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The Public Realm & Sustainability. Kenneth Bowers, AICP Deputy Planning Director City of Raleigh. The “hoof and foot” city: pre-1900. Walking Horses Inter-city rail Few big cities Small, compact towns Goods movement by water & rail Historic Oakwood Fayetteville Street.
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The Public Realm &Sustainability Kenneth Bowers, AICP Deputy Planning Director City of Raleigh
The “hoof and foot” city: pre-1900 Walking Horses Inter-city rail Few big cities Small, compact towns Goods movement by water & rail Historic Oakwood Fayetteville Street
Mixed modes: 1900 – 1950 Streetcars Automobiles Passenger rail Metropolitan growth Golden age of downtowns and suburbs Boylan Heights Cameron Park Cameron Village Fayetteville Street
Cars, buses and planes: 1950 – present Cars Airlines Motor buses Eisenhower Interstate system Suburbanization of retail and jobs as well as people Atrophy of public transport 85 – 90% of what surrounds us in the Triangle
The amount of development isn’t all that mattersthe conventional development pattern is served well only by car School Stores • each activity is low density • activities are separated from each other • connections between activities are circuitous 0.3 miles 1.1 miles Homes
Daily Vehicle Miles Traveled Per Capita • 8.7 more miles than national norm • 6.4 more miles than peer metros • 4.4 more miles than the average of the 10 most sprawling metros on the Rutgers sprawl index Source: Texas Transportation Institute, “2005 Urban Mobility Study.”
More People Driving More Miles(change between 1990 and 2003) population and VMT are urbanized area; crashes are core counties
Petroleum Consumption by Use 67% for transportation
Tyson’s Corner, VA 1.5 million SF of office at the time of study 55% 32 % 53% of Tyson’s Corner workers make a midday auto trip on an average day Source: Hooper, Kevin G., JHK Associates, "Travel Characteristics at Large Scale Suburban Activity Centers," National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 323, October 1989.
Mid-week Monthly Parking Demand inMunicipal Parking Decks in Downtown Raleigh - 2% Source: McLaurin Parking—all municipal parking decks for March 21, 2007
What if Downtown Raleigh was like Tyson’s Corner? 40,000 downtown workers × 53% making auto trips = 21,200 midday trips/day 40,000 downtown workers × 2% making auto trips = 800 midday trips/day
What if all office workers in the region traveled like Tyson’s Corner versus Downtown Raleigh? ~36 million square feet of leasable office space in the Research Triangle Region ~180,000 office workers occupying this space Tyson’s Corner Model 180,000 workers × 53% taking a midday auto trip = 95,400 vehicle trips per day Downtown Raleigh Model 180,000 workers × 2% taking a midday auto trip = 3,600 vehicle trips per day Difference is nearly 92,000 trips/day, or 23 million trips/year For comparison purposes, the total weekday volume on I-40 at Page Road is 159,000 trips per day.
Southern Village: Travel Behavior in a Neo-traditional Mixed-Use Development • Automobile trip generation rate significantly lower (by1.6 trips per day per household) than a conventional neighborhood • Higher share of alternative modes—on average only 78.4% of the trips were by personal vehicle, compared with 89.9% in the conventional neighborhood; • Fewer vehicle miles traveled—on average 14.7 fewer miles per day, consistent with shorter trips; • Lower external trips—on average 1.8 fewer external trips per day • Higher internal capture—21.4% of total trips produced, compared with 5.3% in the conventional Khattack, et. al. “Travel Behavior in Neo-Traditional Neighborhood Developments: A Case Study in USA,” p.497 in Transportation Research. Part A: Policy and Practice-Vol 39, Issue 6
What if all urban households in the Triangle lived this way? Based on 350,000 urban households in the region: • 5.1 million fewer miles traveled/day (1.9 billion/year) • 560,000 fewer total trips/day • 630,000 trips/day removed from the thoroughfares Based on average fuel economy of 20 MPG: • 94 million fewer gallons of gasoline consumed/year • 920,000 tons/year of carbon dioxide not emitted into the atmosphere Sources: NC State Demographer; U.S. Energy Information Agency (2001); World Resources Institute; U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (2005)
What if the next one million new residents lived this way? ~4,500 round trips to the moon Based on average household size of 2.50: • 5.9 million fewer miles traveled/day (2.1 billion/year) • 640,000 fewer total trips/day • 720,000 trips not added the thoroughfares/day Based on average fuel economy of 25 MPG: • 86 million fewer gallons of gasoline consumed/year • 840,000 tons/year of carbon dioxide not emitted into the atmosphere Sources: U.S. Energy Information Agency (2001); World Resources Institute; U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey
Walkable places with a great public realm are good for you and good for the planet. www.raleighnc.gov/planning