This Is How We Do It

Barry Watkins, 10/23/2015

Here are some of our ideas for Clearlake Road in Cocoa and for raising the walkability and bikeability standards for streets throughout the populated areas of our county:

1. Keep the design and posted speed at or under 35 miles per hour.
2. Minimize the number of vehicle lanes.
3. Keep vehicle lanes 10′ wide maximum.
4. Minimize the number of dedicated turn lanes at intersections. To avoid multiple left turn lanes make the turn lane longer. Right turn lanes can mostly be eliminated altogether.
5. Eliminate accel/decel lanes.
6. Minimize turn radii at street corners.
7. Don’t use channeled lanes.
8. Make sidewalks a minimum of 5′ wide.
9. Put a landscape strip between the sidewalk and the curb 8′ minimum wide.
10. Plant shade trees between the sidewalk and the curb a minimum of every 30′.
11. Separate bicycle lanes from vehicle lanes with raised planters.
12. Don’t make rights-of-way inordinately wide.
13. Minimize median widths if this helps keep the right-of-way a manageable width. Don’t scrimp on the space for pedestrians and bicycles.
14. Provide pedestrian refuges for crosswalks that cross more than 5 lanes.

We need to also consider these additional items as part of a holistic strategy for meeting transportation needs in the area:

1. We need to consider improving bus service to help convert some trips away from passenger vehicles in the future.  This especially makes sense as a way of serving the needs of the elderly, handicapped, lower income residents, and young people.
2. Work with land planners to create walkable village and neighborhood centers nearby to convert trips away from cars to other modes and to shorten travel distances to meet daily needs.
3. Work on alternative routing.
4. Work with land planners to restrict continued expansion of development on the edge of town that overburdens the transportation network.

Walkable Brevard, the non-profit organization that I founded, provides walkability and bikeability consulting for free or at a very low cost. Contact us to see how we can help! We are working with citizens, community leaders, and businesses to improve walking and bicycling all over Brevard.

Barry Watkins, Walkable Brevard, 321-355-2747, walkablebrevard@gmail.com

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