Transportation planning to promote a sustainable community

Transportation planning to promote a sustainable community

Teresa Scott, P.E.

Director of Public Works City of Gainesville, Florida Member, APWA Center for Sustainability

ong-range transportation planning through the metropolitan planning processes has historically been separate from local land use planning. In the Gainesville Urbanized Area we were not satisfied with the long-range transportation plan that resulted from models running on the adopted local land use plan. The community envisioned a multimodal system that provided a high modal split of non-auto trips; but the models identified more multi-laning of major corridors seen as only dividing the community and encouraging nonwalkable corridors.

In the 1990s we began exploring opportunities to evaluate alternative land use and transportation system modeling scenarios that would allow the community to decide what type of land use they would support to obtain the transportation system they envisioned. Out of this effort the Livable Community Reinvestment Plan was developed. This plan has been updated and refined over the years but has held firm to the vision of reinvesting in the existing infrastructure and promoting sustainable development.

Vision Statement for the 2035 Livable Community Reinvestment Plan

The Gainesville Urbanized Area will have a multimodal transportation system that integrates land use and transportation planning and investments to promote community wellbeing through good and healthy relationships with the region’s other communities and natural systems. Specific outcomes will be:

1. Sustainable, safe, secure, energyefficient and livable land use

patterns and complementary context-sensitive transportation networks that provide mobility choices within and between compact, mixed-use, multimodalsupportive development; 2. Balanced east-west Gainesville

Urbanized Area growth to reduce socioeconomic disparity through increased transportation mobility and accessibility; 3. Transportation infrastructure investments that direct growth to existing infill and redevelopment areas; 4. Greenbelts to preserve natural and agricultural lands between all municipalities in the Alachua

County region through compact land use patterns served by express transit service and park-and-ride facilities; and 5. A network of Rapid Transit Facilities connecting regional employment centers in order to enhance the economic competitiveness of the area. A key question that was considered in the development of the 2035 transportation project needs plan was “Should transportation investments be made to reinforce and support future growth in the core part of the urbanized area where transportation alternatives already exist, or should transportation investments be made to improve accessibility and mobility in the urban periphery or outlying areas, where much of the county’s future growth is expected to occur?”

An Accessibility Matrix for Planning Strategies (below) was developed to illustrate one of the key objectives of the plan; to move people and jobs from areas with poor sustainability and accessibility to areas with excellent sustainability and accessibility.

There were four network alternatives analyzed: (1) Transit/BRT Emphasis; (2) Highway Emphasis; (3) Transit/Streetcar Emphasis; and (4) Hybrid/Demand Management Solution. The Hybrid network alternative was ultimately selected as the objective of improving mobility and accessibility along major corridors served by a Bus Rapid Transit network and development of a streetcar service that will connect downtown Gainesville, the University of Florida and retail/student housing areas to the

LAND USE SUSTAINABILITY

Low

Medium

High TRANSPORTATION ACCESSIBILITY

Low Medium High

Area with poor sustainability & accessibility (Improve or leave as is? Area needed to improve land use and more intensively Area needed to improve land use

Area needed to improve transportation more intensively Area needed to improve both land use and transportation Area with potential (improve land use)

Area needed to improve transportation Area with potential (need to improve transportation) Area with excellent sustainability & accessibility

west of the main campus. The plan includes roadway, transit and bicycle/ pedestrian projects.

Another new component of the 2035 plan is the evaluation of Peak Oil and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Strategies. While there are two recognized primary and important ways to address transportation needs—speed and proximity—under peak oil, proximity and the accessibility of destinations by more energy-efficient travel modes become increasingly important factors. Two land use strategies—location efficiency and modifying land use patterns— were identified in the plan. Location efficiency includes creating affordable housing options close to services and facilities, establishing linkages of housing, jobs, and other trip destinations in close proximity, locating community services and facilities along corridors served by public transportation, and ensuring that convenient transit, bicycle and pedestrian networks linkages are in place. Modifying land use patterns is defined as adaptive reuse of existing developed sites into higher density transit-supportive uses, clean energy uses, or converted into urban agricultural gardens.

Since the 1990s the Gainesville Urbanized Area has seen significant reinvestment and redevelopment of transportation corridors, housing and mixed use development in the core area of the city as anticipated by the Livable Community Reinvestment vision. Transportation improvements and investments in transit, as well as other public and private investments, have been geared towards promoting the livable community vision. Our transit ridership has set new records every year since 1997—up to 9.4 million in FY2010. Over the past 10 years the ridership has increased by approximately 49.3% and is setting the pace for the highest per capita ridership in the state of Florida (see above). During the period 2005 through 2010 we have seen a reduction in Daily Vehicle-Miles Travelled and fuel consumption while seeing an increase in population (see below).

Having had the opportunity to participate in both the planning and implementation processes in the Gainesville Urbanized Area over this entire time period has taught me that it is important that once clear vision of where the community wants to go is established, all the plans must align with this vision—transportation, land use, capital improvements—and the decisions each year of where public funding is spent all work to implement the vision. Probably most importantly is the need to keep reminding all the stakeholders what the vision is and continue to promote the decisions that will achieve the vision.

I have also learned that reinvesting in the existing infrastructure, ensuring that the transportation is multi-modal, and providing a vibrant transit system are key elements to a sustainable community that offers a high quality of life.

Teresa Scott can be reached at (352) 3938801 or scottta@cityofgainesville.org.