Letting the River of Life Flow

Feb 28, 2003
Dec 14, 2017

The street is the river of life. - William H. Whyte

For years, main streets across the U.S. have suffered from community-insensitive "improvements," as cities and states widened them, narrowed sidewalks, removed on-street parking, and replaced street trees with asphalt.

In the last few years, though, the Federal Highway Administration and several state DOTs have become increasingly interested in flexible, context-sensitive, and dual-purpose projects. Focus is shifting away from just the roadway, bus stop, or sidewalk to how transportation facilities can make places more economically stable, safer, and more productive. This is a more synergistic approach than what has traditionally been used, an approach that sees transportation as part of a greater whole rather than just an end in and of itself.

To ensure that transportation fulfills its potential to benefit people and the environment, PPS emphasizes its own community-responsive process, called Placemaking, which is in essence PPS's term for context-sensitive design.

Placemaking must begin with a thorough understanding of the dynamics, desires, and conditions within a community. It involves looking at how streets are used and asking people questions about their problems and aspirations. Through systematic observation, interviews, surveys, and time-lapse photography, we study a street environment and learn what people think about it and its potential. We then use this information from the field in workshops with local people to create a vision for the future of their streets. Afterwards, PPS helps communities implement their ideas beginning with short term, often experimental, improvements. For an example of the PPS approach in action, see the feature story on San Mateo County.

Placemaking must begin with a thorough understanding of the dynamics, desires, and conditions within a community.

With this approach and experience, PPS has been particularly active in the emerging field of context sensitive design (CSD), a method of transportation development that looks "beyond the pavement" to the role that streets and roads can play in enhancing communities and natural environments -- be they urban, suburban or rural, scenic or historic. We have developed a five day training program in CSD that was given to over 650 employees and "customers" of the New Jersey Department of Transportation in 2001-2002. We will conduct the same course--Placemaking: Tools for Getting Started--for 350 New York State DOT employees in May, and for California State Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in the Fall. We are also working with the New Jersey State Planning Commission and the Office of State Planning to explore opportunities for high impact projects in the state.

In fact, PPS has been working steadily in California and New Jersey, two states known for their particularly intractable combinations of growth, sprawl, and traffic. These efforts are notable for the willingness of the state DOTs and transit agencies to lead change along a livable, community-inspired model.

PPS's work in San Mateo County, California, is utilizing an extensive community process aimed at transforming a traffic-plagued area with a housing crunch into a livable, transit-oriented model for the rest of the nation.

PPS's work in New Jersey, beyond the groundbreaking CSD training program noted above, includes an award-winning program with NJ Transit to renovate 11 train stations and the spaces around them; master plans for transit-oriented development at nine light-rail facilities in the communities facing Manhattan along the Hudson River; a waterfront access plan for the Passaic River in downtown Newark, in partnership with NJDOT; and community placemaking opportunities along the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and Roseville Avenue Bridges in Newark.

Beyond individual projects, PPS has translated its experience into many publications and sponsored extensive educational workshops around the issue of transportation and livability across the U.S. PPS also organized the Transportation and Livable Communities Consortium, a coalition of 20 national organizations and U.S. transportation agencies working to encourage collaboration between transportation agencies and communities. In conjunction with this initiative, PPS produced How Transportation and Community Partnerships are Reshaping America – Parts 1 and 2, which were distributed to all consortium members.

For an in-depth look at Placemaking and streets, see PPS's Context Sensitive Solutions resource center.

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