Healthy Street Pilot Projects
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ANN ARBOR HEALTHY STREET PILOT PROJECTS Summary of Findings January 14, 2021 Prepared by SmithGroup 1 HEALTHY STREET PILOT PROJECTS City Council passed R-20-158 “Resolution to Promote Safe Social Distancing Outdoors in Ann Arbor” on May 4, 2020. This resolution directed staff to (among other things) “develop recommendations and implementation strategies on comprehensive lane or street re-configurations (and report as soon as possible concerning these recommendations and strategies), including the possible cost of such options, the research conducted, and public input received, and other relevant data.” In response to this directive, City and Downtown Development Authority (DDA) staff gave a presentation on recommendations on June 15, 2020 along with two accompanying resolutions: “Resolution to Advance Healthy Streets in Downtown” and “Resolution to Advance Healthy Streets Outside Downtown.” These resolutions were passed by City Council on July 6, 2020. On August 27th the Ann Arbor DDA and the City of Ann Arbor began installing a series of healthy street pilot projects in the downtown area to provide space for safe physical distancing for bicycle and pedestrian travel. These projects, with the approval of City Council, reconfigured traffic lanes to accommodate temporary pedestrian and bicycle facilities, such as non-motorized travel lanes, two-way bikeways, and separated bike lanes. The pilot projects discussed in this report include the following locations: • Miller/Catherine Bikeway (from 1st Street to Division) • Division Street/Broadway Bikeway (from Packard to Maiden Lane) • S. Main Separated Bike Lanes (from William to Stadium) • State & North University Bikeway (from William Street to Thayer) • Packard Bike Lanes (from State to Hill) • East Packard Project (from Platt to Eisenhower) The pilot projects were designed and implemented in alignment with national guidance, City policies and plans, and the DDA’s adopted values for the People-Friendly Streets program. These values both shaped the design of the pilot projects and provided a basis for their evaluation. Specific goals of the pilot projects included the following: • Increase physical distancing and COVID-19 safety – Provide additional space for pedestrians and bicyclists to maintain safe physical distancing and access for essential travel. • Reinforce the DDAs core values – Increase equitable access to and connectivity between downtown destinations to support commercial activity and a healthy and vibrant downtown for all people. • Inform Future Projects – The pilot projects are an opportunity to inform the design of future projects, whether on the pilot project streets or others, and better understand potential challenges and needs to meet core values. Most notably, a better understanding of how improvements can: o Improve safety for all users – Support the City’s Vision Zero policy to eliminate severe injury and fatal crashes. o Improve bicycle connectivity and comfort – Support the City’s A2Zero carbon-neutrality plan and Non- Motorized Plan by increasing active transportation options and thereby reducing vehicle miles traveled. The pilot projects were planned to remain in place for up to 90-days from the date of installation, with the City and DDA staff and their consultants providing on-going monitoring, review, adjustment, and opportunity for public feedback. This document provides key findings after reviewing the performance and success of the pilot projects. Pursuant to R-20-393 Resolution to End Healthy Streets Initiative Outside of Downtown passed by City Council on October 5, 2020, portions of the Healthy Streets pilots were removed in mid-October. TThe remainder of the pilot projects were removed starting in the first week of November to ensure restoration of the pre-install condition prior to snow events and cold temperatures. 2 PUBLIC FEEDBACK & DATA COLLECTION METHODS A range of feedback tools were used to understand how well the pilot projects met established goals and to inform future street improvements. This included direct data collection, video footage, and field observation to measure speed, traffic counts, compliance, and crashes. In addition, a public survey with 695 responses helped to assess goals and behaviors that are hard to measure, like physical distancing and access. These activities are summarized below and will be referenced throughout this document. Complete records and tabulation of data are provided as appendix items. Public Feedback Survey After City Council passed a Resolution to Promote Safe Social Distancing Outdoors in Ann Arbor, an online mapping tool was launched to allow residents an opportunity to make suggestions on where to consider Healthy Streets. This initial tool generated nearly 1,000 comments and the results can be viewed here. Alongside the installation period of the pilot projects, an additional web-based public survey and engagement tool was used to collect feedback from the Ann Arbor community. As of November 2, 2020 when the survey was closed, 695 survey responses and 72 mapping comments were collected. Questions were asked about which pilot projects respondents used for walking and/or biking, whether they improved their experience biking downtown, which projects best helped to meet user needs, and whether they improved sense of safety, comfort, and ability for physical distancing. In addition to quantitative questions, over 1,300 written comments were received through the survey and direct e-mail. Key survey results are discussed relative to each pilot project in the sections below. The appendix to this document includes a full listing of the survey results and written comments. Field Observations Throughout the pilot project study, DDA staff, city staff, and engineering consultants conducted over 65 on-site field observations of pilot projects. Observations were typically associated with peak hour traffic periods, such as the AM peak hours (7:30-9:30am), PM peak hours (4:30-6:30pm) and midday peak hours (11:30-12:30pm). Observations were focused on identifying the following types of patterns and behaviors: • Bicycle and pedestrian use of the pilot project facilities and their behaviors / compliance • Safety issues or accessibility concerns, including bicycle and vehicle behaviors • Vehicle traffic impacts and operational concerns (i.e. turning issues, geometric issues) Overall, 67 field observations were conducted during the pilot project installation. Key findings from these observations are noted in the individual pilot project descriptions below, and listed in the appendix as well. Video Footage Video footage was collected at multiple intersections across the pilot projects and reviewed, as needed, by the consultant team. Pre-installation video was collected July 23rd through July 25th (a Thursday through Saturday). Post- installation video was collected October 8th through October 10th (also a Thursday through Saturday). Video footage was reviewed on a selected basis for locations where public feedback and/or field observations noted a concern that merited more focused review and extended observation. Reviewed video footage focused on the AM Peak Hour Traffic (8am-9am) and PM Peak Hour Traffic (5pm-6pm) for selected locations. Locations reviewed and resulting observations for each pilot project are noted in the relevant sections below. Video footage was focused on identifying the same categories of issues or concerns as for the field observations (see list above) 3 Volume & Speed Data Tube counters for vehicle travel lanes and dedicated bicycle facilities were installed pre- and post-installation of the pilot projects in order to capture quantified data. Pre-installation counts and speeds were collected July 23rd through July 25th (a Thursday through Saturday). Post-installation counts and speeds were collected October 8th through October 10th (also a Thursday through Saturday). A snapshot of bicycle volume, vehicle speeds, and vehicles volume results are presented and discussed in the sections below relative to each pilot project. A discussion of the results, alongside any analysis and contextual information is presented for each pilot project. A full complication of collected data is provided as an appendix item. Crash Data Police crash data records were collected for the entire September through October 2020 time period when the pilot projects were deployed. Crash data was reviewed to determine if any crashes involved vulnerable users (e.g. people walking or biking). Crash data was compared against the same September to October 2-month period for the prior 5- years (2014 to 2019) to ascertain whether crashes appeared to be lower or higher during the pilot project compared to 5-year averages. 4 KEY RESULTS & FINDINGS Overall, the pilot projects fulfilled the key objectives – improving physical distancing space, safety, and access during the installation period. In addition, they provided valuable insight for future design, outreach, and education. Over the course of several months, these pilot projects demonstrated how infrastructure can have a direct impact on access, safety, and increased non-motorized use, representing national trends and studies in the local context. More detailed observations and lessons learned are detailed below. Non-Motorized Network Findings The pilot projects improved non-motorized connectivity and comfort and supported short-term opportunities for mode shift. A strong majority of survey respondents who used the pilot projects said that it improved their biking experience