The primary function of cities is to maximize exchange and minimize transportation.
If Portland's city planners and traffic engineers considered each land use and transportation decision with this simple concept in mind, says Ian Lockwood, national expert in livable transportation, Portland could eclipse its status as a great North American city and become a world-class city.
"Social, economic, labor, entertainment exchange all come together in cities," says Lockwood. And essential to that exchange, he adds, is access.
After a walk-about in the city's downtown area during a recent visit, Lockwood observes Portland could raise the bar in terms of inclusiveness and accessibility of its streets and sidewalks on its way from great to world class.
Rewarding the short trip
In town to address the annual meeting of the International Council of Shopping Centers on the relationship of transportation to successful places, Lockwood made a compelling case for the ways in which Portland can make changes that would transform the city.
"The big picture for Portland when they make land use and transportation decisions is to align those decisions with the fundamental purpose of cities," says Lockwood. "So what you're going to have to do as a community is figure out which parts of what you've done contribute to the long-term health and vitality of Portland and which of those things are holding you back."
As Lockwood framed it at two well-attended sessions of city planners, developers, retail specialists, traffic engineers and biking advocates, it's all about whether a city rewards the short trip or the long trip.
Standing before a PowerPoint slide of two city block networks displayed side-by-side – one from Irvine, Calif., and the other from Savannah, Ga. – Lockwood described what audience members could plainly see.
The tight city grid of Savannah indicates short blocks that allow for multiple routing options and easier access to public spaces and local businesses. The more free form, disconnected streets of Irvine offer fewer options for access and alternate modes of transportation, leading to a dependence on the automobile to meet daily needs.
"Street networks are the bones of a city … they inform land use," says Lockwood. Fine grain networks, like Savannah, he continued, operate on a human scale and provide a greater variety of sites that are easily accessible to the walker or cyclist – rewarding the short, sustainable trip. The more open, sparse network, evident in the Irvine street grid, is built to automobile scale and rewards the longer, unsustainable trip.
"The transportation purpose of cities is to actually minimize transportation," says Lockwood, "To shorten trips and make them efficient, use a grid network, on-street parking, two-way streets, walkability, transit. All these things add up to an accessible place."
The easy conclusion: if you want to build great cities, reward the short trip.
Barriers to livable downtowns
So how does Portland fare? The transportation and land use decisions it's made that contribute to the long-term health and vitality of the city, according to Lockwood, include a well-developed transit system, effective accommodations for cyclists, great districts, streets, sidewalks and public places, and a spirited sense of innovation like bioswales, bike boxes and street furniture in the downtown area.
The things holding Portland back, Lockwood says, are too many large areas and streets in the city that are under-utilized; issues of scale that result in street signage sized for automobiles, not pedestrians or bicyclists; corners that lack trees to create entry ways and a sense of enclosure to streets and – most disturbingly to Lockwood – an over supply of one-way streets.
"Your one-way problem here is epidemic – a lot of them could be restored to two-way so that cyclists can go directly to where they want to go and they don't have to go out of route," observes Lockwood. "What that translates to eventually is that you'll probably be able to meet your daily and weekly needs within close proximity to your home."
As if his argument weren't compelling enough, Lockwood clicked through a series of before and after shots from projects he'd completed in his role as traffic engineer in West Palm Beach, Fla. Neighborhoods and streets that were once desolate, crime-ridden areas were transformed into vibrant, tree-lined streets filled with pedestrians, bicyclists and activity.
Benefits of access
"A well-designed city that's accessible will be economically healthy," says Lockwood, "not just environmentally healthy and socially healthy."
Call it the triple bottom line of land use planning and transportation. Or think of it as "livable transportation," the idea of successful cities built around people, not cars. Or do as Lockwood does at the beginning of each presentation, and just call it as it is:
"Hello, I'm Ian Lockwood and I make beautiful streets."
The revitalization of main streets and downtowns helps support the region's six desired outcomes by creating vibrant communities and economic prosperity that enhance the quality of life for residents of the Portland metropolitan area.