City planners told to take hike

Cities need to make a paradigm shift in how they plan for transportation before the economic revitalization many of them seek can occur.

Simply put, transportation planning needs to put the pedestrian first, not the vehicle.

That was the message Ian Lockwood delivered to a room full of traffic engineers, city and county planners and other community members on Thursday morning at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute. The seminar, sponsored by the state Department of Transportation, was designed to illustrate new state requirements that land-use planning promote physical activity, including incorporating bicycle and walking paths.

Lockwood, a senior transportation engineer for Glatting Jackson in Orlando, Fla., says that’s something cities should do just because it’s smart economics, promotes a healthier lifestyle at a time when Americans are getting fatter, and reduces dependence on foreign oil.

His firm has undertaken projects that include ripping out highways to reconnect cities with their waterfronts, narrowing streets to slow cars down and create more pedestrian-friendly environments, and building more streets to ease congestion and create more interconnected neighborhoods.

“In 5,000 years of building cities, we have perfected the automobile environment,” Lockwood said.

Looking at this region, Lockwood wondered why the city of Spokane allowed Post Street to be disconnected from its “fabulous” Riverfront Park through construction of River Park Square. He advocated removing the skywalks, saying they kill street-level pedestrian traffic, and he dismissed the idea that bad weather makes them necessary. In addition, he said, downtown streets should be narrowed to slow traffic and create a more appealing pedestrian-friendly environment. He criticized downtown buildings lacking in windows, saying they’re not inviting to the pedestrian. He said the historic, endangered Rookery Building should be fixed up because “I don’t think you could ever duplicate that with a new product.”

Lockwood said that if he worked in Spokane Valley, his focus would be changing the Sprague Avenue couplet into a two-way street as fast as possible. One-way streets focus entirely on moving traffic quickly and destroy any chance of developing a walking environment, he said.

Successful cities offer dozens of what Lockwood called “unplanned exchanges.” Those are the experiences a person might have walking down the street, such as running into a friend, popping into a gallery, impulse shopping or other spontaneous activities. Those are the experiences people crave because they add richness to their lives, Lockwood said. Driving everywhere eliminates the possibility of those connections.

Buildings in successful cities are built as close to the street as possible, while leaving room for sidewalks, Lockwood said. Whether the buildings hold housing, retail, fast food restaurants or Home Depot, that design creates a more attractive and appealing environment, he said.

Lockwood detailed the changes in West Palm Beach, Fla., which in the early 1990s suffered from urban blight, run-down buildings, and drug and prostitution problems. A new mayor was elected who was determined to change things, he said. The city developed design standards for its downtown to focus on the pedestrian, slow cars down and beautify buildings. Developers who adhered to the standards received building permits in one hour, he said, which dramatically cut the time for projects to be built.

The city borrowed $15 million to fix up its main shopping street, which inspired $360 million in reinvestment by private interests. It bought an old, burned-out building on three acres of waterfront at auction and sold tickets to a party at which it was demolished. The party paid for the demolition, after which the land was developed into a now-popular waterfront amphitheater, built in part with funds from selling naming rights.

The city pushed banks to help low-income people secure mortgages so they could buy, not rent, their homes. Gradually, the city transformed from one where 80 percent of residents rented to one where 80 percent owned their own homes.

So when cities tell Lockwood there’s not enough money to do what West Palm Beach did, he says they need to think creatively. Proper investment in a city is returned many times over in increased property tax revenues from new development and business activity, he said.