Tools we can use for better planning and decision making

The Main Street Approach to commercial district revitalization is a volunteer driven program. You organize into 4 committees, create work plans each year, and go to town... The Main Street Center has a number of quality materials and training programs.

At the start of the program in DC when there were 5 programs designated the first year and 7 the next, there was a great deal of training offered in the four points (organizational management, design, business development, and marketing and promotions), including massive discounts on the national training, and programs were required at a minimum to send the executive director and the chair of the organization to the annual Main Street conference.

As you can imagine, I attended many of the trainings and read many of the publications (and many other publications besides), all of which helped grow my base of knowledge tremendously.

Even though others didn't avail themselves of it, the trainings were open to members of other civic organizations and to ANC commissioners. But these trainings could have been the start and foundation of developing a strong civic involvement and engagement training system in DC, but that never developed. (See as examples the Urban Information Center at the Dallas Public Library and the Training offered by the Neighborhood Revitalization Program in the City of Minneapolis, as well as this neighborhood planning web resource, and the many others listed in the "civic engagement" and "Business Development/Retail/BIDs/Main Streets" groups of links in the right sidebar.)

Sadly, over time, in DC the training apparatus to support Main Street programs has atrophied. Of course part of the problem is that the typical person involved in civic affairs thinks they know everything already (I ran into this facilitating some meetings for a neighborhood project in northwest DC), so they aren't too open to working to identify areas of knowledge improvement and then taking active steps to learn (and apply) more.

(My take on this is the observation that for the most part, no matter how many planning study iterations people participate in, for the most part, to my way of thinking anyway, they don't "improve" with each instance of their participation, in terms of knowing more, being more reflective, and helping to shape the plan in creative and productive ways.)

While you could argue that I am too focused on learning more, always, the fact of the matter is that you can never know enough, and frankly the great thing about working in urban planning is that if you are open to it, you learn new things every day.

Anyway, three resources that I have come across in the past few days that are particularly exemplary.

1. Dan Reed's blog entry on skateboard parks mentioned how "Skateboard Mom" uncovered the resources of the Skaters for Public Skateparks organization. On their website they have a fabulous presentation for use as training for advocates, as well as for advocates to be able to take this presentation and use it in public presentations.

That presentation is a model for the kind of resource that national groups should be working to provide to local organizations and advocates, in order to strengthen our ability to communicate and explain best practices and the kinds of programs we are looking to emulate and adopt in our own communities.

2. The Wisconsin State Department of Transportation publishes a Transportation Planning Resource Guide, which is intended to be used by communities in their creation of the transportation element in local comprehensive land use master plans.

Imagine giving people a resource guide so that they address the planning element comprehensively, rather than their focusing on the modes that concern them most?

3. I noticed in this week's Current that DC Department of Transportation is beginning to change how it approaches "traffic calming" in neighborhoods, in response to some hullaballoo in Chevy Chase. Also see the past Post article, "The Speed Hump Sound-Off: It's Petty. It's Personal. And Chevy Chase Is Honkin' Aggravated."

The reality is that the current "system" is narrowly defined and it doesn't consider a broad set of options and it doesn't "feel" very systematic.

But the City of Tempe Transportation Department (like Arlington County and New York City, it is also a national best practice example) has a great program for streetscape improvements as a part of "traffic calming" and quality of life improvement initiatives (it's funded in part by the sales tax monies that are dedicated to transportation as well as bond funding) and it results in impressive outcomes such as the Fifth Street Pedestrian Enhancement and Traffic Calming Project

How would you like an intersection like this in your neighborhood, designed to call attention and build pride in the neighborhood and improve the public realm, as well as to slow down cars? I like that a lot better than speed bumps and humps, which in the end don't do all that much to calm traffic.
They have organized their efforts into a program called Streetscape and Transportation Enhancement Program (STEP) (click on the traffic calming tab at the top of the website to link to this and other pages on transportation enhancement projects) and they publish a Streetscape and Transportation Enhancement Manual to guide residents in the process of creating neighborhood-specific improvement programs. (Of course the NYC Street Design Manual is also a great resource.)

Here's the table of contents:

1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 STEP GOALS AND POLICIES
General Scope
Large and Small Scale Problems

3.0 STEP GUIDELINES AND PROCESS
Selective Enforcement Motorcycle Squad
Stakeholder Submits a STEP Request Form
City Staff Review
City Staff Response
Decision to Proceed with Small Scale Projects
Decision to Proceed with Large Scale Projects
STEP Team Informational Meeting
Form an Action Team
Develop a Draft Action Plan
Community Presentation for Testing
30-Day Comment Period
Conditions for Approval of Testing
Conditions for Approval of Implementation
If Approval is Not Achieved
Project Selection and Prioritization

4.0 STEP TOOLBOX
Identify the Problem
Mixing/Matching
Multi-Modal Considerations
Table 1: Impacts of Traffic Management Devices
Median
One-Way Choker
Two-Way Choker
Bulb-Out
Chicane
Star Diverter
Right Turn Diverter
Traffic Footballs
Intersection Cul-De-Sac
Traffic Circle
Median Barrier
Roundabouts
Speed Hump
Speed Table
Departure Choker
Entry Choker
Diverter
Semi-Diverter (Type A)
Semi-Diverter (Type B)
Table 2: Cost and Construction of STEP Tools

5.0 APPLICATION FORMS
Resident Action Request Form
Resident Support Form
Resident Request Form

But having a manual and system for dealing with such requests, that is so not DC, where everything is deliberately not systematized, but I can't say that I know the reason for why that is.

Page from the Tempe Streetscape and Transportation Enhancement Manual.