Connected Communities

Streets connect people to places. In the past, street and roadway design focused almost exclusively on the needs of drivers to the detriment of others, such as bicyclists and pedestrians. This narrow focus often leads to unsafe traveling environments for nondrivers especially in communities that have minimal or no other options than walking or biking along existing streets. According to LaDOTD crash data, three cyclists and 11 pedestrians were hit by cars in Baker between 2013 and 2017, with two pedestrians severely injured. These accidents all occurred in areas where roads lacked multi-modal transportation facilities, such as sidewalks or bike lanes (Baker Bike/Ped Plan, 2020). In the Baker United recovery planning process, residents and key stakeholders prioritized increasing safety for cyclists and pedestrians.

Jurisdictions across the nation, including East Baton Rouge Parish, are currently addressing deficiencies in street design and calls for increased safety through adopting a Complete Street framework. Complete Streets allow pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles to safely coexist. Sometimes this is done by slowing traffic and providing on-street accommodations for nondrivers. Other times, it is safer to create buffers or dedicated pathways that physically separate drivers and nondrivers. This strategy can be combined with creating accessible sidewalks and bike lanes, as well as crosswalks and signage that prepare drivers for cyclists and pedestrian interactions. Many designs also integrate new public spaces, such as parklets and sidewalk cafés, to encourage public use of these spaces.

Connected Communities provide the ability for all community members, regardless of age, ability, or access to resources, to move around their community safely.

Transportation networks are multi-modal when they are designed to be safe, convenient, and comfortable for all users whether they drive cars, ride bikes, take the bus, or walk. Multi-modal designs should also consider accessibility, so people of all ages, income levels, and physical abilities can move around their community. These networks can reinforce and beautify a city’s existing transportation network and encourage safe and healthy connections with external destinations. Encouraging walking and biking reduces automobile use and increases community health + wellbeing. Through intentional design, trails and pathways can also connect Baker to surrounding communities and resources.

multi-modal transportation

Multi-modal transportation refers to the different ways that people travel around town. At the city level, different modes include: walking, cycling, driving, and riding public transit. Multi-modal transportation systems also include connections between the different modes.

walkability

Walkability refers to the ease with which citizens can meet their daily needs as pedestrians. Cities are considered walkable when residents can walk to grocery stores, schools, jobs, and recreational sites. Walkability depends on proximity as well as infrastructure, such as sidewalks and crosswalks, to keep pedestrians safe.

network

In urban design, a network is a cohesive group of spaces linked to one another by various, accessible, multi-modal pathways and roadways.

Strategies

15 Complete Streets meet the needs of all types of transit users.

Complete Streets

A Complete Street is designed to accommodate all users−pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and physical abilities. Complete Streets include features such as sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, ADA accessibility, wayfinding signage, and transit stops designed to provide high levels of comfort and safety for users. Complete Streets features also work together to form a network that allows users to make seamless trips between home, work, school and other daily destinations. According to the Baton Rouge Sustainable Transportation Action Committee, Complete Street Toolkit, the benefits of Complete Streets are substantial and far-reaching, ranging from increased safety, improved public health, increases in economic activity and employment, decreases in crime, and increases in property values. This same framework was used to develop the bicycle and pedestrian master plan for the City of Baker.

16 Jean Laffitte Greenway, New Orleans, LA. Greenways

Greenways are one strategy to create multimodal transportation networks. A greenway is generally a mixed-use space that is separated from the roadway and can be used safely by both cyclists and pedestrians. Some greenways follow roads while others take different routes, such as following rivers or bayous to bring users closer to nature. Greenways can also connect natural spaces, such as forested areas or parks, to each other, which improves ecosystem wellbeing.

Benefits and Considerations

Health

Connected Communities improve wellbeing in many ways. Multi-modal networking allows citizens to walk, jog, or cycle on safe and comfortable paths to work and to complete daily tasks, which encourages physical fitness. Providing alternative means of traveling within a community can also reduce reliance on driving, which improves air quality and reduces household transportation expenses.

Equity

Connected Communities allow residents of all ages and ability, regardless of material resources, to safely move within and around their community. This may increase access to employment or recreation opportunities for households without cars.

Safety

Connected Communities use multi-modal transportation networks to keep users of all ages and abilities safe. Establishing routes that direct cyclists and pedestrians away from areas with fast moving traffic reduces fatalities. Public education campaigns may be necessary to teach residents how to interact with other modes of transportation in order to keep residents safe.

Connected Communities in Baker

B

D B A

D C

A

C To transform subdivisions, such as Baker Estates, into Connected Communities, continuous sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes should be added to the existing street network. As the image shows, bike lanes can be added through pavement markings on neighborhood streets with infrequent, slow moving traffic.

Toolkit

A. Continuous Sidewalks

B. Crosswalks

C. Buffered Sidewalks

D. Shared Bike Lane

Connected Communities Toolkit

Personal safety when walking and biking was a key concern when speaking with Baker residents, which has been echoed in other planning processes. Drawing on national best practices and local planning processes, this toolkit describes the design elements needed to create Connected Communities. It also includes policy tools that can improve connectivity in and around Baker.

Way Finding

Effective signage pulled together in a city-wide wayfinding system can assist both locals and visitors in traveling between locations, and discovering new destinations. It has the capacity to improve local economic wellbeing by encouraging people to use amenities within their own neighborhood and city. The choices of sign materials, dimensions, colors, and forms should be developed to enhance legibility and community identity. Similarly, maps should employ consistent symbology, fonts, colors, and style.

17

Shared Use Paths

The shape and accessibility of sidewalks, shared-use paths, and crosswalks, as well as the inclusion of lighting are elements often determined by guidelines within a community’s subdivision regulations.

18

Sidewalks

19

Sidewalks should be level and wide enough to accommodate pedestrians of all ages and abilities. They should also be ADA compliant with curb cuts that allow wheelchairs and strollers to cross streets easily.

Implementing Sidewalks

Sidewalks and Shared-Use Paths: The shape and accessibility of sidewalks, shareduse paths, and crosswalks, as well as the inclusion of lighting are elements often determined by guidelines within a community’s subdivision regulations.

Streetscape Implementation

Coherent streetscape design guidelines are key to building new and retrofitting existing infrastructure that will be accessible to all persons regardless of ability or stature. Coherent streetscapes will also help create a safe, pleasant place for people to walk, sit, stand, and move around. Furthermore, subdivision regulations can incentivize development that encourages street connections, and thus makes it easier for community members to travel on foot or bicycle.

Crosswalks/Signals/Signage

Designated crosswalks and pedestrian crossing signals increase safety by directing pedestrians to walk cross roads where drivers are expecting them to be and by stopping traffic to allow pedestrians to cross busy intersections. Crosswalks can also be designed to slow down drivers to make crossing roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

20

Bike Lanes

There are many strategies to incorporate bike lanes into existing streets. Strategies range from using pavement markings and signage to notify drivers they must share the lane with cyclists to creating a designated bike lane that may or may not be physically buffered from vehicle traffic.

21

Transit Stops

Transit stops can operate as social hubs if they are designed as beautiful, comfortable places to rest. These spaces can be used by transit users, cyclists, or pedestrians. To create comfortable, safe places for all community members, transit stops need shelter to protect users from the weather as well as adequate lighting and seating. When coupled with bicycle and vehicular parking areas, transit stops can also facilitate switching between modes which may make using public transit more feasible for residents that live far from public transit lines.

22

23

Bus Lanes

In communities with high rates of transit users and traffic congestion, establishing dedicated bus lanes can increase the speed and efficiency of using public transportation. Reducing travel times can increase wellbeing for public transit users and attract new riders, which may reduce individual car use.

Using Policy to Create Complete Streets

Zoning and subdivision ordinances can establish minimum levels of activity and street connectivity for future developments to create neighborhoods that are conducive to walking, biking, and transit use. These policies can also connect existing neighborhoods to new areas and allow for a mix of uses that encourage connection.

Adopt a Complete Streets Ordinance

Although Baker adopted the 2020 bicycle-pedestrian master plan, the city needs to adopt a Complete Street ordinance and update its subdivision regulations in order to transform Baker into a connected community.

Revise Subdivision Regulations:

Street Connectivity: Coherent streetscape design guidelines are key to building new and retrofitting existing infrastructure that will be accessible to all persons regardless of ability or stature, and that can help create a safe, pleasant place for people to walk, sit, stand, and move around. Furthermore, subdivision regulations can incentivize development that encourages street connections, and thus makes it easier for community members to travel on foot or bicycle.

Sidewalks and Shared-Use Paths: The shape and accessibility of sidewalks, shareduse paths, and crosswalks, as well as the inclusion of lighting are elements often determined by guidelines within a community’s subdivision regulations.

Credit: Baker Bike/Ped Master Plan. Dana Brown & Associates

Living with Water Connection

Subdivision regulations can also mandate the use of green stormwater infrastructure bioretention strategies, such as bioswales to be used as buffers to separate vehicular and non-vehicular traffic. This creates complementary benefits where a single infrastructure investment increases physical safety for cyclists and pedestrians, while also reducing flood risk by designing space in the landscape to hold stormwater.

Mixed Use Zoning

Traditional zoning was developed at a time when commercial uses were noisy, smelly, or hazardous to the public. Today, well-designed commercial uses are environmentally benign, and there are often advantages to locating residential and civic uses in close proximity. Mixed use zoning creates areas that encourage a mix of housing, civic, and commercial uses, including retail, restaurants, and offices. To achieve well-planned mixed use development, Baker may consider creating specific mixed use districts, or implementing “overlay” districts, which encourage coordinated, cohesive, and connected development.

To encourage developers to employ a mixed use option, incentives should be considered that appeal to local developers, such as:

• The ability to build certain kinds of housing (e.g., multi-family or small units) where it is not otherwise allowed

• More flexible design standards

• Less open space where flexibility produces better design

• Less parking, provided that adequate parking is achieved through such alternatives as shared parking or permeable overflow parking

• Credit for reliance on public transportation, bicycling, or walking; or transportation demand management techniques

• Streamlined permitting

24 Mixed use commercial and residential buildings. Norton’s Commons, KY.