Making a Pedestrian Master Plan that Makes a Difference: A Survey of Pedestrian Master Plans

1. MAKING A PEDESTRIAN MASTER PLAN THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE:a survey of pedestrian master plans Seth Schromen-Wawrin Active Communities Program Director Feet First

2. Pedestrian Master Plans • Transportation or land use master plan process • Common themes: • Public participation/comment • Advisory group • Prioritize capital improvements • Make policy suggestions • Revise design guidelines • Opportunity to assess the state of a transportation mode that is often overlooked

3. Survey Details • Online survey conducted in Spring of 2008 • Surveyed government, advocacy organizations, and community members • 35 government responses • 12 advocate responses • 13 community member responses • Responses from 25 plans • 60% are completed plans • Breadth in government responses

4. General Impression • Primarily positive • Government most optimistic • Varied sense of success

5. General Impression • Primarily positive • Government most optimistic • Varied sense of success

6. Barriers • Recognition that pedestrian planning is an important activity, challenging the status quo • Support for the planning process and implementation. Leveraging the funds, securing the budget, creating the staff positions, etc. • Cooperation and education between departments and participants • Little advice on overcoming these barriers

7. Momentum • Public demand • Population growth • Equity • Ped Safety

8. Momentum • Generally high involvement • Advocates most positive • Community members most negative

9. Momentum • Generally moderate support • Least support for funding and alternatives

10. Participation • Many different groups to contribute • 90% of respondents used an advisory group. • Advocacy groups felt amount of comment was sufficient (100%), but half of community members felt it was sufficient.

11. Participation • Innovative methods: • Go to pre-existing meetings, do not schedule own • Sit down lunches with city elders • Public walks or mobile workshops • Photo-documentaries

12. Participation

13. Diversity provides detail and perspective in plan Builds community buy-in and support from local organizations Provides validity to public comment Only 2/5th of responses claimed to encourage diversity Three main ways: work to have a diverse representation on an advisory committee/group make input opportunities available to more groups (presenting to a diverse set of community members, holding walks for youth, direct mailing to diverse groups, etc.) make it easier for diverse groups to attend events. This was in ways such as having workshop be drop in and last for 4 hours every day for a week (fits almost any schedule); providing child care, food, or translation Participation: Diversity

14. Participation: Diversity • 3 groups of populations left out: • 1st – Minority Groups • 2nd – Practitioners • 3rd – Behavior/Lifestyle • Particular populations: • School officials and children – Those who do not drive • Health practitioners – Law enforcement • Merchant Association

15. Advisory Group • Difference of opinion about what was good about advisory groups: • Government: visionary role, removed (guiding the direction, providing comments, ‘through being an advisory group’) • Community: actively addressing and challenging issues (writing the plan, strongly advocating for elements to be included, disagreeing with the staff, etc ) • Advocacy: split between • Community felt effective when it was empowered, government felt effective when it was functional and not infringing on responsibilties • Groups not present: • Primarily ‘practitioners’ and ‘minority’ groups • Community members said ‘lifestyles’ • Present at events, but do not have a seat.

16. Implementation • Conventional funding mechanisms

17. Implementation • In 2/5th of the cases, the number of pedestrian related staff positions increased after the planning process. • Slow implementation • Difficulty funding projects

18. Health • Relationship between walking and health • 57% responded they did not mention health, or mentioned it only in passing • 25% of plans considered health as a stakeholder during participation • Of plans deemed ‘excellent’ <40% did not mention health. • Ways health was seen as important: • provided direction and reason to do the plan (5), • influencing the need for active transportation (4), • partnership building (3)

19. What people are proud of • Each group felt a different subject was most innovative and had the greatest impact. • Community: single design and policy changes, related to functional use and experience • Advocate: funding and design, focus on system-wide changes • Government: Data gathering and analysis • Shared themes: • Design Guidelines • Sidewalks • Wayfinding • Some personally interesting elements were: • annual pedestrian safety audits • creating a publicly legible handbook on PMP • rename "primary arterials" to "residential throughways" and another plan made a new classification system for the pedestrian environment: intolerant, tolerant, supportive, and place

20. Advice in Hindsight • Gather broad support (community, business, elected) • Have knowledgeable staff and work to educate each other • Community: strong participation and quality listening

21. Conclusions • A plan is still just a plan • Complex process with many factors – no clear silver bullet. • Implementation and funding are difficult • More difficult if there is not a public and conceptual mandate • Partnership development • Participation process is important • Community members will be a good judge of equality in process – advocates are only advocating for a population section. • A good public participation process • Provides community support • Provides comprehensive ideas and coverage • Fully integrate the participation and advisory board into process • Government: be active listeners and attentive to the backyard issues of community members • Community: try and be more considerate of government issues • Pedestrian Plans affect many departments and lifestyles – they should be involved • Diversity helps people accept the plan • Health • Strengthens arguments for pedestrian issues • Helps progressively guide vision and direction

22. Lingering Questions • What are the effects of individual components of a plan? • What patterns are there amongst the plans that participants are proud of? • How does diversity of participation influence sustainability of the plan? • What ways are elected officials effective and ineffective in supporting plans? • How open are advisory groups in gathering public input? • Physical Activity Promotion Research Network (PAPRN)

23. QUESTIONS? Seth Schromen-Wawrin Feet First, seth@feetfirst.info