Transforming the arterial

CNU’s street guidebook for California suggests steps toward better highways. Across the United States, activists and engineers have been figuring out how to turn urban stretches of state highways into civic amenities. CNU is joining the discussion with its California's Civic Highways Guidebook, a precursor to the group’s upcoming street design manual. The guidebook will help local authorities, engineers, and activists find opportunities to revitalize and reuse state highways that run through town. The findings in the guidebook come from a series of case studies of California communities and is funded by the Packard Foundation. It will be released in January 2002, at the Local Government Commission's conference in San Diego, entitled “New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities.” CNU staff decided to write the guidebook when becoming aware that locally appropriate street design has become a major issue in a growing number of communities in California. The guidebook’s goal is to help make streets that are not only sensitive to their surroundings, but actually enhance their communities. The guidebook is being written by CNU staffers Sarah Pulleyblank and Ellen Greenberg. “Major arterials are often long greyfield strips,” says Pulleyblank. “If we can make the arterial into a livable street, it will provide opportunities to develop new urbanist neighborhoods in place of this underused land.” State standards block progress Caltrans, the state department of transportation, owns over 9,500 miles of two- to four-lane surface roads that run through over 800 municipalities. Many of these routes already have local historical and economic significance. When a municipality seeks to build or rebuild a main street or commercial district, state highways are a natural choice. However, the exclusively auto-oriented standards currently enforced by Caltrans conflict with communities’ desires to turn their arterials into new urbanist, mixed-use, walkable corridors. The state Highway Design Manual is even more car-oriented than the national “Green Book” standards promulgated by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Caltrans also maintains an institutional culture that continues to demand the biggest, fastest, “safest” roads in every situation. Advocacy and documentation However, the guidebook is being developed with cooperation from Caltrans, where leaders and staff are trying to change. The reformers are seeking examples of and guidance on context-sensitive design, which CNU will provide. The guidebook will serve several purposes: It will advocate for standards that reflect livability goals. It will show what local communities want from their streets, and document where local desires conflict with state standards. It will provide examples of solutions from around the state and nation, and recommend improvements to the state road development process. The state and local governments will be able to use CNU’s guidebook to develop livable, walkable, bikable streets rather than arterials planned solely for cars. These main streets will not only be more pleasant, they will help build value as durable civic assets. Following California's Civic Highways Guidebook, the Transportation Task Force will write a street design manual. The manual will advance the professional practice of street design by providing a technical handbook that integrates new urbanist principles into street design and engineering practice. The outline of the street design manual is available from the Transportation Task Force page at CNU.org.