John V' Thomas, PhD

1
Transportation Policy and Placemaking in Tysons
Corner
John V. Thomas, PhD US EPA, Office of Policy
Economics and Innovation June 26th, 2007
2
The Core Transportation Issues

• Street Design Challenges
• Accommodating traffic while creating a high
  quality pedestrian environment
• Addressing assumptions about technical standards
• Analytical Challenges
• Forecasting the baseline traffic
• The net effect of a new land use and transit
  environment is a difficult analytical question
• Appropriately evaluating the tradeoffs
• Metrics are key
• Details matter
• Finding creative solutions

3
Design Challenges
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Context Sensitive Street Design
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Evaluating Cross-Sections
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Design Tradeoffs

• Parking
• Sidewalk Width
• Vehicle Capacity
• Large Vehicle Accommodation
• Pedestrian Crossing Width
• Left turn lanes
• Landscaped Median
• Pedestrian Amenities
• Reduced Speeds
• Minimize Right of Way Acquisition

Across the planning area, the relative weight
assigned to each criteria will vary
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Why Design Speeds are Critical
Source- ICF International, Spokanes University
District Policy Options for a New Urban Center.
Based on data from Karger, Teige et al (2000)
Relationship between impact velocity and
injuries in fatal pedestrian-car collisions
International Journal of Legal Medicine.
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Innovative Ways to Minimize Tradeoffs

• Better crossing conditions across major roads
• Curb bump-outs at key intersections
• Median space as a pedestrian refuge
• Flexible Infrastructure
• Mountable medians and curbs
• Access management and parallel routes

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Curb Bump-out
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Median Refuge
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Design Details Matter
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Mountable Median
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Some Relevant Examples

• 28th Street Boulder, CO
• 30,000 to 50,000 vehicles per day
• Up to 7 lanes
• Multi-year redesign effort
• http//www.bouldercolorado.gov/files/Transportatio
  n/Projects/28th_tnp.pdf
• El Camino Real San Mateo County, CA
• Route 29 Trenton, NJ

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El Camino Redesign
Source Marcy McInelly, Urbsworks and Phil
Erickson, Community Design Architecture
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El Camino Redesign
Source Marcy McInelly, Urbsworks and Phil
Erickson, Community Design Architecture
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Source Marcy McInelly, Urbsworks and Phil
Erickson, Community Design Architecture
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Source Marcy McInelly, Urbsworks and Phil
Erickson, Community Design Architecture
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Source Mark Stout NJ DOT, Smart Growth and Smart
Transportation, The NJDOT Experience
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Source Mark Stout NJ DOT, Smart Growth and Smart
Transportation, The NJDOT Experience
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Source Mark Stout NJ DOT, Smart Growth and Smart
Transportation, The NJDOT Experience
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Source Mark Stout NJ DOT, Smart Growth and Smart
Transportation, The NJDOT Experience
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Source Mark Stout NJ DOT, Smart Growth and Smart
Transportation, The NJDOT Experience
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Source Mark Stout NJ DOT, Smart Growth and Smart
Transportation, The NJDOT Experience
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Source Mark Stout NJ DOT, Smart Growth and Smart
Transportation, The NJDOT Experience
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Analytical Challenges
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Forecasting Future Traffic Critical Questions

• New development new trips
• What share will be by car?
• What policies would increase transit use,
  walking, and biking?

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How will greater accessibility, diversity of
activities and better urban design change trips
currently made within Tysons?
Source Lewis Grim, Cambridge Systematics,
Presentation to the Tysons Corner Coordinating
Committee (2005)
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Evaluation Metrics

• Intersection Level of Service (LOS) for vehicles
  is the most common metric
• Butit presents a limited picture
• Corridor LOS, corridor travel time, or volume to
  capacity measures are somewhat better
• Other more comprehensive measures are still in
  very early stages of development

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Pedestrian Level of ServiceFlorida DOT example

• Sidewalks (10 points)
• Continuous on one side 4
• Both sides 6
• At least 5 ft 1
• More than 5 ft 2
• Off street parallel trail 1
• Conflicts (4 points)
• Medians 1
• Access management 1
• Reduced turn conflict 0.5

• Amenities (2 points)
• Buffer gt 3 ½ ft. 1
• Shade trees 0.5
• Benches 0.5
• Traffic Flow (2 points)
• LOS E/F gt 6 lanes 0
• LOS D lt 6 lanes 1
• LOS C lt 6 lanes 2

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Other design concepts
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Thinking out of the box
Source City of El Cerrito, CA
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Rail ROW Could Double as a Greenway
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Source Teri Musser, Charlier Associates