Street design, part 2 : sustainable streets.

Today’s road projects must often meet regulatory, policy, and community requirements aimed at integrating the roadway into the existing natural and built environments. Many projects call for features that promote livability and sustainability objectives. This paper describes how road projects are delivering livability and environmental benefits. The paper also discusses what the government is doing to help in the achievement of sustainability goals. The Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, was established in 2009 to focus on livability by aligning Federal resources and encouraging place-based solutions. The Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other partners also are collaborating to identify and define sustainability concepts and develop rating tools for sustainability features. In support of EPA’s Smart Growth program, researchers with the Sustainable Transportation Center at the University of California, Davis, recently catalogued case studies that demonstrate a comprehensive approach to creating complete, multimodal, green, and livable streets. The projects include: a streetscape redesign incorporating bioretention cells in Lansing, Michigan; the redesign of a one-mile portion of an avenue in Shoreline, Washington that was guided in part by a checklist of features approved by a citizens advisory task force; a streetscape improvement project in Portland, Oregon that addressed community, ecological, and mobility objectives; and the transformation of a five-lane, limited-access facility into a two-lane surface street with continuous sidewalks and a riverfront promenade in Chattanooga, Tennessee. By aiming for sustainability, departments of transportation can find innovative ways to design road projects that meet safety and mobility requirements while delivering maximum benefits to communities, motorists, and the environment. Evaluation and ratings systems are available to help assess the overall sustainability of highway infrastructure. (Author/publisher)