Hamilton Walkability Plan
Table of Contents
04 - Introduction - Study area map - Demographics
12 - Benefits of Walkability - Health benefits - Sustainability - Economic benefits
18 - Strategies for Walkability - Pedestrian access - Mixed uses - Pedestrian preference - Pedestrian amenities
28 - Conclusion - Recommendation list - Image credits
Introduction
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Hamilton is a city of around 60,000 people in the southwest of Ohio, near Cincinnati. The Greater Ohio Policy Center has called attention to the development and interest in Hamilton. As the city grows, it will meet many challenges, including accessibility and transportation. Many areas in the city have not developed to support walkable communities. They are missing sidewalks, they do not have a grid system, or they are too far away from other uses. The suburban housing that surrounds the city, for example, is far from grocery stores, public parks, and government buildings. This document will identify various problems for walkability in the city, as well as provide clear strategies to improve the situation.
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Hamilton, Ohio
Hamilton Corporate Boundary Local Roads Major Roads US
Hospital
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School
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Courthouse
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State Ro
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ute 130
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State Route 128
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The current municipal boundary of Hamilton has some indications of sprawl and car-oriented development, such as the annexation of the large area to the southeast and the areas connected by only a small section of the municipal area. These types of annexations may be useful for tax purposes; there could be factory jobs or shopping centers located in these areas. However they are not easily walkable. There are few roads, they are far away from institutions like schools and hospitals, and there are few access points.
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Transit Potential of Roads
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Here is an illustration of the transit potential for Hamilton. Traditional urban developments that have compact grid systems, higher density, and wider sidewalks are more conducive to mass transit. This map is a simple illustration of where mass transit would be most effective. Traditional urban developments like Downtown and the Main Street District are included in black, as are newer developments to the northwest of Main Street. Areas marked by red are suburban or rural developments. The grid systems in black make it easier to place transit stops, and each stop serves a larger number of homes and businesses. Transit stops serve more businesses and homes because of both density and ease of access.
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Households with One or No Cars
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The number of cars in a household can be indicative of the use of other transportation methods, like walking, cycling, or busing. The darker areas on this map show where households have the lead amount of cars. These areas tend to be centrally located and mostly match up with the transit-oriented grid system shown on the previous page. This map does not take into consideration the number of legal drivers in a household. Some households may only have one car per licensed driver.
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Areas in Poverty
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Poverty in Hamilton seems to be centrally located. Notice that there are some areas in poverty that have more than one car per household. Again, this could mean that there are simply multiple legal drivers in these households, each with a car. There is a stronger correlation, however, to households with one or no car and the amount of households in poverty. These areas are also much more walkable than the areas with generally less poverty.
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What are the benefits of walkable communities? How are walkable communities created? 10
Chapter 3, Strategies for Walkability, will give some strategies the community can put in place to achieve a more walkable community. The strategies found in this document are only a few of many potential strategies. They will range from quick and easy fixes to more longterm projects.
Why are walkable communities important? How do residents benefit from walkability? How are walkable neighborhoods planned and created? This issues will be discussed in the following chapters. If a community is going to invest time and money into any project than the benefits of the project need to be clearly explained. Chapter 2, Benefits of Walkability, will give a few examples of benefits for the community, although there are many that will not be covered in this document.
Finally, Chapter 4 will provide a brief summary of everything covered throughout the plan. A list of all recommendations can be found in Chapter 4. While this document is a plan, it is not site specific. The strategies here can be implemented in every neighborhood. This strategies are also recommendations; this is not a policy document. Each strategy must be discussed and adopted by local government bodies and officials. The goal of this document is to contribute to the conversation on the future of Hamilton.
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Benefits of Walkability
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First, health benefits can range from weight loss to disease prevention to mental health. The environment benefits from reduced green house gas emissions and habitat protection through denser development practices. Equity is improved by improving access for those in poverty and reducing disproportionate travel costs. Changing development practices and retrofitting existing neighborhoods into walkable neighborhoods can be expensive and time consuming. Before Hamilton can be expected to invest in city-wide walkability programs, including writing an official plan, stakeholders should be made aware of the various benefits of walkability. This section will cover several major benefits of walkable developments.
Finally, the economy is improved by increasing housing prices, making the housing market more resilient, and increasing retail sales. The benefits for health, sustainability, equity, and the economy cannot all be listed here; there are many left out. And there are many categories of benefits, such as aesthetics and neighborhood character, that are not discussed here.
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1. Improved Health 2. Sustainability 3. Economic Growth 14
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Other health benefits include lowering the risk of dementia, diabetes, obesity, mental stress, and even colon cancer.
Walking improves overall health. The American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine both call for able-bodied adults to walk at least 30 minutes, five days a week.
A walkable community is one that encourages walking. More people will be inclined to take pleasant strolls under the shade of trees or when they bump into their neighbors, as opposed to walking on a narrow sidewalk next to a busy six lane road. This can boost the amount of walking moderately.
According to Harvard Health, regular walking, as recommended by the American Heart Association, has been shown to lower death rates, lower the risk of coronary artery disease, lower the risk of a heart attack, improve overall heart health, and lower to risk of stroke.
It only takes 30 minutes a day to reap the health benefits of walking. Those 30 minutes can be spent in a calming, walkable neighborhood or they can be spent in parking lots and in super-markets.
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Walkability boosts sustainability in terms of the environment, equity, and the economy. Economy is covered on the next page. Walkability contributes to equity by improving access to otherwise marginalized communities. Areas with higher rates of poverty should be improved first, as those are the areas in most need of improved access. Those in poverty typically spend a higher percentage of their income on travel. Neighborhoods in poverty also tend to have poor access to grocery stores, educational facilities, medical facilities, and jobs. Improving their access through walkable, transit-oriented development can allow those in poverty to save time and effort on travel. Environmentally sustainable practices call for walkable neighborhoods. The more people walk, the less they drive. This has several impacts on the environment.
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2 First, if people are not driving, development must be more dense and more centrally located. Sprawl can destroy natural habitats and waste resources. Second, transportation is the second highest contributor to green house gas emissions (GHGe). Cars are a large contributor to these emissions. The more people walk, the less they drive, the less GHGe they create. Finally, pedestrian amenities like lighting and compact development require less energy.
3 Economic strength is crucial to many smallto mid-sized towns in Ohio. Walkable neighborhoods can contribute to the economic strength of towns. Around 80% of millennials and 60% of seniors want to live in walkable communities. Firms and start-ups tend to prefer walkable communities and cities. Cities may lose out on potential investment from businesses. Potential jobs may also reject a poorly developed city for a highly walkable one.
According the Mariela Alfonzo, founder of State of Place, home price premiums increase as neighborhood walkability increases. Transit in combination with walkability (transit stations within walking distance of homes) increases prices even further. Housing price resiliency is also improved by walkability. Housing prices drop half as much as houses in non-walkable communities during the recession. New York City’s Department of Transportation found that increased walkability and bikeability led to increased retail sales and reduction in commercial property vacancy.
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Strategies for Walkability
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These strategies can be applied in existing, traditional urban neighborhoods like Main Street (pictured above) or heavily cardependent commercial areas. There are many small aspects of a neighborhood that make it walkable. Sidewalks do not do the trick all by themselves, and it is often the smaller changes that make a big difference. This section provides strategies and ideas for how to achieve walkability. There are other strategies not listed here. The strategies are divided into four overlapping categories: Pedestrian Access, Mixed-Use Development, Pedestrian Preference, and Pedestrian Amenities.
Suburbs and sprawl cannot be ignored by planners and decision makes in favor of urban neighborhoods. The development already exists and without ambitious plans for retrofitting, the problems that sprawl creates will not go away. Many of these strategies will cost more time and money in some areas than in others. Urban neighborhoods have far less work to do and they should continue to improve. For suburban areas and sprawled areas, pedestrian access is a good starting point.
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1. Pedestrian Access 2. Encourage Mixed Uses 3. Pedestrian Preference
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4. Pedestrian Amenities
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City-wide strategies include reorganizing the street grid (see map titled “Improving the Grid�), implementing a sidewalk maintenance program, and encouraging density so destinations are within walking distance.
Pedestrian access covers many strategies. Access can apply broadly to the city and the layout of the city, or it can come down to street level strategies.
Neighborhood level strategies include installing sidewalks, widening sidewalks, and installing pedestrian-scale signs to improve pedestrian way-finding.
On the city scale, the street layout can be car-access oriented, or it can be pedestrianaccess oriented. Pedestrian access-oriented grids provide straight paths from one point to another, but they also must be interesting paths. Pedestrians do not want to walk down long, boring streets.
Pedestrian-scale signage is important so visitors to the neighborhood can easily identify the shortest distance to a popular bar, a grocery store, or a hotel. Additionally, signs indicating pleasant views, public parks, or public events can help pedestrians reach their destinations.
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Encouraging or incentivizing mixeduses throughout neighborhoods improve walkability by bringing necessary uses closer to residential areas. Corner stores are great options for residential streets, while nearby streets can be designated a mix of commercial and apartment uses. The goal of mixed-use development is not to make every street look like a downtown street. Single-family residential streets can still exist, but those neighborhoods should not be outside of walking distance from commercial areas. If mixed-use is to be incentivized or encouraged by the city there needs to be a clear, measurable definition of enhancing walkability through mixed-use. First, the types of uses must be defined, and then the distance from a neighborhood to those various uses needs to be defined and measured.
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2 Uses can be split into several categories: food retail (grocery stores), community serving retail (corner stores, farmers’ markets, pharmacies), services (banks, entertainment), and civic and community facilities (senior care, childcare, education, government offices, medical facilities). Each residential neighborhood should be within a certain distance, around 1/2 mile, from a certain number of these categories of uses.
Improving the Grid
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Hamilton Corporate Boundary Local Roads Suggested Roads
As seen in the introduction to this document, grid systems are conducive to mass transit because of improved accessibility. This map illustrates a suburban area in the northeast of Hamilton that has a poor grid system. While building a large number of new roads is generally not the best idea, this development already exists. Connecting the existing roads to make an improved grid can boost accessibility, walkability, bikeability, and eventually mass transit use as it is installed.
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A crossing sign on this corner would make crossing the six lane street less stressful.
Many curb cuts like this one give priority to cars when crossing pedestrians’ paths.
The sidewalk stops here, making it difficult to walk down this side of the street. This crosswalk is faded. Better marking for crosswalks signals drivers to be aware of pedestrians.
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3 Development and neighborhoods can be either car-oriented or pedestrian-oriented. Car-oriented neighborhoods do not invest in sidewalks or pedestrian amenities like trees and benches. They have wide streets or poorly painted or non-existent crosswalks. If they do have sidewalks, they tend to have more curb cuts and front-of-the-lot parking. Pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods have well-maintained sidewalks and pedestrian amenities on those sidewalks. They encourage mixed transportation methods, such as rail,
buses, street cars, or bicycles. They disallow curb cuts, where cars are able to cross the sidewalk to access a lot. Parking lots are accessed from alleyways and are only permitted in the rear of the building. Pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods can be of any density. Heavily commercial areas, like the one pictured on the left, can and should be just as walkable as a single-family residential neighborhood. Quick fixes and strategies include mandating crosswalks, improved marking for crosswalks in higher-traffic areas, adding rear parking requirements to the zoning code through either form-based codes or design overlays, moving stop lines for cars farther back from crosswalks, starting a sidewalk maintenance program, and eliminating curb cuts.
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Improving sidewalks and crosswalks alone is not enough to make a neighborhood walkable. Even throwing in mixed-use development and having strict parking regulations do not make the best and most walkable communities. Pedestrian amenities make the sidewalk a social place instead of just a place to walk. Benches, for example, allow people to rest, stop and eat, read the news paper, chat with friends or strangers, or quietly people watch. Planting trees, hanging flower pots, or small rain gardens not only improve sustainability, but they also provide shade and improve the character and beauty of the neighborhood. A walk through a beautiful neighborhood is always more enjoyable than a walk through a bland neighborhood. Pedestrian scale signage, such as projecting
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4 signs, wall signs, and awning signs make businesses easier to identify from the sidewalk. Maps can also be included to allow pedestrians to find their way around. Pedestrian-oriented lighting is soft, aimed towards the sidewalk, small-scale, and avoids the industrial aesthetic. Lighting can improve safety and, if done properly, can improve the neighborhood aesthetic. String lighting, oldlantern style lighting, or modern street lights all impact the character of the neighborhood in different ways.
Views of Hamilton Hamilton Corporate Boundary Local Roads Major Roads
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Conclusion
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Community engagement should continue throughout the open planning process, from the early phases of problem identification and general strategies (this document) through implementation. Events like charrettes, pictured above, encourage residents to create their own solutions and share ideas. No plan should be implemented without thorough community engagement. This document is intended for the beginning of the planning process, before the bulk of the engagement happens. It highlights a perceived problem in the city and presents a handful of solutions. This plan is meant to contribute to the conversation on the future of Hamilton.
A new document should be completed after thorough engagement. This document should contain site specific recommendations and policy recommendations. This new document should also be discussed with the community. This process should repeat until a general consensus is built. Without significant community support a plan becomes a mandate.
The next steps are to begin community engagement, discussing issues brought up in this document or issues perceived by the public.
Finally, municipal leaders and residents can work together implementing the solutions found in the final document.
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Recommendations Eliminate curb cuts. Encourage, incentive, or mandate rear-parking. Install sidewalks and widen existing ones. Implement a grid system for streets and roads. Implement a sidewalk maintenance program. Increase density. Encourage, incentive, or mandate mixed-use development. Improve and install crosswalks. Install pedestrian amenities like trees, benches, and improved lighting.
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Photo credits Cover photo: Jack Armstrong Benefits of Walkability Page 15: Lifestyle Clinic Page 16: Smart Growth America Page 17: Kaid Benfield Strategies for Walkability Page 19: Google Maps Page 21: Google Maps Page 22: Planning for Complete Communities in Delaware Page 24: Original Image from Google Maps Page 25: Google Maps Page 26: American Society of Landscape Architecture Conclusion Page 29: Planetizen All maps and renderings created by Brett Morris
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