Consultant offers street-level audits

• By CHAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Nov 13, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The streets and sidewalks of downtown Baton Rouge talk every day to the people who visit, and they aren’t always saying what they should.

Small design choices — curb cuts, lighting, crosswalks — send messages to pedestrians and motorists alike and the right decisions can allow both to share urban spaces safely.

That was the lesson delivered by Troy Russ, an urban planner with Orlando, Fla.-based Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, in town Wednesday to lead two “walking audits” of downtown Baton Rouge.

The tours were open to the public and sponsored by the Center for Planning Excellence as part of the second phase of Plan Baton Rouge, the planning initiative that has guided downtown’s development.

Russ told about 20 participants that conflicting signals about whether an area is for pedestrians or motorists are one of the major reasons people don’t walk. And while he said factors such as aesthetics and land use are important, safety is the most crucial issue when making design choices in urban areas where cars and pedestrians mingle.

Standing in front of the Shaw Center for the Arts at the corner of Third Street and North Boulevard, Russ pointed out the street rises to the level of the curb when it approaches the intersection, bringing cars to the same level as pedestrians. That’s a subtle signal to drivers that they are moving into a pedestrian space.

He pointed out the sloped curb cut to accommodate people with disabilities is diagonal, funneling people not across the crosswalks but out into the intersection.

Russ said sidewalks should bulb out into the street at intersections to give pedestrians a better look down the road past parked cars. That space is wasted anyway because cars can’t park on the corners. A “bulb out” provides the added benefit of shortening the trip across the street, he said.

Walking down North Boulevard toward River Road, Russ pointed out the physical separation that the tree plantings on on-street parking provide between pedestrians and traffic.

Before leading the group along River Road, he asked them to note how different the experience was with the sidewalk pressed up against the street and the cars and trucks speeding by.

Standing on the levee overlooking the Mississippi River, Russ pointed out the access to the river at Florida Street is among only a couple of pedestrian connections between downtown and the river.

He said cities like Denver, where he lives and works for Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, can only dream of having a river running through its downtown, making it puzzling why Baton Rouge doesn’t have a stronger connection to the Mississippi.

This, as it often does, brought up the issue of the railroad tracks, which run along the river.