“Walkability”

• As he speaks once
  per week around nation, walkability is what people are looking
  for.
• Demographically of
  the 100 million households that will be formed in the next 25 years only 12% of
  families will have children and will look for a big house, a big yard and
  schools. The biggest market will be young people pre-children and baby boomers
  that are looking for a retirement lifestyle.
• New Urbanism: is
  defined by pedestrian culture.
• He works with both
  existing communities such as South Beach in Florida and new communities such as
  Kentlands in Gaithersburg, MD.  In doing
  this work, he looks back in history to see which old regional communities
  closely match current client; Kentlands was modeled after Georgetown in Wash,
  D.C.
• In addition to his
  client work, in his function as Director of Design at the National Endowment for
  the Arts from 2003 through 2007, he oversaw the Mayor’s Institute on City
  Design.  In this effort, every 2 months
  he gathered 8 mayors and 8 design professionals who worked together for 2 ½ days
  to solve urban design problems.  One
  Mayor stated that people wouldn’t remember him for balancing the budget but
  would remember him for adding a park. The mayors wanted to see more people out
  walking. They concluded that a sustainable city is a walkable city. The
  resulting solutions are included in his books.

• “Walkable City”
  deals with how to get people to walk.
• Costs of owning a
  car: 80% is owning the car; 20% is driving the car.  So owning a car means once you own one,
  driving it more, costs less/mile.  But
  the costs of driving are unequally shared by taxes for roads paid by drivers and
  non-drivers alike.
• Back in the 19th century people lived
  adjacent to factories that emitted a tremendous amount of fumes causing health
  problems among the populace.  Some people
  suggested separating the homes from the factories immediately drastically
  improving the life span of the people. These people became known as the first
  planners and were regarded as heroes. This was the start of Euclidean zoning and
  resulted in separation of large areas of land into single uses such as housing,
  retail and office.  Despite all you hear
  about mixed use and smart growth when Jeff goes into a community to plan a new
  development, he finds that there have been many years of single use development
  to deal with.
• There are only 2 tested ways to build
  neighborhoods, traditional and suburban sprawl. 
  Traditional is defined as compact, diverse and walkable, Suburban sprawl
  .is characterized by super sizing and results in large public facilities such as
  schools and parks located beyond walking distance of
  residents.

1.  Reasons
to Walk

2.  Safety:
Real and Perceived

3.  Comfort
When Walking

4. 
Interesting Walk is Imperative.

• Must have a balance
  of uses
• Must have diverse
  mixed uses
• Prefer traditional
  neighborhood model vs. urban sprawl model
• This includes live,
  work and play in same neighborhood.
• Comfortable grid of
  streets helps shorten journeys.
• Mass transit is
  needed for a walkable city or region.
• Walking is much
  healthier than driving.

• Pedestrian must feel safe and not worry about
  getting hit by vehicles. Crime is not as big a threat to safety as
  vehicles.
• Block size is super important; Portland has great
  size @ 200’ long vs. Salt Lake City @ 600’. 
  The longer the block, the wider the street which makes crossings more
  dangerous.  In California 24 different
  cities were categorized by block size. As block size doubles the non-highway
  fatal crashes almost quadruples. Reston Town Center is so good because its block
  size is smaller. This is a walkable model. Just south of Reston Town Center
  (between the W&OD Trail and the Dulles Toll Road) you have large blocks
  making it the driving model.
• Congestion is a problem caused by planners who
  build more lanes in anticipation of more traffic.  With increased capacity, comes more traffic
  as people are then able to live further and further away from jobs which leads
  to sprawl. This is known as induced demand. Free roads exacerbate this problem.
  Reducing lanes reduces the accident rate while often maintaining the same
  vehicle capacity.
• People drive faster on wider streets.  12’ lanes are too wide; 10’ are 30 mph
  lanes.
• Bikes being separated from cars by reducing lanes
  provide dedicated bike lanes.   Proper
  street design allows the same amount of traffic to be accommodated despite
  reduction of lanes. Also known as ‘road diets.”
• A road diet reduces a road from 4 lanes to 3 lanes
  with the center lane used for turns. Before a road diet, the 4 lane road is very
  dangerous because the center lanes, the fast traffic lanes, also become the left
  turn lanes.  When this occurs, center
  lane visibility may be blocked by vehicles in the center lane on the other side
  of the intersection. It is better to skip the center lane and add bike lanes or
  parking. Road diets are generally found to handle the same vehicle capacity as
  the 4-lane version with a greatly reduced accident rate.
• Biking is a huge revolution currently in this
  country.  If bike lanes are built, people
  will use them.  IF bike lanes can be
  separated from vehicle lanes, women and children will increase bike ridership
  even more. Portland dramatically increased the number of bicyclists from just
  the same to 15 times the rest of the country by spending 2 million per year on
  bike lanes
• Parallel parking makes pedestrians feel safer; puts
  a line of steel between pedestrians and traffic.
• Bike lanes located beside curb protected by lane of
  parallel parking provides absolute best safety for all users; walkers, bikers
  and drivers.
• Trees along streets are essential to making
  pedestrians feel safer. Trees along roadways also make drivers slow down making
  them safer. 
• The tighter the corner radius, the safer the street
  will be; a wide radius encourages cars to travel faster.
• Tunnels under intersections also encourage faster
  traffic as well as separate neighborhoods. 
  Bridging sunken highways with wide bridges that provide space for
  buildings as well as traffic (air rights?) helps to link neighborhoods together
  and provide wider walkable ranges.
• All details matter:  This includes even the height of curbs.  Super tall curbs impede
  walking.

• Human requirements
  for feeling comfortable haven’t changed in thousands of
  years.
• The prospect for
  what a person is walking toward must be obvious.
• Refuge from danger
  must be available.
• Walkers want to feel
  contained.  Therefore a ratio of 1:1 of
  vertical to horizontal space is ideal.  A
  ratio of 1:6 is too big.
• Current zoning codes
  are a problem as they are mute as to what is good vs. what exists
  now.

• Walkers want to know
  that other humans are around.
• Walkers do not want
  to be bored.
• Therefore, hide
  parking.  5 levels of parking can be
  hidden by a 3 story building if garage screened properly.
• Also garages with
  ground level retail and other uses provide interest for
  walkers.
• Hiding the surface
  parking in the middle of the block will help to keep the walk more
  interesting.
• Walkers require
  interesting facades. Speck encourages city planners to vary architectural styles
  to do this and eschews blank walls and minimalistic themes.
• Walkers want
  architecture that rewards them as they get closer.

• Reston is way ahead of most other communities
  because it was master planned.
• However some sections are definitely suburban
  (attractive and desirable with curvilinear streets and yards that people want)
  and would never be termed “walkable” in terms of allowing cars to be
  abandoned.
• Pathway system throughout community does promote
  walking and biking.
• Town Center and village centers do provide areas
  that are walkable to some degree.
• Proximity to transit is a problem/opportunity for
  walkability but contains problems of how to segue transit to existing
  development around Metro station areas.
• Town Center is separated from transit by a section
  of non-walkable development south of TC including large blocks, wide streets and
  fast traffic.  In order to correct this,
  redevelopment of this area is necessary into grid of narrower streets and
  smaller buildings/blocks.
• Wiehle is completely unsatisfactory as no
  residential exists close to station areas and pedestrian/biker access to station
  is terrible.  Grid of streets is missing
  and existing streets are too wide/fast. 
  Walkers are not safe.
• Most of Reston won’t change and can’t change. Many
  people will opt for the automotive environment. But there is this opportunity to
  create a walkable environment between stations that should not be
  ignored.

Participants: Greg Trimmer of JBG;
David Whyte, TOD and street design expert, and Heidi Merkel, Fairfax Co. staff
lead for Reston master planning special
study.

• He favors walkable,
  mixed use development that promotes biking
• JBG invests only in
  TOD development  It has invested in property
  in proximity to all three Reston Metro station areas.
• There is a very
  highly educated workforce in Reston that favors mixed use development.  
• In the Reston
  Heights project, JBG has attempted to facilitate easy access to Town Center
  Metro Station, but current VDOT rules have thwarted every solution
  proposed.  Luckily Supervisor Hudgins
  interceded on JBG’s behalf and provided a “slip sheet” which is a special waiver
  to allow plans to proceed without hold-up until VDOT allows solution.  JBG is willing to pay for solution at future
  date.

• There are a few
  pockets around the village centers that may undergo change but most of the area
  will remain unchanged.  
• Streets in Reston
  need to regulate usage.
• Through traffic by
  out-of-area commuters has to be curtailed.
• This can be done be
  re-designing streetscapes.

• Reston is undergoing an evolution in form
  around metro stations.
• The ½ mile radius for increased allowable density
  around the metro stations will not extend south of Sunrise Valley
  Drive.
• Goals around the stations are diversity of housing,
  environmental stewardship, and making sure green natural areas are integrated
  into the area.
• This includes planning parks, plazas and meeting
  spaces.
• VDOT has had an epiphany regarding street design
  and has designated Fairfax County as the prototype area to experiment with new
  street designs.
• Urban Design Standards are very, very specific
  about what is required around each transit station area.
• Zoning will be tool to get it
  done.
• Goal is to “live, work and play” without getting
  into a car.
• Village centers in Reston already have a strong
  walkable connectivity.

Questions
and Answers: 

•  Q.
  With single narrow traffic lanes how do you handle double parked delivery trucks
  that block traffic?

• A. This is
  a management problem primarily.  Parking
  delivery zones need to be established in each block. Also delivery time periods
  may be established.

• Q. Lives
  within 3 blocks of grocery store but does not choose to walk to store in bad
  weather.
  A. Can’t control the weather. Some people may choose to walk in bad
  weather but driving 3 blocks is not likely to cause traffic
  congestion.

• Q. Notice
  that building construction near Reston Parkway comes first. Traffic mitigation
  comes second.  What are plans to change
  this? (audience applause)
  A. Hoping to provide more housing in this area.
  Also, people who take the Metro may stop driving to work.
  A2. Most of the
  traffic is not going to the new building.  Adding a lane will simply move the congestion
  further away.  Also, shouldn’t have to
  subsidize through traffic.

• Q.
  Question on bicycle planning.
  A. There are a lot of different markets for
  bicyclists. In general, they are trying to separate bicycles from pedestrians.
  In the case of Reston Parkway over the Toll Road it is unsafe for bicycles to
  ride through an interchange. The bicycle lanes will be placed off the roadway
  for their safety.

• Q. In
  Europe people walk their dogs in the streets and inside and outside of
  buildings. What provisions are being made for dogs?
  A. There are plans to add
  dog parks in the transit areas. The point was made that there are more American
  households with dogs than with children.

• Q.
  Considering sameness, how do you think this will work with the Design Review
  Board?
  A. Rather than rules, the answer is to have a multitude of
  designers.

• Q. Will
  the zoning code be changed to incorporate form-based development?
  A. Don’t
  plan to do this. There is more concern about usage rather than
  form.

• Q. How do
  you plan to handle traffic trying to reach the 3700 car parking garage for Metro
  (2,300 public, 1,400 for center employees)?
  A. Improving pedestrian and
  bicycling facilities. Hope to get some relief from Reston Station Boulevard.
  Phase 2 will help in 10 years. Roads will not be narrowed near Wiehle station.
  There will be problems that can’t be solved for several
  years.

Ken
Plum

Reston is among the most successful planned
communities in the country. Businesses compete to come here, and there will be
growth with the addition of metro. That leaves us with a challenge. Look at
Arlington and notice that they left traditional family housing intact while
doing a phenomenal job of transit oriented development. How we take advantage of
this opportunity, through good planning, will make change work for us.