet peer reviewed, but confirming other studies that physically fit children generally perform better at school.  Here's a LINK to the story at WebMD. 

Kids Who Walk and Bike to School "Least Likely to be Obsese"

According to a study of 1,700 Vermont teenagers, published in the journal Pediatrics, 29 percent were overweight or obese.  However, "As for walking or biking to school, Drake and his colleagues found those who commuted more than three days per week were least likely to be obese."  In terms of numbers, "Those who walked or biked to school four to five times per week were 33 percent less likely to have weight problems."   (You can find an abstract at this LINK  and a July 16 news report at this LINK). 


This is credible evidence that our prevailing development patterns--subdivisions on highways which make walking and biking to school unsafe and undesirable--are contributing significantly to what the American Academy of Pediatrics terms an "epidemic" of childhood obesity. 

City of Maitland Approves Form-Based Code for Downtown

On May 14, the City of Maitland, Florida approved a form-based code, creating a Downtown Maitland Zoning District for the area straddling U.S. 17-92.  Councilman Phil Bonus brought the motion and received the Council's unanimous approval.  You can see the pertinent ordinances as well as a draft Downtown Development Standards Manual at this LINK.  The Manual should help to improve the area's aesthetics.  The predictability resulting from the new Code should, over time, encourage badly-needed economic redevelopment.  Here's an image from the Manual:

Wildwood Road to Link Palm Parkway to I-Drive

Orange County posted the following video about the groundbreaking of Wildwood Road.  The new highway will link International Drive to the Palm Parkway, giving Dr. Phillips residents another route to the Premium Outlet Mall.

Orange County Update - Wildwood Area Road Network Ground Breaking Ceremony

80% of Republicans Want to Maintain or Increase Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding

80% of Republicans in a recent national poll expressed that pedestrian and bicycle funding should increase or remain at current levels.  Republican support is commensurate with support among the general population.  Here's a LINK to a summary and a LINK to more comprehensive poll results.

Leon Krier: New Urbanism in its Purest Form

Leon Krier at the Congress for the New Urbanism national conference in West Palm Beach.

Leon Krier belongs in the pantheon of heavyweights who gave the New Urbanism its intellectual underpinnings.  The Luxembourg-native, who designed the Prince Charles' Village of Poundbury, gave a brilliant keynote address last weekend in West Palm Beach at the national conference of the Congress for the New Urbanism ("CNU"). 

The CNU is a non-partisan, big-tent organization, whose members include many who espouse urbanism in its most dense, intense form--think Manhattan.  Then there's Leon Krier.  He urged members to advocate development at true human-scale.  In Krier's view, buildings should never exceed three stories.  "Palaces are two stories," he pointed out.  He characterized skyscrapers as "vertical sprawl."  He compared new skyscrapers to when "you lose your teeth and you go to the dentist and he gives you an elephant's tooth." 

He urged architects in the audience to design buildings in scale and in accordance with their typology.  An apartment complex should never take on the architectural characteristics of an oversize cottage.  Nor should buildings overwhelm an adjacent, historic church.

He said it would have taken 160 airplanes to destroy the 10 million square feet of the World Trade Center Twin Towers, if dispersed as three story buildings. 

He pondered, "What will our cities look like in 2,000 years?  In 3,000 years?" He said that, after humans have depleted the earth's oil stock, skyscrapers, which depend on elevators propelled by fossil fuels, are not viable "unless you have a donkey or a slave on top." 

I appreciate urbanism in all its manifestations, including Manhattan.  But I must concede a bias for cities with strict height limits, including Paris and Washington, D.C., and for lower-rise business districts, including the well-done CityPlace, across from the West Palm Beach Convention Center (which Krier called "a step in the right direction"), as well as Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, whose old buildings house a vibrant night-life.

Krier urged a return to classical architecture, which he described as an "almost scientific system for dealing with the environment." "Classicism is about putting the right shapes and the right materials in the right proportions." Classical architecture's antithesis, concrete-built modernism, is "beyond the human scale. It is not truthful. It is not authentic." 

Urbanism doesn't require classical architecture--see, for example, South Beach in Miami.  The New Urban SmartCode does not mandate any particular architectural style.  However, it's no accident we once called New Urbanist communities "neo-traditional," and that their architecture often displays classical or vernacular elements.  Krier's influence on those communities' planners is undeniable.  Krier represents the New Urbanism in its purest form.

FDOT and Planning Council Release Safe Routes to School Video

The Florida Department of Transportation and the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council released a powerful new video called Protect the Journey, advocating "Safe Routes to Schools."  The video is intended for policy makers and concerned parents.  Kudos to Tara McCue at the Planning Council for getting the video produced.  You can view below: