Grandview-Woodlands Community Plan
The Grandview-Woodland Citizens’ Assembly put local residents at the centre of the community planning process. Forty-eight randomly selected local residents and business owners met eleven times over ninemonths to learn, listen and put forward their recommendations concerning the future of the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood. Download their final report here.
BC Provincial Health Services Authority
Healthy Built Environment Toolkit
The phrase “built environment” refers to the human- made or modified physical surroundings in which people live, work and play. These places and spaces include our homes, communities, schools, workplaces, parks/recreations areas, business areas and transportation systems, and vary in size from large-scale urban areas to smaller rural developments. Pdf here.
Todd Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Economic Value of Walkability
This paper describes ways to evaluate the value of walking (the activity) and walkability (the quality of walking conditions, including safety, comfort and convenience). Walking and walkability provide a variety of benefits, including basic mobility, consumer cost savings, cost savings (reduced external costs), efficient land use, community livability, improved fitness and public health, economic development, and support for equity objectives. Current transportation planning practices tend to undervalue walking. More comprehensive analysis techniques, described in this paper, are likely to increase public support for walking and other nonmotorized modes of travel.
JeffSpeckAICP report to
City of Albuquerque, New Mexico:
Downtown Walkability Study
Making downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico
more walkable doesn’t have to cost a bundle
according to consultant Jeff Speck.
Orton Family Foundation
Community Heart and Soul:Guided by What Matters Most
Community Heart & Soul™:
Building a Blueprint for Successful Small Towns.
Main Street, California:
A Guide for Improving Community and Transportation Vitality
(http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/LandArch/mainstreet ) is a newly revised guidebook produced by the by California Department of Transportation which describes how to plan and design highways and arterials that also serve as commercial centers. It explains, “Arriving at a shared vision for main streets requires a commitment to collaborative negotiation and shared responsibility. This document will assist transportation officials, designers, planners and stakeholders in making transportation decisions that are appropriate for the local context and that serve the greater traveling public." — Todd Litman
Final Report November 2005
This plan was prepaed in 2005 for Front Street from Cliff Street to the Gabriola Ferry. Project goals: to increase pedestrian interconnection between the downtown and harbour front, improve the Front Street sense of place, and reduce through traffic movements along the Front Street corridor. None of its recommendations were acted on. PDF available here.
Urban Planning Institute of BC Award for
Excellence in Planning
In 1999, the City of Nanaimo began a revitalization initiative for the downtown area. Numerous initiatives have been completed to date, including plan documents and new zoning designations. To further enhance and improve the quality of site and building design in the downtown core, the City commissioned the creation of this comprehensive Downtown Urban Design Plan and Guidelines. The purpose of this plan is to address the unique challenges posed by downtown site development, ensuring that future development integrates successfully with the existing urban fabric and is thoughtfully considered within the context of the area’s architectural style and character. PDF available here.
NYC Department of City Planning — Active Design: Shaping the Sidewalk Experience
The Department of City Planning has produced the two-part publication Active Design: Shaping the Sidewalk Experience and its supplement, Shaping the Sidewalk Experience: Tools and Resources as a study focused on the critical public space network –sidewalks. The documents present the work not from the perspective of those who drive past sidewalks or of those who construct them, but of those who actually use them. It is the point of view of the pedestrian—the person inhabiting and experiencing the sidewalk—that has been prioritized. Active Design: Shaping the Sidewalk Experience uses the conceptual framework of the “sidewalk room” to grapple with the complexities of the policies, players, and physical form of shaping the pedestrians experience of this space. More including pdf files of the complete guides: Active Design: Shaping the Sidewalk Experience - New York City Department of City Planning
Download: NYC DOT - Street Design Manual
Safety Information Pages —
Pedestrian Master Plans
CATSIP: California Active Transportation Safety Information Pages is an online resource for improving pedestrian and bicycle safety in California.
Pedestrian Master Plans | CATSIP: California Active Transportation Safety Information Pages
Planning, Public Policy and Management
Rethinking Streets
Four faculty members and students from A&AA have collaborated on a book about transforming streets that were originally designed more to accommodate motor vehicles rather than pedestrians and bicyclists. Rethinking Streets: An Evidence-Based Guide to 25 Complete Street Transformations, documents twenty-five case studies from around the country that helped facilitate more walking, biking, and transit use while enhancing commercial activity, with minimal to no negative impact on automobile access. The book was released December 2013. More at: Book simplifies street redesigns | Planning, Public Policy and Management
Transportation Officials —
Urban Street Design Guide
Streets comprise more than 80% of public space in cities, but they often fail to provide their surrounding communities with a space where people can safely walk, bicycle, drive, take transit, and socialize. Cities are leading the movement to redesign and reinvest in our streets as cherished public spaces for people, as well as critical arteries for traffic. The Urban Street Design Guide charts the principles and practices of the nation’s foremost engineers, planners, and designers working in cities today. More at: Urban Street Design Guide | NACTO
Department of Transportation Design Guidelines
The safety and convenience of all users of the transportation system including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, freight, and motor vehicle drivers shall be accommodated and balanced in all types of transportation and development projects and through all phases of a project so that even the most vulnerable – children, elderly, and persons with disabilities – can travel safely within the public right-of-way. PDF available here.