Planning for place while planning for transportation: Long and slow, quick and fast | you need both

Over the years, I've come to the position that transportation planning can be too narrow, focused on the mode, less on land use context.

This has been scintillated in a few entries.

The first was the concept of Signature Streets, providing for streetside and other improvements simultaneously with a road project.  I came up with the concept while working for Baltimore County, and I've extended it since.

-- "Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces"" 

A few years later, after doing some review of some neighborhoods in DC, I realized that there "should be" urban design improvement programs for neighborhoods.  Sometimes this is called placemaking.

-- "Planning urban design improvements at the neighborhood scale: Dupont Circle, DC"
-- "More about making 17th Street between P and R a pedestrian space on weekends,"

Later I realized that these types of improvements are typically part of a "pedestrian transportation plan," but that the scope of the plan should be about neighborhood improvements beyond simply pedestrian matters, that it should be a "walkability plan," not just a pedestrian plan.

-- "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning"

Lots of people waiting for a ferry to get to an island park in Toronto at the Jack Layton Terminal.  Photo: Laura Proctor, TGM.

But reading the Toronto Globe & Mail article, "Toronto’s public spaces need results – not more plans," I realized that the urban design plan for an area should be in two parts.*  (1) The hard stuff.  (2) Easier stuff, like what would be covered in what is called Tactical Urbanism.

What Toronto’s public spaces need are quick wins and visible improvements. The problems are glaring, and some are easily fixable. The Layton terminal is too small, with little seating, no shade, few ticket booths and virtually nothing to eat or drink. On Centre Island, the ferry landing resembles a livestock corral.

Here, there is some good news. The city is working with Waterfront Toronto on “interim improvements to the ferry terminal over the next couple of years,” said Carol Webb, the organization’s senior manager of communications and public engagement. This year will bring a temporary shade structure, some murals and some “improvements to queuing and wayfinding.”

But even this is overdue and too slow. The city should move faster. Put up commercial shade sails. Hire staff with handheld devices to sell ferry tickets on the spot. On the island side, add a cooling station, folding chairs and tables, another set of shade sails – and invite a coffee truck to park near the dock.

This logic should extend across the city. Start with awnings, chairs and food vendors, then scale up to capital projects. Focus on busy and symbolic sites: Nathan Phillips Square, Old City Hall, the Union Station area, the zone around St. Lawrence Market, Mel Lastman Square and Scarborough Civic Centre. And add St. James Town, the densely populated neighbourhood where Ms. Chow grew up, whose streets and tiny park have been neglected far too long.

Many of these sites have budgeted projects or finished plans. ... The problem is a lack of focus and leadership.

Meanwhile, action is needed. Reports don’t make good places – people do. And they need basic amenities: bathrooms, seating, shade. They also need hope. This summer, Toronto doesn’t need more vision documents, but visible proof that government can act and that public space can function here.

Working on easy stuff will bring about improvements fast, while hard stuff often takes years to come to fruition.  The tactical interventions make the place nicer now, and build support for longer term projects.

• Tactical Urbanism Manual, vol. 1
• Tactical Urbanism Manual, vol. 2
• Tactical Urbanists Guide to Materials and Design

Love Park at York Street and Queens Quay initially had 45 chairs scattered throughout that people could move wherever they liked. After three summers, all 45 chairs are still there.Photo:   Richard Lautens/Toronto Star.

A Toronto Star article, "Love Park broke the mould with its movable chairs. Toronto’s other public spaces should take note," makes a similar point in discussing the impact of movable tables and chairs in the city's LOVE Park, that places to be successful in the face of the slowness of traditional government to respond, need place managers. In central business districts, these are usually business improvement districts.  

Smaller neighborhoods might have Main Street commercial district revitalization programs.  

-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 1 | The first six," (2020)
-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 2 |  A neighborhood identity and marketing toolkit (kit of parts)," (2020)
-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 3 | The overarching approach: destination development/branding and identity, layering and daypart planning," (2020)
-- "Basic planning building blocks for "community" revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 4 | Place evaluation tools," (2020)

I also recommend a similar program for neighborhoods.  From Pennsylvania's Elm Street program to San Francisco's Green Benefits District.

-- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)." (2020)
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2." (2020)
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)." (2020)
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)." (2020)
-- "Local neighborhood stabilization programs: Part 5 | Adding energy conservation programs, with the PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone as a model," (2021)

How to start.  A great way to start this is using the Place Game from the Project for Public Spaces workshop (and book), "How to Turn A Place Around."  People go into spaces and teams, people represent a variety of backgrounds, and evaluate them for opportunities for improvement.

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*  Note that the concept of scaling is also put forward in updates to the Transformational Projects Action Planning approach that I have espoused.

TPAP at multiple scales.  Over time, as I wrote more about it, I realized it should be applied at multiple scales ("A wrinkle in thinking about the Transformational Projects Action Planning approach: Great public buildings aren't just about design, but what they do," 2022).

(1) neighborhood/district/city/county wide as part of a master plan;
(2) within functional elements of a master plan such as transportation, housing, or economic development; and
(3) within a specific project (e.g., how do we make this particular library or transit station or park or neighborhood "great"?); in terms of both
(4) architecture and design; and
(5) program/plan for what the functions within the building accomplish.