Streets - Intersections and Streetscape
Intersections
For walkable communities to thrive, they must create a public realm that is safe, inviting, and encouraging for pedestrians. At no other place is this more important than intersections. Street intersections aren’t just where roadways for motor vehicles intersect. The travel paths for pedestrians, bicyclists, and micro-mobile persons (scooters, Segway’s, etc.) also intersect – with each other and with cars and trucks. Intersections are interesting and potentially wonderful urban places; but they are also potentially dangerous places.
An intersection is the best place for pedestrians to cross the road. For this reason, the construction detailing of intersections is very important. A matter of inches can make a pedestrian more or less comfortable. The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) has an excellent book called: “Urban Street Design Guide” that explains many of the most crucial details in street and intersection design (we’ve listed this on our Resources page).
One element that is often employed by communities who wish to encourage a pedestrian-friendly public realm is the bump-out. The bump-out is that piece of a sidewalk that extends into the roadway 7 to 8 feet. When combined with on-street parking (which bump-outs make permanent), bump outs can decrease the length of travel for pedestrians crossing the street 14 to 16 feet, which is very important for kids, senior citizens, parents pushing strollers, disabled people, and dogs with short legs. Also, bump-outs provide a safe place for pedestrians to stand while waiting to cross the street. A pedestrian standing on a bump-out is 6” taller than if they were standing on the roadway, and they are positioned near the front edge of on-street parking so they can see around those parked cars.
Many intersections have been engineered for the convenience of large vehicles without much thought given to pedestrians. An intersection that has curbs with a wide turning radius will encourage drivers of cars and trucks to travel through the intersection quickly – sometimes telegraphing that a yield is okay when really a full stop is needed. The turning radius of the curb pictured below is 54 feet; a turning radius of 16 feet would have been ample.
Pedestrian-friendly intersections should have reasonably small turning radii. In addition to forcing drivers to slow down for their turn, they allow the crosswalk to be placed close to the projected curb line of the intersection. This is good because crosswalks that are close to intersections are safer for pedestrians crossing the street. If a crosswalk is too far from the projected curb line of the intersection, then drivers will have more time to press the accelerator coming out of the turn before encountering the pedestrian in the cross walk.
Crosswalks
Perhaps the most fundamental part of a pedestrian-friendly intersection is the crosswalk itself. The most basic role for the crosswalk is to provide pedestrians with a safe, designated place to cross the roadway of course. However, communities have a wide variety of materials to choose from when selecting how they wish to recognize, or even celebrate, the pedestrian.
While more costly, the intersection below is just about perfect. Pedestrians have the smooth travel surface of concrete, whereas vehicles drive over a deeply textured cobblestone surface which will encourage drivers to drive slowly.
However, intersections and crosswalks don’t need to be made from expensive materials. For merely the cost of paint, communities can create pedestrian-friendly safe zones. While low-traffic local streets don’t have to have painted crosswalks, roadways with higher volumes should have well-painted crosswalks so drivers have an obvious, noticeable demarcation of where the pedestrian – and the bicyclist – has a right to cross. The classic crosswalk pattern is nicknamed “zebra-striping.”
In far too many communities however, the pedestrian is so low on the list of cares that even the simplest tasks are out of alignment with their needs.