Penn Law Review: Mixed Use Safer Than Mono-Use Commercial

The University of Pennsylvania Law Review published a far-reaching study of Los Angeles by four researchers who found that mixed-use areas have lower crime rates than mono-use commercial areas.  The authors summarize:

First, we conducted a study of the effect of zoning on crime using 205 blocks selected in eight different relatively high crime neighborhoods in Los Angeles that have similar demographic characteristics but different forms of zoned land use. We find that mixed commercial- and residential-zoned areas are associated with lower crime than are commercial-only zoned areas.  Second, we matched neighborhoods undergoing zoning changes between2006 and 2010 with neighborhoods that underwent no zoning changes during this period but had similar preexisting crime trajectories between 1994 and 2005. The primary zoning change in these neighborhoods was to convert parcels to residential uses. We find that neighborhoods in which there was a zoning change experienced a significant decline in crime. Our results suggest that mixing residential-only zoning into commercial blocks may be a promising means of reducing crime. 

The authors give credence to Jane Jacobs' "eyes on the street" theory as a crime deterrent (though they disagree with her with respect to the impact of taverns and question the theory's efficacy when inserting commercial in a residential area), published in 1961's The Death and Life of Great American Cities:

Individuals who act as “eyes on the street” and are proactive in calling the police, or asking questions of potential criminals, may be more prevalent in areas where natural surveillance makes the observation of strangers on the street easier. The process by which individuals living in neighborhoods actively intervene in ways that discourage problem behaviors has been termed “collective efficacy.”

The authors state that "increasing walkability through zoning changes could substantially influence the crime rates on city blocks in Los Angeles."  That makes sense.  Its hard to give meaningful surveillance when in a car speeding at 45 miles per hour.

You can find the full article at THIS LINK.

Kevin Tyjeski

Kevin Tyjeski, adjunct professor with the Rollins College Master of Planning in Civic Urbanism program,  passed away unexpectedly last week.  He left his family and colleagues too young, but left an indelible mark on the City of Orlando as a planner and, more recently, as deputy director of economic development.  Kevin's students will no doubt carry on his legacy.  Rollins College posted the sad news of his passing at this link.  Kevin was preparing a manuscript for a book about the history of Baldwin Park.  I hope that, one day, someone else finishes the manuscript in honor of his lasting contributions to Central Florida.

Here's a LINK to a PowerPoint presentation Kevin gave to the Florida Redevelopment Association Annual Conference in 2011. 

Bike Lanes Along Brick Streets

The City of Orlando installed smooth concrete bike lanes along East Livington Street, providing bicycle access to downtown on a beautiful route.  The concrete lanes are much more pleasant to ride on than brick.  The bike lanes end before narrow intersections, where motor vehicles and bicyclists share the road.  Because it's a low-speed environment, it feels safe.  Good job, Orlando.  

East Livingston Street, Orlando, Florida

Janette Sadik-Khan for Secretary of Transportation

UPDATE 1/30/13--www.Streetfilms.org posted a video about the remarkable transformation of streets in New York City.  Here it is....



The key, as stated in the video, is to establish infrastructure for all ages and abilities.

 Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner, was instrumental in developing much of the impressive biking infrastructure seen in the video above.  A number of  commentators consider her a candidate to succeed Ray LaHood, who yesterday announced his resignation as United States Secretary of Transportation.  She has enormous popularity among cycling advocates, who strongly favor her for Secretary of Transportation over other candidates.  Given criticism of President Obama for the lack of women in his second term cabinet, Sadik-Khan should make the President's short-list.  Her accomplishments in New York are truly extraordinary.

As Sadik-Khan opined last week in Bloomberg's Businessweek, "In this day and age, companies can move anywhere. Creating a city that people want to be in and grow in and start businesses in, that’s what you need to be a success in the 21st century."

In another interview, in the magazine Grist, she said:

"It was an idea that people found counterintuitive, that we would take Broadway out of the system and pedestrianize it, and make traffic work better, make it safer, and make it [good for] business. And in fact, that’s what happened.  By closing Broadway between 42nd and 47th Street, we improved the travel time on 7th Avenue. [There's been a] 63 percent reduction in pedestrian injuries.  On the business side, retail rents in the pedestrian area in Times Square went up 71 percent in the last six months, which is the largest increase in the city’s history. You’re seeing five new flagship stores that just said they were going to relocate there."

She added:

"[Y]ou don’t have to have a big budget to have a big impact. We’ve done a lot of transportation on our streets with low cost treatments. Painting curbs, painting green plazas, planters, repurposed blocks from bridge reconstruction projects. You can do a lot to transform a street without a big capital budget. People are also tired of waiting years and years to see changes."

Sadik-Khan has a proven track-record of cutting through bureaucracy, improving traffic flow, improving pedestrian and bicycle safety, and enhancing economic development.  This is one candidate I'd like to see get the Secretary of Transportation job.  I sincerely hope that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has President Obama's ear, would not attempt to block such a nomination behind the scenes, even though his wife opposed the wonderful Prospect Park protected bike lane.  After all, Senator Schumer himself enjoys using Sadik-Khan's protected bike lane, too.

Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York.  (Photo credit: New York City Department of Transportation)

Before and After Cycle Tracks

As the nation's most dangerous metro area for bicyclists and pedestrians, Central Florida's local governments--and the FDOT--should fully explore and implement, where appropriate, innovative infrastructure improvements.  Grid Chicago posted the following video featuring the City's new Dearborn Avenue Cycle Track, showing "before and after" conditions.  The difference--in the heart of Chicago's loop--speaks for itself....




Absent dedicated traffic signals for bicyclists, cycle tracks can exacerbate unsafe conditions in dense urban areas.  Municipalities have learned from these types of mistakes and are installing separate signals for bicyclists and motor vehicles.  In addition, green paint, where the cycle track crosses an intersection, is intended to make motorists more aware of bicyclists and to reduce motorist encroachment.  In any event, even cyclists who prefer to ride in motorist traffic concede that cycle tracks are generally safe when conflicting motorist movements are absent.

The second video posted by Grid Chicago, aside from extolling the economic benefits of cycling infrastructure, shows the City's dedicated bicycle signals:



I'll look forward to visiting Chicago and trying it out.

UPDATE Jan. 7 -- A consortium of more than a dozen state departments of transportation posted a blog entry about cycling traffic signals at THIS LINK.  

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) has released guidelines for cycle track traffic signals:

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Exercise Reduces Risk of Alzheimers

Click HERE for an interesting news item from NBC linking increased exercise with reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

How to Reform Parking

The Orlando Sentinel published the following op-ed:

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Don't Decimate the LPA

Orange County Mayor Jacobs' Development Streamlining Task Force released its Final Report.  It contains good ideas, including converting the County's outdated zoning code into a hybrid form-based code, allowing online filing of development applications, making traffic capacity reservations available online, appointing a project manager for planned development applications, and relaxing onerous parking requirements. 

It also contains a very bad idea--eliminating the County Land Planning Agency's Comprehensive Plan adoption hearing.  The Land Planning Agency consists of citizen volunteers who make recommendations to the County Commission.

During the three and one-half years that I served, a number of County Commissioners told me how much they rely on the LPA's analysis and recommendations.  Because proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments often change between transmittal and final adoption--and because changes to the Comprehensive Plan warrant careful consideration--eliminating half of the LPA's job would not serve the public interest.

As I told the Orlando Sentinel, "Streamlining should not come at the expense of citizen oversight."  Here's reporter Dave Damron's article on the Task Force recommendations:

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GOP Can Go Urban to Win

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the GOP's intellectual leaders, opined that the sharp disparity between Republican and Democratic support in urban areas was a principal reason why President Obama won a second term.  A suburban strategy worked for the GOP during the Reagan era in the 1980's, but floundered beginning in 1992.  Looking back a quarter century from the end of President Obama's second term in 2016, Democrats will have controlled the White House for 16 years, compared to 8 years for Republicans.  The tide shifted most strongly a half a decade ago, when young people started moving back into urban environments, turning their backs on suburban tract living.  The fact that Democratic support is getting younger and Republican support is getting older is not a welcome trend to those concerned about the GOP's long-term future.   

It's not a matter of "communicating better."  The communications were quite clear.  The GOP Platform embraced the nutty notion of opposing a non-existent United Nations conspiracy with local officials to implement sustainability called "Agenda 21."  The GOP, and Rep. Ryan's own budget, called for severely cutting funding for Amtrak, even though its subsidies are only 15% compared to more than 50% for highway projects.  High speed rail was mostly jettisoned due to opposition from GOP Governors in Ohio, Wisconsin, and here in Florida and by GOP members of Congress, ensuring that our intercity transportation infrastructure will remain far behind Europe and many developing countries.  (Private industry would have operated the Florida system and borne any cost overruns--guaranteed by a surety bond.)  An America where kids can't walk to school is an America that has lost part of its heritage.  Yet Republican members of Congress tried to gut funding for bicycling and pedestrian safety, including the popular Safe Routes to School program, which funds sidewalk construction to protect children. 

If the GOP wants to win national elections, it should adopt pro-urban policies consistent with Republican ideals--lean, efficient government, with responsibilities and funding mechanisms shifted from the Federal to the local level.   Republican Rep. Daniel Webster, one of our most decent local elected officials, realizes that small town values resonate inherently with the GOP, as seen in this political ad, featuring the safe, walkable streets of downtown Winter Garden:

 


As a member of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Webster has an opportunity to take over the mantle of departing Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette and outgoing Republican Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who recognize the reality that communities designed for walking and bicycling are essential elements of efficient and cost-effective transportation networks.  Funding sprawl is expensive and inefficient.  Moreover, the GOP cannot maintain its ascendancy in small towns when highways plow them over, devastating central business districts.  The GOP cannot credibly talk about enabling people to rise out of poverty while, at the same time, cutting transit funding, a vital link for those living under the poverty line to get to work.  Development patterns making it impossible for kids to walk or bike to school safely undermine the conservative value of self-reliance.  The bipartisan Complete Streets movement, dedicated to making our thoroughfares safer, is one that Republicans should more fully embrace as part of a wider urban strategy.   

You can find more thoughtful analysis of the urban political divide HERE, HERE, and HERE.

11/26/12 NOTE: Locally, the Republican Mayors of Orange County, Florida and Winter Park, Florida, both of whom are fiscal conservatives, have publicly supported Complete Streets.   

Winter Park Fire Department Respects Narrow Streets

Phelps Avenue, Winter Park, FL, is narrower than the typical 24 foot or wider roads found in newer suburbia.    Narrower roads slow traffic and are safer for kids, although the curb radius shown in the photo above is somewhat excessive and induces higher speed turns than necessary.    

Fire departments around the country often oppose construction of narrow streets out of concern such streets could delay a life saving response.  Unfortunately, wide streets make vehicular travel faster and more dangerous for kids playing, bicyclists, and other motorists.  I have heard more than one planner lament that fire departments do not purchase smaller and more maneuverable trucks.

Winter Park, Florida has many beautiful, tree canopy-covered narrow streets, many paved with bricks generations ago.  The Winter Park Fire Department recently purchased a new fire truck to better maneuver those narrow streets.   The story below, summarizing a City Commission meeting, appears in the Winter Park-Maitland Observer at this LINK:

  More than a year ago, the department initiated discussions that led to a change in the type of aerial apparatus it would purchase to replace the existing unit. Seeing an opportunity to improve efficiency and mobility, the modern design of this unit will offer the department the following efficiencies and added benefits:
• Increased maneuverability through traffic,
• Quicker access to some of the city’s narrow streets and turns which are more difficult to negotiate,
• Additional 300-cubic-feet of storage space
o The use of a long trailer design where one firefighter sits in the rear allows for the consolidation of existing tools and equipment onto one unit
This new firefighting unit combines the technology of today with the proven maneuverability of tiller-driven trucks. The new tractor-drawn aerial truck represents the return of an apparatus style that is seeing resurgence around the country. Winter Park joins other Florida cities such as Tampa, Jacksonville and Clearwater, which have recently returned these maneuverable units to their fire apparatus fleet.