What can the ITE/CNU Guide for Walkable Streets

do for Elgin?

Lucy Gibson, P.E. Smart Mobility, Inc.

The Elgin Pilot

• The Big Picture: How Elgin’s plans fit into the region, and will help shape Chicagoland’s Future.

• How the CNU/ITE Manual supports Elgin’s plans• How Using the Manual differs from

Conventional Practice (Engineering Myth-Busting)

• Challenges in applying to two Locations in Elgin: National Street and Route 20

ELGIN’S PLANS WITHIN THE REGIONThe Elgin Pilot

Chicago Metropolis 2020

Choices for the Region

A different approach is needed to address congestion – The Metropolis Plan

HOW WILL THE MANUAL SUPPORT ELGIN’S PLANS?

The Elgin Pilot

Elgin’s Plans: Implementing the Metropolis Vision

Downtown Elgin Vision

A Vibrant Center City • A community that promotes downtown Elgin as a

welcoming place to live, work, shop, entertain, and visit – the “heart” of the community.

• A community that promotes more attractive, useable downtown plazas and parks; improves the pedestrian character of the streetscape; creates greenways; and improves access to the riverfront.

• A community that promotes increased use of transit services, and walking and biking between the center city and the surrounding community.

Mixed Use Centers

The mixed use service center land use designation provides for . . . residential, institutional, office, service, and retail uses in a compact and pedestrian oriented setting. . . . characterized by vertical, higher density at its core, transitioning to less intensity and predominantly single family residential at its edge.

Where does the ITE/CNU Manual Apply?

HOW THE ITE/CNU MANUAL DIFFERS FROM CONVENTIONAL PRACTICE

The Elgin Pilot

Empirical vs. Theoretical Design

• AASHTO is Theoretical, with design criteria based on physics, behavior of vehicles and drivers.

• New Urbanism is Empirical. Community design principles are developed based on detailed observations of what works well, is proven successful.

• ITE/CNU guidelines are a hybrid.

Multiway Boulevard

America’s Newest Multiway Boulevard

Octavia Boulevard

How is ITE/CNU Manual Different?

• Context Based, for walkable communities – To use these guidelines, you need to clearly define your future context.

Johnson City, Tennessee

Johnson City, Tennessee

Johnson City, Tennessee

Johnson City, Tennessee

Developed by Steve Price in association w/ Dover Kohl & Partners & Glatting Jacksonfor Johnson City Tennessee

Johnson City, Tennessee

E14th Corridor - San Leandro, CA Source: Community, Design + ArchitectureE14th Corridor - San Leandro, CA Source: Community, Design + Architecture

Source: TJPDC, VDoT, City of Charlottesville, & Albemarle Co.CD+A, Meyer, Mohaddes, & Urban Advantage

Excelsior and Grand, 1999

The Suburban Highway Corridor Reconsidered

Excelsior and Grand, 2003

How is ITE/CNU Manual Different?

• Network based – Need to consider future network to create a walkable place.

NEW URBAN TRAFFIC ENGINEERINGThe Elgin Pilot

Rethinking our old ways (or Engineering Myth Busting)

• Arterials are for driving, not for walking (or biking or shopping or placemaking. . . )

• Mobility = Speed • Intersections , and street connectivity, are bad

for traffic

Great Streets are Great Places

Mobility = Capacity

• Providing Mobility has been equated to providing high speed driving on arterials.

• High speeds are:– highly dangerous to pedestrians, – toxic to placemaking, and – most importantly, not needed for maximizing

vehicular throughput, or capacity.

Mobility = Speed

New Way to Define Mobility

• Multimodal: Conditions for mobility for all modes should be considered and balanced

• For Vehicles:– Provide for peak hour capacity to avoid congestion– Keep traffic moving at a speed that does not pose a

threat to pedestrians, nor detract from the area.– Provide a network that increases capacity and

allows for choices of routes.

• For Pedestrians: Traffic Speeds less then 35 mph

Conventional Arterial DesignConventional Arterial Design

The Value of a GridThe Value of a Grid

CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING WALKABLE MAJOR STREETS

The Elgin Pilot

Conventional Network Design

• Concentrate traffic crossing or entering arterials into as few intersections as possible.

• This allows high speed travel between intersections, but the intersections themselves must be very wide.

• High speeds, lots of lanes for pedestrians to cross = Not Walkable.

Route 20 Corridor Study

• Takes a conventional approach to arterial planning: “Predict and Provide”

• Uses suburban or rural design criteria

Route 20 Corridor Study

• Recommendations are not oriented to support walkable development in the Mixed Use Centers.

Conventional Guidelines Impair Network Development

• Elgin Development Standards:– Arterial Streets are to be limited to a maximum

and a minimum of four (4) street intersections with collector streets for each mile of length. Such intersections are to be located a minimum of one thousand (1,000) feet apart.

• CNU/ITE Guidelines– Block Lengths of 300 to 600 feet; pedestrian

crossings every 300 to 600 feet.

General Plan – existing conditions

General Plan – Future Arterials

General Plan – street connectivity grid

General Plan – Future uses and n’hood centers

Improve Arterial Connectivity

• Designate Mixed Use Centers as Urban Areas, which allow smaller blocks, on-street parking, and lower speed limits.

• Adopt the ITE/CNU Walkable Street Guide as official policy (Texas DOT Example).

NATIONAL STREETWESTERN CORRIDOR

The Elgin Pilot