1. Adapting Suburban Communities for Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel
Publication No. FHWA-HRT
Adapting Suburban Communities for Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel
Lesson #: 7
Lesson Title: Adapting Suburban Communities for Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
Recognize the types of suburban development patterns that have led to automobile-oriented travel.
Demonstrate different strategies for redesigning suburban areas to accommodate nonmotorized transport.
Preinstruction:
Take the class for a walk along a commercial strip or other equally pedestrian-unfriendly location in your area. Point out the problems with the development type in terms of how it discourages pedestrian and/or bicycle travel.
Student Participation:
Use the activity provided in the student notes.
Followup:
Assign reading for lesson 8.
Session Time: 55–60 minutes
Lesson 7

2. Lesson Outline Historical development of urban and suburban land use.
Costs of sprawl.
Retrofitting suburban roads to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians.
Safe Routes to School planning.
Retrofitting commercial/office developments.
Key Message: Provide the students with an overview of the lesson.
Est. Presentation Time: 1 minute
Suggested Comments:
This slide is optional.

3. Suburban Development Streetcar suburbs. Leapfrogging.
Auto orientation.
Infilling.
Street hierarchy.
Key Message: This slide traces the history of suburban development and its effect on pedestrians and bicyclists.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
Background information for this slide can be found in section 7.2.

4. Present Land Use Forms Individual tract subdivisions.
Linear arterial streets.
Bypassed vacant land.
Key Message: Suburban land uses affecting pedestrians can be divided into three categories.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
First, there are individual tract subdivisions, planned as units, with a sense of order derived from the in-road systems. Access is limited to one or two points.
The second type of land use is the linear arterial. While the roadway portion of arterials most likely was engineered, land-use planning may have never occurred or may have been haphazard.
The third general type of suburban land use is bypassed land, forgotten during initial development as entrepreneurs leapfrogged out to find cheaper land. These lands infill more slowly and more haphazardly than planned subdivisions and are likely to have many owners and a variety of land uses, though perhaps not as many as along arterials. Bypassed lands may be the easiest to adapt to pedestrians and bicycle-related improvements, as they have the highest densities, have mixed land uses, and are close to a variety of services.

5. Suburban Street Scenes
Key Message: The next three slides show some examples of typical suburban street scenes in the United States.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
Have the students identify some of the problems these environments create for pedestrians and bicyclists, and ask them to suggest reasons that these streets were built in this fashion.

6. Suburban Street Scenes
Key Message: Examples of typical suburban street scenes in the United States.
Est. Presentation Time: 1 minute
Suggested Comments:
Note the positive and negative aspects of these designs for the different modes of transportation.

7. Suburban Street Scenes
Key Message: Examples of typical suburban street scenes in the U.S.
Est. Presentation Time: 1 minute
Suggested Comments:
Analyze these typical suburban streets.

8. Costs of Sprawl Infrastructure: streets, utilities, parks and schools.
Environment.
Health and physical activity.
Key Message: Planners and researcher have begun to quantify the costs of sprawl to the environment and health of communities.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
The study titled, Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity, found that “people living in counties marked by sprawling development are likely to walk less and weigh more than people who live in less sprawling counties. In addition, people in more sprawling counties are more likely to suffer from hypertension (high blood pressure). These results hold true after controlling for factors such as age, education, gender, and race and ethnicity.”

9. Retrofitting Suburban Arterials
Independent retrofit projects.
Evaluation of road widening projects.
Road diets.
Form-based codes.
Key Message: There are a variety of techniques to retrofit busy roadways to better accommodate bicycling and walking. Urban planners and design engineers have begun to apply very creative ways to enable heavy volumes of traffic to coexist with pedestrian and bicycle activity.
Est. Presentation Time: 2 minutes
Suggested Comments:
Examples are given in lessons 3 and 4 of the Federal Highway Administration University Course on Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Student Workbook (Student Workbook). An overview of techniques is provided in the slides that follow.

10. Restriping to Create Bike Lanes
Key Message: Many miles of bike lanes have been built by simply restriping existing roadways.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
This is an example of an Arlington, VA, roadway that was restriped to provide a bike lane. Lane widths are shown on the slide in both metric (m) and feet (ft).
2 m (7 ft)
parking lane
1.5 m (5 ft)
bike lane
3 m (10 ft)
travel lane

11. Road Retrofit—Before
Key Message: This is a before and after example of a road in Washington State.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
This particular road had a high crash rate and was in an area in need of pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Businesses were initially opposed to the design treatments because a median was proposed. They were concerned that the median would make it difficult for people in automobiles to access their businesses.

12. Road Retrofit—After
Key Message: This slide shows the roadway at street level, in the after condition.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
The center turn lane was converted to a landscaped median to reduce motor vehicle speeds. The lane widths were reduced to enable space for bike lanes. Sidewalks were added, street lighting was improved, and pedestrian crossings were improved. The right-of-way constraints made it impossible to provide a grass strip between the sidewalk and the street.

13. Road Diet—Before
Key Message: Some roads have more travel lanes than necessary and are difficult to cross because of their width. Reducing the number of lanes on a multilane roadway can reduce crossing distances for pedestrians and may slow vehicle speeds.
Est. Presentation Time: 3 minutes
Suggested Comments:
A traffic analysis should be done to determine whether the number of lanes on a roadway (many of which were built without such an analysis) is appropriate. Level of service analysis for intersections should not dictate the design for the entire length of roadway. For example, a four-lane undivided road can be converted to one through lane in each direction, with a center left-turn lane or with a raised median, and turn pockets and bicycle lanes on both sides of the roadway. Turning pockets may be needed only at specific locations.

14. Road Diet—After
Key Message: This is a photograph of the after condition.
Est. Presentation Time: 3 minutes
Suggested Comments:
Have the students describe what benefits a road diet can have for pedestrians and bicyclists.

15. Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S)
Key Message: A Safe Routes to School (or SR2S) program is a way to improve the safety of children who walk or bicycle to school and to promote these types of transportation.
Est. Presentation Time: 2 minutes
Suggested Comments:
During a Safe Routes to School program, parents and administrators at the school work along with other community groups and agencies to build new sidewalks, improve pedestrian crossings, teach children safer bicycling and walking skills and promote healthier, more active lifestyles.

16. 35% of youth do not participate in regular physical activity.
Health Issues
Key Message: Obesity among children has become a widely discussed public health issue.
Est. Presentation Time: 1 minute
Suggested Comments:
The rising levels of childhood obesity have coincided with a sharp reduction in the number of trips that children make on foot. However, there are several other factors that have contributed to rising obesity rates, including diet, cultural, and social changes. The instructor should note that correlation between these two variables is not necessarily causation, but that it is becoming an increasingly accepted belief that children today are not as active as the previous generation.
35% of youth do not participate in regular physical activity.

17. Origins of the SR2S Concept
Denmark – early 1980s.
Worst child pedestrian crash rates in Europe.
In Odense, an 80% reduction in child crash rates in 10 years.
United Kingdom – Sustrans.
Demonstration program in 1995 (10 schools).
Traffic decrease of 12% to 17%.
Key Message: The Safe Routes to School (SR2S) concept had its origins in Denmark and the United Kingdom, and has rapidly spread to most of Europe, Australia, and the United States.
Est. Presentation Time: 2 minutes
Suggested Comments:
This slide contains a brief history of the SR2S program.

18. Marin County, CA One of two TEA-21 national models.
Combination of funding:
County transportation funds, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, several private foundations, Bicycle Coalition.
21% of morning commute is school dropoff.
9 pilot schools and 1,600 students in 2000.
23 schools and 12,000 students participating in 2004.
Key Message: Marin County, CA, was one of two national models that was funded in Federal transportation legislation in 1998.
Est. Presentation Time: 2 minutes
Suggested Comments:
Like many Safe Routes to School (SR2S) programs, the Marin County program is funded through a variety of sources, including both public and private monies.

19. Results 57% increase in children walking and biking.
29% decrease in children arriving by car.
Key Message: Marin County’s Safe Routes to School program has been an outstanding success.
Est. Presentation Time: 2 minutes
Suggested Comments:
The SR2S program in Marin County has had a measurable effect on traffic congestion.

20. Lesson Summary
Suburban development patterns have made it difficult to use nonmotorized transportation.
There are many ways to change this condition:
Retrofits to existing facilities.
New developments.
Key Message: Summarize the lesson and discuss any questions or issues with students.
Est. Presentation Time: 3–5 minutes
Suggested Comments:
Summarize the lesson and discuss any questions or issues with students.