<![CDATA[ARCHITARIAN DESIGN

<![CDATA[ARCHITARIAN DESIGN - IDEAS]]>Sat, 09 Nov 2024 23:11:44 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Happy-Lanes for Human-Mobiles]]>Fri, 27 Apr 2018 23:28:37 GMThttps://www.architariandesign.com/ideas/happy-lanes-for-human-mobiles

A Third Mobility Mode
A few weeks ago, I coined the term "BikeWalk", a “new” transportation/mobility infrastructure concept. The seed for the “Bikewalk!” sprouted after seeing missed opportunities for good bicycle infrastructure in the Bay Area (Bay Meadows, MainStreet Cupertino, Santa Clara Square). While the term "BikeWalk" was new, the idea is actually old hat and already a reality in many cities around the world: Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo. After listening to a recent KQED Forum debate about e-Scooters in San Francisco, and witnessing the convenience of e-Scooters (Bird, Lime, etc), I’m now doubly convinced of the concept and want to expand the idea of a BikeWalk further.

The reality is that the built American landscape only accommodates two modes of transportation: the private automobile (primary), and walking (secondary). Think about it, what traffic lights and signals do we see at intersections? Red/Yellow/Green traffic lights for cars, and a white man/red hand for pedestrians. But today, our communities need to serve and connect so many more people, uses, and spaces, that these two transportation modes alone are no longer efficient, or sufficient.
We need to create a third mobility mode which supports a combination of transportation options: bikes/e-bikes, roller-skates/roller-blades, skateboards/hoverboards, scooters/e-scooters. Heck, let’s even put the Segway in this category. What ties these modes together? Speed and mass.

Segmentation of transportation modes should be based on speed & mass for safety reasons. Walking is about 2-4 mph (15-30 minutes/mile), and while pedestrians may utilize wheeled objects (walkers, strollers, wagons, wheelchairs), the speed of those pedestrians and mass of the wheeled objects will not inflict significant harm on each other in a collision. By gross contrast, cars are 4000 pound (2 ton) wheeled metal objects with powerful motors that travel regularly at 25, 30, 35, even 40 mph. When cars collide with a pedestrian, bicycle or other human operated object, they can cause severe injuries - and the higher the speed, the higher the fatality rate.

Bikes/e-bikes, roller skates/blades, skateboards/hoverboards, scooters/e-scooters, even Segways, are in a different category altogether. These modes are human operated, but not enclosed, and can travel at speeds between 10-15 mph. By law, they are considered “vehicles” and therefore subject to each state’s vehicle codes. But for all practical purposes, they are objects that have neither the weight, bulk, protection, nor speed of private automobiles, vans, trucks or buses. However, the laws of physics decree that people travelling on these wheeled objects would be grievously harmed by 4,000-pound metal objects travelling at 30 miles per hour, but could also cause harm to individuals ambling at 4 miles per hour. (Remember: Force = mass x acceleration)

The first step to create a solution for this third mobility mode is to name this category of vehicles and create the vocabulary and language to describe their properties and requirements. So I hereby name bikes/e-bikes, roller-skates/blades, skateboards/hoverboards, scooters/e-scooters and Segways: “Human-Mobiles” and call the new infrastructure to support them “Happy-Lanes”.

“Human-Mobiles” can and should be the cornerstone of mobility in the city of the future. This mobility class is characterized by affordability, convenience, compactness, flexibility, and intuition. A HumanMobile is really easy to learn how to use, super convenient for getting from place to place and does not take up a lot of space in our cities to park/store (provided that we intentionally plan for them in our cities).

“Happy-Lanes” can and should be Human Lanes, Hopeful Lanes and Healthy Lanes. They allow people to zip along faster than pedestrians, more nimbly than automobiles, and safely on separated pathways. They fuel an innate human desire to be hopeful, healthy and happy about their mobility possibilities.

If you like this concept and are interested/ serious in making Happy-Lanes for Human-Mobiles (the Third Mobility Mode) a reality, please holler!

]]><![CDATA[Introducing...the bikewalk!]]>Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:16:51 GMThttps://www.architariandesign.com/ideas/introducingthe-bikewalk

What’s a Bikewalk, you ask? Well, it’s just THE ultimate new community accessory that every city is dying to have. It’s an ultra-hip, carbon-free, emissions-free, people-powered, plant-powered, community building benefit that people across the world are begging their local officials to build for them in their cities.

We’ve all heard of sidewalks. They’re that functional concrete strip next to roads that people can walk on. Some are narrow, some are wide. Some are more delightful than others. The best sidewalks seek to emulate the experience of Parisian promenades on either side of the Champs Elysee, beautiful tree lined paths that invite people to stroll down for long distances over the course of several hours. When done well, sidewalks are outdoor living rooms that invite people from all walks of life to relax, linger, connect with loved ones and spontaneously engage with others.

Bikewalks take the sidewalk to a whole new level. Not only are they beautifully landscaped, brilliantly lit and engineered for strolling, they offer a tree lined, protected, continuous and unfettered path to support cycling. They provide a delightful, convenient (and safe) way to conquer life’s errands, commutes and even exercise on two wheels, while simultaneously rolling back time to awaken the carefree sense of freedom experienced when we first conquered life on two wheels.

So how do we make a Bikewalk? The blueprint is simple:

Start with 18’-20’ of public right of way in front of every property.
Next to the property line, allocate 5-7’ wide walkway – this offers access to shops and buildings and potential outdoor seating for cafes and restaurants.
This is key! Create a 1’-2’ wide zone for planting, resting and infrastructure to separate the walking area from the biking area. This zone is ideal for benches, street lights, trash cans. Fill the spaces between street furniture with hardy low plantings and ground cover that can absorb storm water runoff from the pedestrian and bike lanes on either side.
Next, allow at least 6’ of space for a single direction bikeway, preferably with permeable paving, for maximum storm water absorption. If you have 10', you can carve out a two direction bike way.
Finally, create a planting zone about 4’-5’ wide between the bike lane and the car travel lane. This zone should have tree wells every 20-30’ to support an urban canopy, as well as bike parking, space for pedestrians to access any parked cars, and bus stops if needed.

Once the Bikewalk is completed (preferably along a vibrant area populated with a variety of businesses: shops, cafes, restaurants, professional offices, and hopefully housing) the bikewalk helps bring people with less gridlock! Businesses love Bikewalks because more people can arrive directly to their doorsteps than cars, yet require only 1/10th the amount of parking. Residents love Bikewalks for the greenery and reduced emissions (yay clean air!) and because it gives them multiple safe and convenient transportation options to explore their neighborhood and fulfill daily tasks – visits to the bank and drug store, ways to pick up food or meet friends for drinks. And lastly people - visitors, workers, neighbors, friends, love Bikewalks because it offers easy, safe and fun place outdoors to connect, linger and just enjoy.

So…look for the Bikewalk, the ultimate new community accessory, coming to a city near you!

]]><![CDATA[SAFER STREETS = SLOWER STREETS]]>Thu, 01 Mar 2018 06:10:58 GMThttps://www.architariandesign.com/ideas/safer-streets-slower-streetsThe Sustainable 60' Streets proposal was inspired by two “Drive Like You Live Here“ signs two families posted around the corner from me. I love that these families prioritize safety and are asking drivers to slow down. But such signs (and speed limit signs too) won't do much when the design speed of the street doesn’t match the desired speed. What do I mean by design speed? Consider these two photos.

On the left is my own narrow street, about 29’ from curb to curb. On the right is my cross street, a more common street width, about 35’ from curb to curb. Both are typical residential streets and function as such. Both have posted speed limits of 25 mph. Both streets have parked cars on both sides. But because they have different widths, they inherently have different design speeds.

Which street do people tend to drive more quickly on? On my narrow street, drivers have to slow down and yield to each other when passing, because the effective space between the parked cars is only about 15’ between parked cars. On my cross street, it’s much easier for two way traffic to speed past each other comfortably because there is 21’ of effective space in between the parked cars. Given these different designs, which street has a higher accident rate?

Several studies completed by Swift & Associates in 1997, 2002 and 2006 analyzed traffic accident data in Longmont, CO and showed that wider streets created conditions for people to drive faster, and had more accidents. On a 35’ road, the effective width of a single car lane is 10’. For an effective drive lane width of 10’, the 85th percentile speed that people drive is around 40 mph, 15 mph over the speed limit of a residential neighborhood! A pedestrian hit at 20mph has a 95% likelihood of surviving, at 30mph, the survival rate decreases to 55% but at 40mph, the survival rate plummets to only 5%.  The 35' curb to curb width is dangerous by design.

If our residential roads are inherently dangerous and induce fast speeds, can we retrofit our existing streets so the design speed matches a neighborhood’s desired speed (20-25 mph)?

The Sustainable 60' Streets outlines five steps to transform the typical 60' street/36' curb-to-curb width with desired neighborhood street speeds, and improve bicycling as primary transportation.  If we tried one step per year, in five years, we could change the design speeds for car travel on our streets, create an instant bike network, decrease the percentage of our streets dedicated to cars from 60% to 40%, and help reduce emissions and VMT!

It's 2018 now. Can we create a whole network of Sustainable 60' Streets by 2023?

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