Survey responses on Durham Comprehensive Plan draft policies
2d. How well do the draft policies under “Transportation” meet the priorities and needs of those in your community?
3d. If you responded neutral, somewhat, or not well, how should the draft “Transportation” policies change to meet the needs and priorities of those in your community?
The one specific policy related point I want to highlight is the need to be as strong as possible towards improving our public transit and walking infrastructure. walking and taking public transit should be made to be safer, faster, and more comfortable than the equivalent trip in a car. The goal in Durham should be to make the vast majority of trips accessible by walking and public transit. This is the most direct way our local government has to improve the quality of life for our residents, especially those residents in communities that have been historically disinvested.
We know from examples all around this country that when land use is made at least moderately efficient and walkable, and public transit is made frequent and accessible, that ridership will increase. The planning and transportation departments should be in the business of pushing this paramount goal of reducing car dependency by making it that much better to walk and take transit. This will save numerous lives, significantly reduce the cost of living in Durham, and create opportunities for economic investment all across the city.
I think this, or something like this, needs to be the north star for Durham with regards to how we think about transportation, neighborhoods, sustainability, and growth. While there is a lot in the current policies that support this, I believe that this core focus does not come out of the existing policies strongly enough. I understand that the policies are not meant to be binding or use restrictive language, but I recommend pushing harder (and with more focus) on this type of point. I also look forward to seeing the action items that come out of these policies.
5d. How would you change the wording of the “Transportation” policies to make them more understandable? You can write the policy number if you have feedback on specific policies
T.11 Change “speeding traffic” to “unsafe traffic speeds” to specify that unsafe speeds may be less than posted speed limits. Add to the last sentence “… and other pedestrian-oriented design elements such as raised crosswalks, reduced curb radii, street trees”. Add the following sentence: “Streets with amenities accessible to pedestrians and cyclists should be designed for a maximum speed of 30 MPH, and local streets should be designed for a maximum speed of 20 MPH.”
T.18 Rephrase to read: “Continually increase public and private investment in pedestrian, transit, paratransit, bicycle, and carpooling infrastructure relative to investment in infrastructure that prioritizes single-occupancy gas, electric, or diesel cars and trucks. Drastically reduce dependency on driving automobiles and the use of fossil fuels.”
N.16 Rephrase the second sentence to read “Strategies should prioritize buildings placed close to the street and oriented towards the sidewalk, green space and shade trees, and community areas where people are gathering; locating vehicle access and parking to the side or rear of lots and buildings; providing covered bus stops; and designing buildings…”
Propose a new policy for bicycle networks similar to T.01 about sidewalk networks and pedestrian facilities.
“Create and maintain a complete, safe, and accessible community-wide bicycle network where bike lanes, off-road paths, and other safe bicycle facilities provide access to daily needs such as work, school, and shopping. Ensure this network serves everyone in Durham, prioritizing communities with residents who do not have access to a car or have few transportation options, and areas with high numbers of bicycle crashes, injuries, and fatalities.”
“Maintain awareness and expertise in new and innovative transportation modes, facilities, or technologies that offer advantages over existing ones, such as automated vehicles and ride-hailing services. Ensure that new transportation modes and technologies serve to reduce vehicle miles traveled, improve transportation safety, enhance the urban environment, and support the experience of transit and paratransit users, pedestrians, and cyclists. Support these advances and update policies as best practices are identified.”
Propose a new policy that supports large projects such as the ATT, bus rapid transit, rail transit, Triangle Bikeway, connected network of sidewalks in underserved neighborhoods, etc.
“Identify and support novel signature projects that create breakthrough enhancements to pedestrian, bicycle, or other non-motor vehicle transportation modes. These could offer significant boosts to facilities, equity, efficiency, recreation, tourism, or other major benefits. However, ensure that equitable engagement is utilized in selecting and planning.”
“Create, promote, and support programs supported by local government or other agencies that reduce financial barriers for residents to utilize non-motor-vehicle transportation modes. For example, subsidies or rebates to enable acquisition of bicycles, e-bikes, or other equipment; bikeshare programs; or other methods to lower the cost obstacles for people to use these modes.
Propose a new policy focused on street design elements (T.13 already focuses on street design access and equity).
“Design new streets and redesign existing streets to prioritize the safety, mobility, and experience of pedestrians, cyclists, paratransit and transit users. This includes designing streets for low speeds for single-occupancy vehicles, creating great cycling and transit facilities, using pedestrian-oriented design elements (such as street trees, curb extensions, raised crosswalks, reduced curb radii, and parklets, etc), and reclaiming space on right-of-ways from single-occupancy vehicles (including through the creation of car-free streets among other methods). At a minimum, modifications and new streets should comply with the “Complete Streets" standards followed by NCDOT as well as NACTO standards.”
“Create attractive, comfortable, and safe streetscapes by designing streets as public spaces scaled for pedestrians. Promote ground level retail, make walking more comfortable and convenient, minimize driveways, avoid windowless facades and gaps in the street wall, and make public spaces accessible to cyclists over single-occupancy vehicles.”
“Ensure that parking policy manages and prices parking supply in order to encourage transit, bicycling, and walking. This will also improve air quality and reduce congestion. Create parking policies that provide sufficient parking for businesses, while protecting the environment, facilitating non-automobile travel, and supporting adjacent-land uses. Successful policies will reduce parking demand, increase parking efficiency, minimize parking conflicts with pedestrians and cyclists, reduce setbacks between public streets and building frontages, and create space for more productive uses by reducing the land devoted to parking.
“Increase transit frequency and reliability to make transit travel times optimized and less than single-occupancy vehicle travel times on equivalent routes. Transit travel times should be calculated inclusive of wait and transfer times in order to represent dynamic transit demand, and riders should be able to use transit without having to consult or plan around a transit schedule. Implement street designs that prioritize transit, like transit signal priority and exclusive travel lanes. Prioritize increased frequency in communities with access to fewer jobs, those with less car ownership, and those that have been historically redlined or disinvested.”
“Continually reduce the amount of land zoned exclusively for single-uses and low density. Encourage developments that will create walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented neighborhoods to improve community health, safety, and access to basic daily needs. Prioritize these improvements in neighborhoods that have been historically redlined or disinvested without displacing existing residents.
Prioritize increased frequency in communities with access to fewer jobs, those with less car ownership, and those that have been historically redlined or disinvested.”
Propose a new policy on transit coverage:
“Continually reduce the amount of land zoned exclusively for single-uses and low density. Encourage developments that will create walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented neighborhoods to improve community health, safety, and access to basic daily needs. Prioritize these improvements in neighborhoods that have been historically redlined or disinvested without displacing existing residents.
One organizational suggestion is to divide up each of these sections (Transportation, Neighborhoods, etc) into subsections, and put relevant policies under each subsection. Example subsections for transportation could be things like “Public Transportation”, “Street Design” “Parking”. This would make it easier to create short, one sentence policies in each subsection, and have each policy focus more pointedly on what it is attempting to say. The Raleigh Comprehensive Plan does a pretty good job of this.
For example, a “Street Design” subsection would probably have a policy for at least each of the following: how to design arterials, how to design downtown or mixed use streets, how we should balance low speed vs high speed street design, how to manage intersections, and how to ensure equitable approaches and protect existing residents.
This more fine tuned policy organization would allow residents to review the overall ideas of each subsection, rather than having to search through all policies to figure out what the Comprehensive Plan has to say about, say, our bus system. Possibly each subsection could also have its own short goal statement to make this more legible to a person who wants to get a more general understanding of the Comprehensive Plan.