The Public Realm

1
The Public Realm Sustainability

• Kenneth Bowers, AICP
• Deputy Planning Director
• City of Raleigh

2
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
3
Mixed modes 1900 1950
Streetcars Automobiles Passenger
rail Metropolitan growth Golden age of downtowns
and suburbs Boylan Heights Cameron Park Cameron
Village Fayetteville Street
4
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
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
The amount of development isnt 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
9
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.
10
More People Driving More Miles(change between
1990 and 2003)
population and VMT are urbanized area crashes
are core counties
11
So what?
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Petroleum Consumption by Use
67 for transportation
17
Would more walkable places make a difference?
18
Tysons Corner, VA
1.5 million SF of office at the time of study
55
32
53 of Tysons 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.
19
A Walkable Workplace Downtown Raleigh
20
Mid-week Monthly Parking Demand inMunicipal
Parking Decks in Downtown Raleigh
- 2
Source McLaurin Parkingall municipal parking
decks for March 21, 2007
21
What if Downtown Raleigh was like Tysons 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
22
What if all office workers in the region traveled
like Tysons Corner versus Downtown Raleigh?
36 million square feet of leasable office space
in the Research Triangle Region 180,000 office
workers occupying this space
Tysons 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.
23
A Walkable Neighborhood Southern Village
24
Southern Village Travel Behavior in a
Neo-traditional Mixed-Use Development

• Automobile trip generation rate significantly
  lower (by 1.6 trips per day per household) than a
  conventional neighborhood
• Higher share of alternative modeson average only
  78.4 of the trips were by personal vehicle,
  compared with 89.9 in the conventional
  neighborhood
• Fewer vehicle miles traveledon average 14.7
  fewer miles per day, consistent with shorter
  trips
• Lower external tripson average 1.8 fewer
  external trips per day
• Higher internal capture21.4 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
25
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)
26
What if the next one million new residents lived
this way?

• 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
27
Walkable places with a great public realm are
good for you and good for the planet.

• www.raleighnc.gov/planning