WEC Analysis Committee/Multiway Boulevard Scenario

From Eugene Neighbors

[edit] Summary

"Multiway Boulevard" - Focused on concentrating activity around a West 11th redeveloped in a series of phases into a dense, high-traffic-capacity Multiway Boulevard, from around Garfield out to around Beltline, tightly coordinated with public transit, bike/ped pathways, adjacent commercial/residential mixed-use, and natural resources.

[edit] Description

The multiway boulevard approach addresses West 11th congestion by adding lanes, improving traffic flow, improving land use, and improving alternative modes on West 11th itself, rather than by diverting traffic onto alternative routes.

A successful multiway boulevard is an integrated urban design, using traffic and mode separation, intensification of land uses, and excellent aesthetics together in concert to work a bit of urban magic.

Looking from a pure transportation perspective, converting the current five lanes of West 11th between Garfield and Beltline to a full multiway boulevard with transit would effectively add four addition movement lanes - a local access lane on each side, plus a pair of dedicated transit lanes. However, the traffic capacity of such a multiway boulevard is likely to be somewhat greater than just the lane would suggest, because the main through-going lanes are fully protected from turning movements between intersections.

At the same time as the through lanes provide high traffic capacity, the side access lanes, set in broad and attractive pedestrian realms, provide direct-to-door access to commercial properties for motor vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians alike.

Adding these extra lanes, and the amenities that make them positive additions to the urban landscape, requires additional right-of-way. This right-of-way can be acquired relatively quickly, up front, in a pro-active civic redevelopment project, or it can be acquired gradually, even on a lot-by-lot basis, as market forces drive redevelopment to new zoning standards, property by property.

Note that Roosevelt Avenue already exists as a complete two-way alternative route, somewhat farther north, to the portion of West 11th between between Beltline Highway and Garfield Street.

[edit] Sketches

[edit] Map

Conceptual Map of West 11th showing the walkable zone for mixed-use densification along a Multiway Boulevard

[edit] Street Section

Some street section options for the multiway boulevard, with and without dedicated BRT lanes (PDF)

Conceptual Street Section for a West 11th Multiway Boulevard

[edit] Time Table

A multiway boulevard approach may provide as much opportunity for short term benefits as an alternative route approach. In the long term, the multiway boulevard approach is likely to provide substantially greater improvements, and with much better community return on the public investment.

Depending somewhat on the community choice of implementation approaches - civic project, or gradual market-driven - there are opportunities to build a first phase of multiway boulevard improvements just as quickly as any other transportation project.

These initial improvements would provide real traffic flow benefits on West 11th, and point the way toward more dramatic improvements over the course of a long-term implementation strategy.

[edit] Cost Table

In an exploration of relative costs of several street options involving West 11th from Garfield to Beltline as a multiway boulevard, as a hybrid street supplemented by an alternative route for the half from Garfield to Bailey Hill, or as an improved urban arterial supplemented by an alternative route for the half from Garfield to Bailey Hill - which drew extensively on construction engineering experience in the Analysis Committee, together with local professional sources for data - the overriding design factor that differentiated total relative costs including both construction and land acquisition, was the inclusion of transit lanes.

In other words, the total relative cost, in terms of an index value per lineal foot of street improvement, was broadly similar for each street design approach without dedicated transit lanes, and was similar for each street approach with dedicated transit lanes.

The total relative cost, in terms of an index value per lineal foot of street improvement, seems to be about twice as much for a complete project, involving dedicated transit lanes, as for a basic project, without transit lanes.

The scenarios studied did not include alternative routes for which additional length of street right-of-way would have to be acquired, in addition to any right-of-way width acquisitions. The total relative cost for alternative routes scenarios requiring length of street right-of-way acquisitions could be significantly greater.

[edit] Discussion

In several fundamental ways, West 11th can be considered the central main street for West Eugene, although its current urban design character doesn't support that calling very well.

As Elizabeth MacDonald writes in the article, Building a Boulevard, "A multiway boulevard handles large amounts of relatively fast-moving through-traffic as well as slower local traffic within the same right-of-way but on separate but closely connected roadways."

These traffic-handling characteristics, along with the density of land uses and transportation modes it supports, plus the interruptible nature of the side access lanes that readily accommodate nature resource areas, may make a multiway boulevard a good fit for a wide variety of the redevelopment needs of West 11th.

Because of the significance of the change in adjacent land uses expected over time, from auto-oriented strip to dense multistory mixed use, a key question with regard to the multiway boulevard is how it can be implemented, over time, or all at once.

[edit] A Gradual Approach to Building the Multiway Boulevard

1. In the beginning...

• Setbacks are established in code for new construction, to the ultimate intended facade-to-facade width (150 to 160 foot width facade to facade). An interim setback distance will also be defined (something around 125 to 135 foot total width).
• The ultimate intended facade-to-facade width should be wide enough to support the ultimate boulevard configuration, even though it may takes decades for that to be fully realized.
• The interim facade-to-facade width should be wide enough to support a basic boulevard configuration, to allow for incremental traffic improvements as the corridor gradually densifies and matures.
• A five lane through-going realm (two main lanes each way plus center lane for left turns) can be constructed right away (with appropriate construction phasing), within the existing city-owned 80 foot right of way. At this phase, utilities should be undergrounded, and tree ranks planted wherever possible, to set the vital tone of the long-term corridor urban design.
• Where all the buildings on a side of a block are currently at or behind an interim functional setback distance, both the through-going and pedestrian realm with access street for that side of the boulevard can be constructed. For a boulevard of xxx' full width, this represents y blocks.
• Adjacent zoning should be updated to fully protect natural resource areas, incentivize redevelopment, and incentivize or require multi-story commercial/residential mixed use. Some current uses will be made non-conforming, but those can generally remain until market forces drive higher-value redevelopment.

2. As redevelopment occurs...

• New buildings will be built with their front facades at the planned setback. When a given remnant block-side has redeveloped to the point that its buildings clear the full planned right-of-way, then the pedestrian realm and side access street can be added for the block side.
• Over time, each block side that redevelops will add to the overall improving access management for traffic in the through-going realm.

3. Transit support can evolve over time...

• Initial public transit can be BRT, with high-quality service provided by the combination of the clear traffic flow in the through-going realm, plus generous pedestrian-realm bus pullouts supported with appropriate signal timing.
• In the initial condition, blocks with existing setback depth at an intermediate value (approximately xxx' centerline-to-facade) will allow for BRT pullout station locations.
• As redevelopment progresses, and most blocks convert to deeper coordinated setbacks, then dedicated right-of-way for upgraded BRT can be accommodated.

4. Ultimately...

• When all blocks have been redeveloped to the full setback distance, the corridor will support light rail in dedicated lanes in or adjacent to the pedestrian realm.

Codification...

• Where/when you have 40 feet from the centerline, then you do x, y, z, and drink a martini.
• Where/when you have 48 feet from the centerline, then you also do a and b.
• Where/when you have 67 feet from the centerline, then you also do c, d, e, and drink champagne.

[edit] A Civic Project Approach to Building the Multiway Boulevard

The multiway boulevard could also be built readily rapidly, using an incentive-oriented timing approach to complete most right-of-way property acquisitions within the first full year of implementation, to be followed by phased construction of integral multi-block street sections, phasing in benefits every few years thereafter.

Owners of impacted buildings who choose to take advantage of early sale opportunities could be allowed continued use of the property until vacation would be required for construction. This approach creates a positive dynamic allowing for flexible acquisitions (potentially reducing costs) and for avoidance of eminent domain in most cases.

[edit] Pros and Cons

A. Improve efficiency of transportation network

Pros

• Great for through-traffic traffic throughput, supporting 45,000 to 50,000 trips per day
• Good for local business access
• Effectively provides for a high-level of access management but with velvet more than iron
• Conducive to high density and/or mixed use development along W. 11th
• Adds traffic capacity without requiring through traffic to execute tens of thousands of extra turning actions daily.

Cons

• Outside the established Eugene street classification matrix
• If not phased effectively, could have significant up-front costs with some of the benefits potentially many years in the future
• Depending on design and phasing, the right-of-way requirements of this approach could make it difficult to construct

B. Increase public transit

Pros

• The multiway boulevard supports dedicated transit lanes on each side of the through-going realm because it includes access lanes for direct-to-door business access without conventional curb cuts.
• The pedestrian realms of the multiway boulevard, situated alongside dedicated transit lanes, provide for good pedestrian and bicycle access between transit stop locations and actual trip destinations. This will help transit succeed.
• The multiway boulevard can support a redevelopment scenario in which the corridor upzoning pays back the community investment necessary to build it, including dedicated transit lanes and stations.

Cons

• The combination of right-of-way width for dedicated transit lanes, in addition to the right-of-way width for pedestrian realms including access lanes, creates a wide street corridor which may be expensive, and can be alienating if not well-designed.

C. Enhance pedestrian and bikeways

Pros

• West 11th is badly in need of improvements to its local pedestrian environment, which the multiway boulevard can provide.
• West 11th is badly in need of improvements to its local cycling environment, which the multiway boulevard can provide.
• Without some solution for greatly-reducing curb cuts along West 11th, it seems difficult to provide effective pedestrian and bicycle improvements along the avenue. One of the inherent benefits of the multiway boulevard is that it facilitates substantial curb cut reductions.
• The pedestrian realms of the multiway boulevard can provide the "missing link", last 1000 feet of access between the Fern Ridge Multiuse Path and commercial destinations along West 11th.
• The pedestrian realms of the multiway boulevard, situated adjacent to dedicated transit lanes, provide for good pedestrian and bicycle access between transit stop locations and actual trip destinations. This will help pedestrian and bicycle usage.

Cons

• The overall width of the street corridor in a multiway boulevard with dedicated transit lanes can inhibit pedestrian crossings, unless the whole system of pedestrian amenities is well-designed.

D. Intensify development appropriately

Pros

• The multiway boulevard provides an accessible, attractive urban context for the dense commercial/residential mixed-use development sought in transit-oriented design (TOD). This upzoning opportunity exists primarily in the area within about a 1000 foot walking distance from the boulevard, with the greatest opportunity in the blocks adjacent to the boulevard.

Cons

• Any rezoning has the potential to disrupt existing property owners.

E. Relocate some land uses

Pros

• The dense commercial/residential mixed-use development supported by the multiway boulevard along West 11th from Garfield to Beltline has the potential to include 5000 to 10,000 or more new residential units. As a result of this substantial upzoning and capacity to absorb growth, peripheral areas with high per-capita infrastructure costs, high natural resource values, and high VMT can be down-zoned. An added bonus to such a shift of residential growth from the metropolitan edge to the W11th corridor may be a parallel reduction in traffic growth on West 11th.

Cons

• Care must be taken in to upzone only priority areas, within the 1000 foot walkable radius, to avoid excessive impact on the West Eugene industrial land base and on industrial uses.
• What would the economic impact be when R/W needs consummed existing commercial & industrial zoned lands?

F. Enhance open space/natural resources

Pros

• Increasing traffic capacity along the already-developed West 11th corridor "brownfield", using the multiway boulevard approach, is broadly preferable to adding new roadways in greenfield locations elsewhere in West Eugene, which could result in loss of habitat.
• The dense commercial/residential mixed-use development supported by the multiway boulevard along West 11th from Garfield to Beltline has the potential to include 5000 to 10,000 or more new residential units. As a result of this substantial upzoning and capacity to absorb growth, peripheral areas with high natural resource values, can be down-zoned, while maintaining or improving the balance of the residential land inventory.

Cons

• More intensive development along West 11th, where it backs onto Amazon Creek and wetlands, must be designed and built to best-practice standards to avoid new impacts for stormwater runoff.

G. Enhance natural watershed

Pros

• Intensifying development along the West 11th corridor, which is already substantially covered with impervious surfaces, is likely to have less stormwater runoff impact than similar amounts of development in greenfields.
• It may be possible to use pervious paving in portions of the pedestrian realms of the multiway boulevard, reducing stormwater runoff volume and improving water quality.
• The overall right-of-way width for the multiway boulevard can be readily adjusted where Amazon Creek and wetlands run close by the avenue. Because the side access lanes are largely independent from block to block, they can readily be left out on blocks where the adjoining property is natural open space, rather than commercial property.
• As denser development enfronts the multiway boulevard, the evolving wall of buildings will tend to shelter natural resources behind them. This may be a particular effect where Amazon Creek runs just a block or so south of West 11th.

Cons

• Supporting more traffic on the West 11th corridor also means exposing adjacent natural resources to proportionally more vehicle noise, and local air pollution including particulates.

H. Enhance appreciation and connections to natural resources

Pros

• Increasing the residential density adjacent to the Amazon Creek greenway though redevelopment of commercial properties into multi-story residential mixed-use buildings may substantially increase the number of residents who can observe nature there on a daily basis. Condominiums and apartments facing onto the quiet creek side of a dense row of buildings are a particular example.
• Increasing the value of human uses along the Amazon Creek greenway is likely to increase the level of community support for those natural resources.

Cons

• Increasing property values along West 11th, driven over time by successful mixed-use development, could increase economic pressures to encroach on natural resource areas.

[edit] References

Building a Boulevard, by Elizabeth MacDonald. ACCESS No. 28, Spring 2006.

[edit] External Links