Identifying How to Make Our Streets Great Identifying How to Make Our Streets Great By Zaki Mustafa, P.E. and Michelle Birdsall

Transportation choices and accessibility influence where people decide to live,

work, and play, and more than ever communities are looking to transportation

professionals to create vibrant, livable cities, towns, and suburban areas that offer

a variety of modes that go beyond automobile travel. Complete Streets, Context

Sensitive Solutions, New Urbanism, and Smart Growth are but a few of the terms that reflect

and accompany initiatives to develop people-centric, community-focused public spaces that

accommodate walking, bicycling, and transit in addition to motor vehicle use.

Identifying How to Make Our Streets Great

The Great Streets

Movement

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Communities are looking at streets as more than a means of getting from point A to point B; streets are being viewed as public spaces for social interaction and recreation. The way our streets are designed, built, and maintained play a central role in developing communities with unique identities, thriving businesses, and vibrant public spaces for people to gather. Great Streets programs are one type of initiative helping to define the desired characteris-tics and components of streets that are being sought for implemen-tation across the United States.

From Main Streets to Great StreetsThere are a variety of Great Streets programs and initiatives that have been established across the United States. The Great Streets concept as it is known today was influenced by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Project, a national movement that started in 1977 to assist communities in revitalizing downtown and neighborhood business districts by leveraging local assets such as historic, cultural, and architectural resources, as well as local enterprises and community pride.

The initial success of the Main Street Project led to the 1980 launch of the National Main Street Center, which leads a network across the United States of more than 2,000 programs using the

Main Street approach to rebuild the places and enterprises that create sustainable, vibrant communities.1

In 1983, Boston, MA, USA Councilor Thomas M. Menino brought the Main Street Project to Boston’s Roslindale neighbor-hood. Using the National Trust for Historic Preservation Main Street model, Roslindale merchants, owners, city officials, and residents built an organization and work plan to revitalize its streets and neighborhood. According to the City of Boston, by its third year the volunteer-driven organization saw results with 73 facade changes, 43 commercial building renovations, 29 business gains, and 132 net new jobs, totaling in an investment of more than $5 million. In 1995, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino challenged the National Trust for Historic Preservation to expand its National Main Street model to the rest of Boston. The result was Boston Main Streets, the first urban, multi-district Main Street program in the United States. Boston Main Streets was the first intensive urban use of the Main Street model for commercial district revitalization in the United States.2

From Boston’s Main Street program, other programs have grown across the United States using the term Great Streets in addition to the term Main Street. In 2006, the East-West Gateway Council of Governments launched the St. Louis, MO, USA Great Streets Initiative to expand the way communities in St. Louis think about their streets. According to St. Louis Great Streets, “rather than viewing a roadway project as solely a way to move more cars and trucks faster, the goal of the St. Louis Great Streets Initiative is to trigger economic and social benefits by centering communities around interesting, lively, and attractive streets that serve all modes of transportation.”3 The first phase of the St. Louis Great Streets Initiative led to a Great Streets Symposium in 2006, which brought together planners, engineers, city managers, and elected officials with local and national experts to discuss the many benefits of Great Streets.

In 2007, the American Planning Association (APA) launched its Great Places in America Program, which recognizes places in the categories of Great Streets, Great Neighborhoods, and Great Public Spaces for exemplary character, quality, and planning. According to APA, America’s great streets are defined by many criteria, including architectural features, accessibility, functionality, and community involvement. As part of the APA Great Places in America Program, the association annually selects ten locations in each category that “represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, culture and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow.”4

Defining Great StreetsIn order to evaluate a Great Street for its Great Places in America Program, APA first defines a street as “comprising the entire three-dimensional visual corridor, including the public realm

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The American Planning Association designated West Beverley Street in Staunton, VA, USA a Great Street in 2013. Beverley Street draws visitors from all over the country to its museums, restaurants, shops, and theaters in a setting of restored mid-19th and early 20th century Victorian architecture.

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and how it relates to the adjacent land uses.” Streets of different types are eligible for APA’s Great Streets designation, ranging from pedestrian realms to arterial roadways, so long as they have a definable beginning and end. APA places special emphasis on streets that are complete, meaning streets that service and take into account all users, going beyond just motor vehicles. APA provides guidelines and characteristics that it seeks when assessing whether a street qualifies for its Great Street designation.

The guidelines for Great Streets examines the areas of street form and composition; street character and personality; and street environment and sustainable practices. The street form and composition guidelines examine questions regarding how well the street is maintained; how its safety is addressed; how parking is handled; how it accommodates multiple users and activities; and how well it accommodates and encourages social interaction through physical features such as the hardscape, landscape, and street furniture. These physical elements are also examined for their ability to create a personality and sense of public place unique to the area. Street character and personality guidelines assess the elements that make the street memorable; the community activities

that bring life to the street such as parades, festivals, and markets; the street’s reflection of local culture and history; and whether the street offers interesting visual features. In looking at street environment and sustainable practices, APA examines how the street promotes or protects air and water quality while minimizing, or managing, storm water runoff. APA considers the amount of tree cover provided as well as other forms of green infrastructure.

Bringing Great Streets to the CommunitySince the Great Places in America Program’s origin in 2007, APA has designated 70 streets across the United States as Great Streets, with all 50 states and the District of Columbia represented. From Broadway Street in Skagway, AL, USA and West Beverley Street in Staunton, VA, USA to Fifth Avenue in New York City, NY, USA and Ocean Drive in Miami, FL, USA, streets that have been designated as APA Great Streets conjure images specific to that region’s history and architecture, and they are often popular destinations for tourists and residents alike.

With the term Great Streets not exclusive to APA or any one program, elected leadership, community organizations, and associations—including the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)—are continuing to examine what constitutes a Great Street. Prominent Great Streets programs include the City of Minneapolis, MN, USA Great Streets Neighborhood Business District Program established in 2007; the Washington, DC, USA Great Streets Initiative launched in 2008; the New York, NY, USA Main Street Initiative launched in 2008; and the San Francisco, CA, USA Great Streets Project established in 2009. These programs are providing examples to other cities interested in working on their own Great Streets initiatives, such as the City of Los Angeles, CA, USA.

American Planning Association’sCharacteristics of a Great Street• Provides orientation to its user and connects well to the larger

pattern of ways.

• Balances the competing needs of the street: driving, transit, walking, cycling, servicing, parking, drop-offs, etc.

• Fits the topography and capitalizes on natural features.

• Is lined with a variety of interesting activities and uses that to create a varied streetscape.

• Has urban design or architectural features that are exemplary in design.

• Relates well to its bordering uses.

• Encourages human contact and social activities.

• Employs hardscape and/or landscape to great effect.

• Promotes safety of pedestrians and vehicles and promotes use over the 24-hour day.

• Promotes sustainability through minimizing runoff, reusing water, ensuring groundwater quality, minimizing heat islands, and responding to climatic demands.

• Is well maintained, and capable of being maintained without excessive costs.

• Has a memorable character.

List courtesy of American Planning Association website: www.planning.org/greatplaces/streets/characteristics.htm

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The Sunset Triangle Plaza in Los Angeles, CA, USA addresses the city’s increased demand for safer and more welcoming streets for residents to play, walk, run, bicycle, and sit.

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Launch of a Great Streets Initiative in Los Angeles, CA, USAIn 2013, City of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an Executive Directive to establish the City of Los Angeles Great Streets Initiative, stating, “We are taking another big step towards a fundamental change in how we perceive, interact, and build around us. A great neighborhood needs a great street as its backbone, and, as city leaders, we need the backbone to make the bold changes necessary to build great streets.” The Los Angeles Great Streets Inititative is being supported by a working group composed of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Transportation, Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering, Bureau of Street Services, Bureau of Street Lighting, Bureau of Sanitation, and Economic & Workforce Development Department, with assistance from the Department of Water and Power and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. These departments have helped research best practices associated with Great Streets programs, examined how ten prominent Great Streets programs prioritized their street selection, and evaluated potential funding sources.

Mayor Garcetti announced the following six goals for the Los Angeles Great Streets Initiative:

� Increased economic activity; � Improved access and mobility; � Enhanced neighborhood character; � Greater community engagement; � Improved environmental resilience; and � Safer and more secure communities.

The first step in determining where Great Streets exist across Los Angeles is to map the various assets and elements of a great street, informed by APA’s characteristics of a Great Street. This includes commercial land use, current economic characteristics, sidewalk width, existence of robust community and/or business districts, street wall, tree canopy, etc. After the street segments across the City are identified that have the characteristics of a Great Street but need extra investment to transform into neighborhood places, the working group catalogued where City departments are currently allocating resources and implementing capital improvement projects in the public realm. This allows for the City to leverage its own investments and target other resources to provide neighborhood revitalization in one fell swoop. These efforts will require partnerships with local merchants, architects and urban designers, and community stake-holders in order to be true successes. In considering the feasibility and scope of developing its own Great Streets Initiative, the Los Angeles strategy will include planning and community engagement, economic development, and physical improvements to both the private and public realms.

Building in StepsThe City of Los Angeles found a local model for its Great Streets Initiative in an existing Streetscape Master Plan developed under the umbrella of Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar’s Bringing Back Broadway initiative. Bringing Back Broadway is a multi-faceted economic development plan focused on the historic Broadway Theatre District in Downtown Los Angeles, a national register historic district. This initiative demonstrates the value of combining economic revitalization efforts with multimodal trans-portation and streetscape improvements, while exemplifying the importance of obtaining community collaboration and establishing independent organizations to oversee design, funding, implementa-tion, and long-term maintenance.

The Broadway Streetscape Master Plan will implement numerous pedestrian-oriented, traffic-calming tools for the historic Broadway corridor to provide greater pedestrian comfort and security along one of the city’s busiest pedestrian streets, and make Broadway a more enjoyable place to walk, shop, and spend time. The Streetscape Plan will be achieved in two phases. Phase one will use cost-efficient and quickly installed materials to create traffic-calm-ing pedestrian enhancements and reconfigure the road to three traffic lanes while funding is secured to achieve the permanent build-out of the full-scale project on a block-by-block basis.5

These temporary streetscape design features are currently being installed within the 1.3 mile stretch that will highlight the area’s transformation as a safe, active pedestrian corridor. The results, which may appear instantaneous to the public, represent years of design development, community engagement, and commitment from local businesses and property owners. One notable take-away

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has implemented Great Streets components for Atwater Village on Glendale Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

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from the Bringing Back Broadway Project is the phased approach to implementing the physical streetscape reconfiguration developed as part of the larger initiative.

As part of its Great Streets Initiative, the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) recently launched the “People St” website, a one-stop resource from which residents and communities can apply for pedestrian plazas, parklets, and bike corrals. The website contains resources, materials, and applications for bringing these projects to a neighborhood. Building upon lessons learned from the city’s first six pilot projects, LADOT has been working closely in an unprecedented collaboration with community members, elected officials, and other City staff to develop People St into a program that will expedite project development and implementation with a clear, consistent process.6

ITE and Great StreetsITE has established long-term, collaborative relationships with organizations such as the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), the National Complete Streets Coalition, Smart Growth America, The National League of Cities, and many others committed to the

key principles of the Great Streets Movement. For example, a joint project of ITE and CNU resulted in the paper, Design Guidance for Great Streets: Addressing Context Sensitivity for Major Urban Streets.7 Together, ITE and CNU have been striving to develop technical tools and guidance for transportation engineers and urban planners in better integrating the context sensitive design of major urban streets with the principles and techniques from the new urbanist and smart growth movements. The intent of the joint project was to encourage the design of street networks that serve as a basis for the creation of livable communities that are truly multimodal and support compact, mixed use environments.

This is but one example of ITE’s continuing effort to advance our profession’s knowledge of the principles and practical applications of the Great Streets movement. Future articles in ITE Journal will examine synergies between these initiatives regarding the terminol-ogies being used to describe the development and implementation of multimodal, livable streets and communities. As efforts grow to implement features and designs that embody Great Streets practices, ITE members have an opportunity to lead the profession with the practical application of these innovations. As cultural change leads

Ocean Drive, Miami, USA is a designated Great Street.

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more people to live in urban settings and seek more active transpor-tation modes, transportation professionals are adapting practices to meet new needs. Practices sought through the Great Streets movement will need to advance in conjunction with the technological developments taking place through connected vehicle and automated vehicle programs. More than ever, there are opportunities for transportation professionals to partner with a variety of groups from across disciplines to enhance community vibrancy, livability, and active transportation. Movements such as Great Streets are enabling transportation professionals to work more closely with partners in improving roads and providing a safer, more positive experience for people who walk, bike, drive, and take transit.

Resources1. “What is Main Street,” National Main Street Center, accessed February 3,

2014, www.preservationnation.org/main-street.

2. “About Boston Main Streets,” City of Boston, accessed February 3, 2014,

www.cityofboston.gov/dnd/obd/about.asp.

3. “What is the St. Louis Great Streets Initiative?” St. Louis Great Streets,

accessed February 3, 2014, www.greatstreetsstlouis.net.

4. “Great Places in America,” American Planning Association, accessed

February 4, 2104, www.planning.org/greatplaces.

5. “Bringing Back Broadway Vision,” Bringing Back Broadway, accessed

February 10, 2014, www.bringingbackbroadway.com.

6. “About People St,” People St, accessed February 10, 2014,

http://peoplest.lacity.org.

7. “Design Guidance for Great Streets: Addressing Context Sensitivity for Major

Urban Streets,” Congress for the New Urbanism, accessed February 11,

2014, www.cnu.org/sites/www.cnu.org/files/Greenberg_Dock_USS2.pdf.

Zaki Mustafa, P.E. is the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Immediate Past International President. He has been working for the City of Los Angeles, California, USA Department of Transportation (LADOT) for the past 29 years. As the principal transportation engineer for traffic operations, he supervises all of

the city-wide district offices and is responsible for the traditional traffic engineering investigations and authorization for all of the traffic control devices for the city. As the executive officer of the Project Delivery Group from 2012–2013, he was responsible for the organiza-tion’s delivery of streetscape improvements projects, pedestrian and school safety improvement projects, the signal synchronization program, project management of all “Measure R” transit capital projects, traffic impact studies, the implementation of the bike plan, and preparation of engineering plans for all of the traffic control devices. His team also designed and installed the very first Plaza (Sunset Triangle Plaza) and four parklets in the City of Los Angeles.

Michelle Birdsall is the ITE Journal Senior Editor and Writer. She has served ITE for 8 years and was the ITE communications manager for the National Transportation Operations Coalition prior to her current role. Michelle has a master of science degree in professional writing from Towson University, specializing in scientific and technical writing. She

is a former senior editor and writer of NASA Spinoff magazine and served as a communications manager for the Department of Homeland Security.

5th Avenue in New York City, New York, USA is a designated Great Street.

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