Council hears about pedestrian friendly streets

Nevada Daily Mail

It does not cost anything for a city to establish a complete street strategy that encompasses not only vehicular traffic on streets, but also includes walkers, cyclists and other non- motorized transportation modes, Darwin Hindman, former Columbia mayor and PedNet spokesman, told the Nevada City Council during a special meeting Friday at noon in the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center.

In practice it does not cost a lot extra to make new street construction friendly to non-vehicle traffic, he said.

It might add 20 percent to the cost of the project.

"It's a great principle and practice in all new transportation projects where practical and feasible to encompass walking and other transportation along with motorized transportation, where economically feasible," Hindman told the council members.

That is the key. The projects must be new construction, not just resurfacing a street and it must be economically feasible.

Some of the features Hindman said would be found with a complete street policy include: bike lanes, road shoulders, sidewalks, crosswalks, median, bump outs, landscaping and audible pedestrian signals for disabled.

"There is a lot of demand for this in Columbia," he said.

"Street projects are big budget items. They are long-lasting capital improvements with long lasting impact that ends up being more important than you think," Hindman said.

He said that the potential for arguments when you have a new street project is high.

"The best way out is to have a good policy. These issues will have thought out beforehand," he said.

He told the council that retrofitting existing streets to encompass a complete streets policy is very expensive and seldom practical, unless the project involves adding drainage systems as well as curbs and guttering and paving.

Historically streets have been designed for vehicle traffic which has a tendency not to accommodate other uses.

"So, why pedestrians?" he said.

It contributes to community health, which is related to the work Cerner is doing in Nevada.

It adds to the quality of life of a community.

It gives people a choice in how they use the streets.

It is environmentally friendly.

It has several economic factors. Reducing the vehicle traffic reduces the need for parking.

And it addresses the needs of the one-third of the population that does not have access to cars, he said.

Hindman said that Columbia adopted a complete street policy in 2004 and there are 65 other towns and cities of all sizes in Missouri that have a similar policy.

Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Independence, Grandview, Belton, Herculaneum and Crystal City are some of the towns that have adopted a complete streets policy, he said.

Once these policies are in effect most of the complaints about including these practices in developments end.

The policy in Crystal City may be the best in the country he told the council.

Their policy calls for new street construction to start by looking at the feasibility and cost of doing a pedestrian and bike friendly design, he told the council.

Hindman said he thought it has a 20 percent cap and includes provisions for topographically impossible situations. Things like needing to remove a hilltop to complete the project.

"If you don't put it in at the beginning, you won't do it because of the high cost. If you do it at the first, it only adds a small amount to the project," he said.

"Putting in the policy costs nothing. It only becomes an issue when you begin a new street," he said.