In its section on transportation, the City of Quesnel's OCP states that the City will:
"consider alternative design standards and neo-traditional planning principles (which include the use of a grid street network, lanes, boulevards and narrower streets)".
This statement refers to a more general change in urban planning priorities and so is explored with reference to the City's other policies below.
The term neo-traditional planning, otherwise called 'New Urbanism', is a reform movement that recently emerged in North America to respond to the problems created by urban and suburban sprawl. All the above-mentioned policies of the Quesnel OCP are consistent with this 'new' approach that, as its name suggests, looks backs to less vehicle-dominated times for inspiration.
According to the US Department of Energy's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development, the primary design characteristics of New Urbanism include the following:
- Mixed land uses within neighborhoods;
- Pedestrian-centered neighborhoods with primary social and economic facilities within a five-minute walk;
- Community orientation around public transit systems;
On the previous page, we discussed how mixed land uses can help prevent sprawl and the problems associated with it. On this page, we discuss how roads and trails can be made more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Transit options are covered on the following page.
Roads and streets
Other than considering the general application of neo-traditional design principles, the Quesnel OCP does not cover in detail specific implications of this approach and their potential effect on roads and streets.
However, many people have suggested a list of features associated with neo-traditional road and street design. For example, in his study of sustainable design and planning strategies in North America, Robert Hsin lists the following considerations:
- "Human-scaled" streets
Reducing road widths and curb radii have many beneficial effects. Traffic speeds are reduced, and streets feel smaller and less daunting to pedestrians. Embodied energy is reduced since less material is required for construction.
- Street patterns to dilute rather than concentrate traffic.
Conventional street patterns use various techniques to force traffic into a small number of primary arterials, leading to traffic congestion and a generally unpleasant environment for pedestrians around these areas. A grid-type design, by contrast, offers travellers more options and so spreads the load more evenly.
- Street patterns that conform to a site's natural topography.
Where traffic is not a critical issue, however, designing a street to conform to a site's topography is desirable, to reduce environmental impact of the development, to reduce the need to alter the site's natural drainage patterns, and to save costs by eliminating unnecessary over-engineering of road systems.
- Provide greenery within the streetscape.
Urban greenery helps improve local air quality and enhances liveability.
- Specify alternative paving surfaces.
Where appropriate, alternatives to asphalt and concrete may be used to reduce the environmental impact of using these materials. For sidewalks and areas where traffic load is not high, unpaved or permeable paving surfaces could be used. Alternatively, recycled materials, such as crushed glass, recycled tired or aggregate could be specified.
- Reduce the area of impervious surfaces.
Other effective ways of reducing the amount of paved surface required include multi-storey developments, shared driveways, and decreasing side and rear yard setbacks.
- Provide alternatives to parking lots.
Street parking can often help create a more pedestrian-focused street environment and prevents the loss of 'dead space' that parking lots represent.
Bicycle routes
More common in OCPs throughout the province are policies on improving the availability and quality of pedestrian and bicycle trails. For Quesnel, however, the development of certain bicycle routes is specifically part of an overall transport system.
Quesnel Council's policies on pedestrian and bicycle routes include the following:
- "Provide for and encourage bicycle and pedestrian movement by developing an integrated system of safe and convenient sidewalks, pathways and trails;
- Continue to implement a program of priority sidewalk construction within Quesnel;
- Work towards improving the width and approaches on sidewalks in order to allow more efficient wheelchair access within Quesnel;
- Consider extending sidewalks to service areas with particularly high volumes of pedestrian traffic including schools, recreational facilities and commercial areas;
- Continue the policy of requiring sidewalk in new development, except for along cul-de-sacs;
- Work towards establishing a bicycle and pedestrian trail network;
- Consider widening sidewalks downtown and in other areas where there are high volumes of foot traffic;
- Investigate a pathway connection between residential areas and industrial employment centres toward the north end of the City;
- Investigate options for pedestrian access across [the local] Highway;
- Encourage stronger connections between the Downtown, and the Riverfront park and Trail;
- Continue to improve the pedestrian environment of downtown".
Because of Quesnel's severe winters and steep terrain, it is unlikely that bicycle trails will offer an entirely realistic commuting alternative for most people in the City. However, in addition the benefit offered to those are willing to brave this geography, bicycle trails also enhance the liveability of the City for wider numbers of people who enjoy them for recreational use.
Pedestrian routes
'Walkability', says Richard McLaughlin in one of a series of articles on New Urbanism for Planning Minnesota, is a central feature of the neo-traditional urban design approach. McLaughlin introduces two features crucial to creating walkability: walking distance and pedestrian continuity.
Walking distance, he proposes, is
"a distance comfortable for most people to walk, as an attractive alternative to driving. This distance is best represented as one quarter mile (400 metres), or a five-minute walk. Walking distance is a historic axiom of urban pattern, delimiting the French Quartier and the Neighborhood Unit described in the 1929 New York City Regional Plan. Current adaptations such as Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) also use a five-minute walking distance as a primary design determinant."
Neo-traditional planners also try to achieve "pedestrian continuity" which McLaughlin describes as,
"an experiential quality created by a safe, comfortable and attractive network of pathways connecting frequently-visited destinations. The essential characteristics of pedestrian continuity are: ·
- Each pathway's trajectory has a desirable or useful destination;
- Frequent destinations are located in places that create a succession of five-minute walks;
- The pathway network offers choices of route, and is logical, uninterrupted, and inclusive of shortcuts wherever possible;
- The pathway's trajectory is spatially defined by interesting building architecture and landscape, and tempered by the local climate, providing shade when the air is hot and sun when the air is cool;
- Pathways are protected from automobile traffic wherever possible;
- Pathways are visually monitored by people in surrounding buildings, and therefore offer pedestrians a sense of safety;"
