Making a Grand Boulevard

Cities along El Camino Real on the San Francisco Peninsula have joined up with the transit agencies in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties and Joint Venture-Silicon Valley to form the Grand Boulevard Initiative (GBI)1 to plan and implement the conversion of El Camino Real from a declining auto-dominated retail strip into a 21st century Grand Boulevard.  As we work together on that effort, we need to be able to see El Camino Real with fresh eyes and to understand the issues from a fresh perspective.  Here are things we need to think about.

We need to begin to see El Camino not as just a street for cars, but also as a Complete Street2that welcomes everyone:  pedestrians, bike riders, and transit riders, as well as car drivers.  When we see it that way, we will begin to change how things are laid out along the street.  

When El Camino Real was seen as just a retail strip, the street was laid out as a fast moving automobile street and adjacent development protected itself from the harshness of the street by setting itself back behind large parking lots.  This may have been convenient for car drivers turning into a parking lot to go to a store, but it is very inconvenient for pedestrians, bike riders and transit riders.  To make El Camino Real a Complete Street that is convenient for all of us, future buildings need to be moved up close to the street like on older streets and in our traditional downtowns.  Buildings close to the street, with the parking in back, begin to shape the street space into a Place that is comfortable for people, again like on the good streets in our traditional downtowns.  We need to begin shifting our focus from just the traffic-carrying capacity of the street and the architecture of the buildings to the human-scaled Place that is created by buildings close to the street.  On a Grand Boulevard, this street space is such a goodPeople Place that it serves as a community Outdoor Living Room. 

As we focus on making the street space a really good Place for People, we realize that the buildings on opposite sides of El Camino Real need to be as close together as possible, not far apart like current development patterns.  And, we need to be very careful how we use that public space for multiple functions while keeping it people-friendly. 

One important element of the Grand Boulevard is the pedestrian zone.  Since the goal is a Placethat is comfortable for people, designing the pedestrian zone for the comfort, safety and convenience of people is a high priority.  Some key design issues:  

1. 1.The pedestrian zone needs to be the right scale to make it comfortable for the number of people that are expected to be there.  Not too small, but not too large either.  
   

   

   
   
2. 2.The pedestrian zone needs to have a clear edge on each side so a pedestrian feels comfortably inside a good place.  
3. 3.The edge close to traffic needs to use things like parked cars, street trees, and street furniture to buffer the people in the pedestrian zone from moving traffic.  
4. 4.The non-traffic edge needs to be interesting to people walking near it.  Instead of parked cars, dead walls, and empty spaces, this edge should be lined with shopfronts, cafes, and local businesses.  The primary test for the success of this edge is whether it provides conditions that are safe, comfortable, convenient and attractive for people.  

Once we understand the design of the pedestrian zone, we can turn our attention to the portion of the street between the curbs (what traffic engineers sometimes call the roadway).  

To begin to think about the design of the roadway we need to understand each of the elements the roadway must accommodate:  Cars, trucks, parking, transit, bikes, and people.  Let’s start with transit.

Effective Transit

As we move into the 21st century, climate protection regulations and increased energy demands from emerging nations like China and India are likely to put upward pressure on energy prices, including the price of gasoline.  It is no longer safe for us to plan for the next 20 years based on an assumption of cheap and plentiful gasoline as we have had for the last several decades.  We need to plan to include non-car choices for personal mobility.  And transit is one of the most important of these choices.

Planning for the Grand Boulevard includes planning to put new development within walking distance 

of El Camino Real where the people living and working there can access transit services.  To do that without major traffic congestion, we need to make transit effective.  Effective Transit is transit that you can count on without needing to consult a transit schedule.  Transit you can use to go to a meeting or to go shopping.  Transit kids can use to go to school or after school activities.  Transit you and friends can use to go out to dinner or entertainment.  In short, transit that works for you conveniently on an everyday basis so you don’t need a car.This means the time you have to wait for transit (what transit engineers sometimes call “transit headways”) on the Grand Boulevard needs to be 10 minutes or less.  

Creating Effective Transit requires two things:

1. 1.Good enough transit services (whether bus, tram, streetcar, or light rail) to provide convenience for transit riders, and
2. 2.Enough transit riders to support good transit services.

One without the other can’t work.  So planning for transit and planning for new development must be integrated together.  That’s a change from present practices, but it must be done now.

Because Effective Transit is essential for success, planning for the roadway must make provision for Effective Transit facilities and services.  Where on the roadway will the transit be located?  Will it need a separate lane in order to be effective?  How do we make sure the transit is integrated across the county line despite the existence of separate transit agencies for the two counties?  How will this transit connect to other transit facilities so people have access to the whole Bay Area?   How will future transit facilities and operations be paid for?  We need to tackle all these issues together. 

Now, let’s think about cars and trucks and how to make car and truck travel consistent with our goal of comfort, safety and convenience for People.  The first, and perhaps most important, factor in making the street safe for people is to reduce the design speed of the roadway.  Two things are important to understand here:

1. 1.Reducing design speed greatly increases pedestrian safety. The probability of a pedestrian receiving a fatal injury is 3.5 percent at 15 mph, 37 percent at 31 mph and 83 percent at 44 mph.3 
2. 2.Reasonable reductions in design speed do not interfere with the traffic capacity of the roadway.  Traffic engineers will confirm that the greatest traffic capacity of the roadway is at a speed of about 30 mph.  Higher speeds decrease safety without improving roadway capacity.

Reducing roadway speed is not just about posting lower speed limits.  It is designing all the features of the roadway based on an expectation of lower vehicle speeds.  This is one of the most important keys to making the Grand Boulevard a safe, comfortable and convenient Place for People.   

With roadway design speeds at a reasonable level, other tools for taming the roadway traffic become available.

 

1. 1.Narrower travel lanes.  Traffic engineers will confirm that narrowing the travel lane reduces speed more effectively than speed limit signs.  It is human nature for us to drive at what we perceive to be a safe speed (not necessarily the posted speed limit) and narrower lanes make us more cautious.  Narrower lanes and the slower speeds they produce also make it safer and more comfortable and convenient for pedestrians.  Crossing a 10’ lane is easier and safer than crossing a 14’ one. Narrower lanes also help free up new space in an existing roadway for such helpful facilities as bike lanes or parking.
2. 2.Pedestrian safely islands give pedestrians a safe haven so they don’t have to cross the whole street at one time.  Some boulevards even have safety islands between two travel lanes going the same direction.  This allows pedestrians to cross a wide street one lane at a time safely.
3. 3.Generous medians that welcome pedestrians and even provide pedestrian amenities like landscaping, benches, and even kiosks.
4. 4.Pedestrian-friendly corners.  To accommodate faster speeds for vehicles turning right, traffic engineers often round off the corners of an intersection so the car doesn’t have to slow down too much.  (Changing the “curb radius” in traffic engineering terms.)  This may make it better for cars, but it increases the speed of cars crossing the pedestrian crosswalk, increases pedestrian crossing times and distances, and makes the intersection feel less pedestrian-friendly.
5. 5.Bicycle Safety.  With lower speeds, bicycles can operate more safely within the normal traffic lanes without requiring separated bicycle facilities.

On-Street Parking

Another important issue for the comfort, safety and convenience of people is on-street parking.  It is easy to think of parking as just a storage space for vehicles that can be placed anywhere nearby.  But on-street parking, properly done, has many People benefits:

1. 1.It is convenient for customers.
2. 2.It attracts customers to businesses and may contribute to the financial success of a district.
3. 3.It provides a comfortable buffer between people in the pedestrian zone and moving traffic on the roadway.
4. 4.It reduces vehicle speeds and helps tame the roadway.
5. 5.It helps make a busy street feel like a shopping district.

Walkable Neighborhood Convenience

Now that we are beginning to see the Grand Boulevard in a new way, let’s talk about creating a good, convenient, walkable neighborhood there.

To provide walkable neighborhood convenience and minimize traffic congestion, five things are important:

1. 1.Meeting Daily Needs. If you live there, you should be able to meet most of your daily needs in the neighborhood. You can get groceries or go to the cleaners, or go out to lunch or dinner, or find entertainment, all in your own neighborhood.  Maybe you even work in the neighborhood. 

2. 2.Put things close together.  So you can walk or bike to them.  So the ride is short if you need to use a car.  Spreading things out into shopping malls and business parks makes us need a car and drive long distances.  Putting things close together gives us choices about how to get around. Cars are welcome here, but you don’t have to have one if you live in the Grand Boulevard Neighborhood.  (Imagine:  a teenager might get to where they need to go even before they have a driver’s license.)
   
3. 3.Include enough people in the neighborhood.  Customers are the lifeblood of any business.  If we want good neighborhood shopping and services, we need enough potential customers living in the neighborhood.  Low densities belong in our single-family residential neighborhoods (and they should be preserved and protected.)  But in the Grand Boulevard Neighborhood, more people make a better neighborhood with better shopping and restaurants and more fun.
4. 4.Main Entrances on the Sidewalk.  On the old retail strip El Camino Real, the businesses assumed that everyone would be arriving by car, and so the entrances were off the car parking lots, not the pedestrian streets.  On the new Grand Boulevard, businesses welcome customers with main entrances right on the sidewalk.
5. 5.Connections to other Places.  Not everything a person needs will be available in the Grand Boulevard Neighborhood, so we need to make sure there are good connections to the rest of the Bay Area.  Maybe you work in San Francisco or the East Bay.  You need to get there.  Maybe you are going to school at San Jose State or Stanford.  You need to get there.  The public transportation systems for the whole Bay Area need to be integrated into a network that allows convenient access throughout the Bay Area.

So, lets all work together to make sure El Camino Real is reborn as a 21st century Grand Boulevard with:

1. 1.A walkable, convenient neighborhood where we can meet our daily needs without a car.
2. 2.People-friendly streets that can serve as the neighborhood’s comfortable outdoor living room
3. 3.Effective transit that we can use on an everyday basis and that links us to the rest of the Bay Area.
4. 4.Enough people to make it a financial success and a fun place to live.