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Snow and the Urban Pedestrian

Posted January 19th, 2012 by peg

Snow and Icy Conditions and the Pedestrian Realm – Update 2012

With all of the snow in the Puget Sound area, we de-iced some of the work that we had done as part of the Pedestrian Master Plan regarding snow and icy conditions and the pedestrian environment. We hope you enjoy and can glean some insights to share with others. There are seven topic areas: commercial and retail settings, frontages, placement of snow, corners, catch basins and drains, residential settings and ideas we suggest for further development.

Pedestrians to note:

Cars have difficulty stopping at crosswalks so be on alert in all directions and “give them space”.

Commercial and Retail Settings

Commercial and retail areas of the City are particularly attuned to maintaining activity on the sidewalks; providing access to retail offices and services; and providing access to transit.

Access to transit

Clearing for pedestrian travel

Frontages

Snow and ice conditions may vary widely within the City of Seattle. Each property owner is responsible to maintain access along their properties. Access will vary according to the storm event.

Property maintaining frontage

Property not maintaining frontage

Neighbors not participating create inconsistencies. However, even a few feet of clearing width can facilitate safer travel. Shovel snow to provide a minimum of 4 feet clear along the entire frontage and the full width of each entry. Ideally 6 to 8 feet would be cleared however it is more important to maintain a consistent path of travel.

Clearing travel path first

Cleared exit/entrance to parking garage could be improved with additional curbside clearing in the street.

Placement of Snow

Place shoveled snow between the sidewalk and the curb; do not shovel the snow into the parking or curb lane as this may impede cars buses, delivery vehicles.

Snow dumped into loading/ unloading zone causes problems

Access for loading/ unloading needs to remain clear

Piles of shoveled snow are barrier for bus stop.

Clearing curb ramp zones of improperly dumped snow improves pedestrian crossings

Snow scooped by plows can create obstacles for pedestrian

Corners

It is important to clear the corners so pedestrians and drivers can discern the traveled edge. Ideally the entire corner would be cleared but as a minimum clear the curb ramps with a 5 foot long landing area back of the ramps

Corner undefined

Corner and ramp clear

Catch Basins and Drains

Keeping the drainage structures free of snow will facilitate drainage as the snow melts preventing ponding at the intersections

Ponding in the street

Residential

Homeowners, property managers and residents should maintain a path of travel along their frontage. Maintaining access will assist both you and your neighbors in traveling to stores, buses or just out for a walk in the snow.

Maintaining at least a shovel width will assist but ideally clear about 4 feet.

Snow also causes vertical obstacles as branches bend due to weight of snow

Place shoveled snow on the edge of the walk. Do not place the snow in the curb zone as that would impede vehicles. Residents that live on corners should clear the sidewalk at the corner so neighbors can see the edge of the street. Neighbors can also assist the City to by keeping drainage structures free of snow and debris.

Ideas Under Development

Snow Removal Patrols:

Snow and Inclement Weather neighborhood helper patrol
Downtown and Urban Village Assistance Teams
Business Improvement Districts cost sharing for snow removal
Metropolitan improvement districts
Downtown Associations

Businesses/Residents will sign up to be in charge of their block or business district. Every October the lead contact will receive 3 snow shovels; 1 flat shovel and three brooms and 6 green waste bags. They will arrange a fall block clean up and enlist or assign businesses to shovel snow in advance of an expected snow fall.

Other:

Arrange consistent leaf pick up day for downtown businesses and urban village commercial zones.

Isolated shoveling

Tags: Seattle, snow
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Beacon Mountain Preview Video

Posted November 8th, 2011 by Brice Maryman

Beacon Mountain at Jefferson Park is well under construction, with the rough grading approaching finished grade. A quick video from near the covered overlook gives some sense of the tremendous views that will be available when the site is finished.

Best viewed full screen.

Tags: landscape architecture, playground
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David Byrne’s “Poem to Cyclists”

Posted October 12th, 2011 by Brice Maryman

A visual poem, from the former Talking Heads lead singer. We recommend full screen in HD.

h/t Vermont’s Local Motion blog

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Interpretive Benchbacks at Duwamish Hill Preserve

Posted October 4th, 2011 by nate_cormier

Thank you to Mette Hanson, interpretive planner and artist, for her beautiful work on a series of etched aluminum benchbacks at Duwamish Hill Preserve. These simple seating areas act as touchstones for education and interpretation during visits to the Hill. Their themes were synched up with views from each sandstone bench. We’re really pleased with the interpretive artwork itself and also the fact that it allowed us to forgo stand-alone panels so the landscape itself can tell the real story.

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Bell Street Park Textures

Posted September 14th, 2011 by Brice Maryman

Bell Street Park Pavement Textures

Hewitt did some cool mock-ups of the pavement textures we’re considering for the rumbly middle tones in bell street park. We’re leaning toward the finer grain of the two and experimenting with convex and concave in terms of durability, accessibility, drainage, visuals, etc.

Tags: Bell Street
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Eating in the Street: A Wonderful Night at Winslow in White

Posted September 13th, 2011 by Brice Maryman

Several SvR staff members took in a beautiful late-summer evening on the nearly completed Winslow Way as part of the Bainbridge Island Downtown Association’s Winslow in White fundraiser. Close to a thousand people–dressed in white–dined al fresco in the middle of the street as the sun set. Though the plantings aren’t in yet, the street is already serving as a wonderful stage for the community to come together and celebrate.

Tags: winslow way
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GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE RETROFITS IN SEATTLE’S BARTON BASIN

Posted September 9th, 2011 by Brice Maryman

SvR Design is honored to have been awarded the contract for King County’s Barton Basin Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control with Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) project. This precedent-setting project will reimagine a portion of the existing rights-of-way in the 1,111 acre basin to include, bioretention swales, street trees, amended soils and other green infrastructure facilities. These will be installed along approximately 32 blocks in the Sunrise Heights and Westwood neighborhoods with the goal of reducing overall stormwater loads to lower the incidence of combined sewer discharges.

A typical residential streetscape within the Barton Basin before undergoing the green stormwater infrastructure retrofit.

“Across the United States, cities are looking for cost-effective, environmentally-responsible solutions for reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs) each year. At the same time, they are also looking for ways to reduce polluted stormwater runoff from their roadways. The Barton Basin project will accomplish both of these goals, providing an exceptional case study for making limited public funds go further,” said Peg Staeheli, ASLA, SvR’s Principal in Charge for the project. “King County could have spent one dollar and gotten one dollar’s worth in return; instead we’re getting three dollars back in return by creating jobs, adding real value to the neighborhood and increasing overall regional resilience.”

CSOs occur when existing combined sewer pipes are overwhelmed by heavy rain events, resulting in the release of sewage into local water bodies. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 850 billion gallons of untreated effluent come from CSOs every year. Washington State’s Department of Ecology estimates that CSOs account for 3.3 billion gallons of untreated discharge into the state’s waterways each year. In 2008, the Barton Basin had four overflows resulting in 4 million gallons of untreated effluent.

A typical residential streetscape within the Barton Basin after the green stormwater infrastructure retrofit with raingardens, street trees and swales added between the sidewalk and curb to help relieve pressure on the piped sewer system.

The Barton Basin project aims to reduce that number of overflows to one per year by controlling the rate at which stormwater flows into combined sewer pipes. By trapping and infiltrating this stormwater closer to where it falls, the Barton Basin project will reduce the amount of stormwater entering the combined pipe system, and reduce overall energy devoted to pumping and treatment.

“The conventional engineering approach to solving CSOs would have been to add a lot of storage capacity for pipes, vaults and other large concrete structures,” according to Steve Burke, PE, the project’s lead civil engineer. “That type of bottom-of-the-pipe solution solves the CSO problem, but it also misses an opportunity to bring a more holistic solution forward to the community. By contrast, the top-of-the-pipe, low impact development solutions that we’ll be implementing in Barton Basin will reduce the amount of water flowing into the piped sewer system, create green jobs, improve biological diversity, filter polluted stormwater runoff, increase walkability and accelerate adaptation to a wetter environment due to climate change, just to name a few of its many benefits.”

The project is expected to be designed in the next year and a half, with construction completed by 2015.

Tags: civil engineering, landscape architecture
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Connecting Food Access, Land Use and Transportation to Public Health? Let’s Do This

Posted August 8th, 2011 by Brice Maryman

Let’s Do This, a new education campaign, asks King County residents to get involved in creating healthier communities

Exciting changes are happening in King County to prevent tobacco- and obesity-related diseases, two leading causes of preventable death in King County.

Through a Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grant, SvR is leading a team of consultants–Alta Planning and Design, CollinsWoerman and Urban Food Link–helping six King County cities consider ways to create healthier communities through improved food access, transportation and land use. The goal of these policy changes will be to make the healthy choice the easy choice. In this case, the healthy choice is known as HEAL: Healthy Eating and Active Living. These are policy-level interventions that will change communities, especially underserved neighborhoods by creating more healthy options and less unhealthy ones for hundreds of thousands of residents.

More than a third of the deaths in King County – about 4,000 each year — are a result of smoking, unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity. Persons in the most disadvantaged communities are three to four times more likely to be obese or smoke compared to the well-off neighborhoods.

To combat this trend, Public Health – Seattle & King County and more than 50 partners across the County are working to create sustainable community changes that increase access to physical activity and healthy food, decrease access to unhealthy food options, decrease tobacco use and limit exposure to secondhand smoke, particularly in areas where the need is greatest. The SvR team is working with the cities of Redmond, Snoqualmie, SeaTac, DesMoines, Burien and Federal Way to change zoning to allow more access to healthy food choices, to improve non-motorized transportation connections within and between these cities, to write Complete Streets ordinances and to better align land use code with public health goals.

Let’s Do This Campaign

Let’s Do This, the Public Health campaign that supports the on-going CPPW work, officially launches in early August. The campaign supports the ongoing Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CCPW) obesity and tobacco prevention efforts underway in King County.

As the Let’s Do This campaign explains, people can’t make healthy choices if they aren’t available. The campaign focuses on the relationship between neighborhood and health, notes inequities in our county and inspires residents to become involved. The campaign features Mia, an eleven-year-old King County resident who wants to be a healthy kid and notices aspects of her neighborhood that make it difficult to be healthy.

Let’s Do This materials include a 30-second cable television ad in English and Spanish, three on-line videos, online, radio and ethnic media advertising, posters, billboards and a website. For more information about the campaign, to download posters and to view additional videos about sugary drinks, safe walking routes to school, and healthy retail, visit www.letsdothiskingcounty.org.

You also can help spread the word about the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

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Complete Green Street Workshop News

Posted June 23rd, 2011 by Tom von Schrader

SvR was instrumental in the success of a couple recent complete/green street workshops. Tom von Schrader and Nathan Polanski led a panel on policy, practice and integration at the Kitsap Complete Streets Leadership Forum in Poulsbo in early June. Then the next week Tom, Nathan and Amalia Leighton headed down to beautiful Paso Robles, California to lead a Complete/Green Streets Workshop sponsered by the City of Paso Robles, UC Davis’ LID Initiative and the Central Coast Water Board. Both workshops were at capacity and lively discussions were a testament to the growing recognition that our public right of ways are a valuable resource that should be balanced for a wide variety of users and uses.

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SilvaCell Installation on Winslow Way

Posted June 16th, 2011 by Brice Maryman

Over on Winslow Way, the SilvaCell’s are being installed. For Winslow, these were the perfect technologies to achieve two important goals. First, to integrate all of the ecosystem services that a robust tree canopy provides, and second, to calm traffic by visually narrowing the roadway since the trees are located in the parking zone of the street. We also needed to make sure that Winslow Way was durable and flexible enough to survive the wear and tear that Bainbridge’s host of community events provide throughout the year. Pat from DeepRoot was out on site during installation and took a number of pictures of the process. You can find all of them on their flickr stream, but we’ve culled a few here that shows the installation over time.