Franklinton Community Mobility Plan Closing Workshop

• Judy Basham
• Amanda Brauner
• Brenda Dutton
• Pauline Edwards
• Jennifer Flynn
• Mark Fowler
• John Fulks
• Cathy Fynes
• John Heiss
• Rebecca Hunley
• Francine Kempe
• Michael Kennerd
• Steven Lambert
• Maureen Lorenz
• Sheila Lutz
• Sandy McCarty
• Bart Overly
• Chuck Penwell
• Mike Phillips
• Steve Simmons
• Bruce Warner
• Alton Willis
• Chris Winchester
• Donna Woods

• Dan Burden, Walkable Communities
• Nick Shultz - EMH&T
• Larry Creed - EMH&T
• Terry Stewart - City of Columbus
• Bill Lewis, City of Columbus
• Bernice Cage - MORPC
• Dilip Karpoor - MORPC
• Ahmad Al-Akhras - MORPC
• Chris Gawronski - MORPC

• Carol Stewart, Franklinton Area Commission
• Jim Sweeney, Franklinton Development Association
• Barry Peel, City of Columbus
• Tammy Peters, City of Columbus
• Mike Smeltzer, City of Columbus
• Christine Godward, City of Columbus
• Ann Lewicki, City of Columbus
• Kelly Angel, ODOT 6
• Kelly Brooker Scocco, ODOT
• Mark Dravillas, City of Columbus
• Sgt. Lamar Glenn, City of Columbus Police Department
• Jim Hutcherson, COTA

• Carol Burden
• Don Cameron
• Diane Johnson
• Chad Pinnell
• John Gideon - COBAC
• Brenda Noé - MORPC
• Nathaniel Vogt - MORPC

Terry Stewart, City of Columbus, welcomed everyone to the meeting at 5:35 p.m.

Mr. Stewart explained that the City of Columbus Transportation Division is providing planning services for a comprehensive mobility plan in the Franklinton area. He said that Dan Burden would discuss the formation of a steering committee. He added that the City of Columbus Transportation Division initiated this process and will continue to be the stewards of the structural portion of the right-of-way, which is primarily from sidewalk-to-sidewalk. Traffic calming is affected by the type of neighborhood, greenery, and interesting sites. It is also affected by land use, which will be the responsibility of the steering committee.

Mr. Stewart introduced Dan Burden from Walkable Communities, Inc. in Florida. He presented the findings and asked that people sign up for task forces before leaving. He stated that the neighborhood could not hire consultants for the solutions to its problems because the residents are the ones who are going to be impacted the most by all the changes that will be made, but the consultants can advise the residents to make sure no incorrect tools are used.

Mr. Burden said that this process began with an open house, then an evening of presenting ideas, priorities and solutions, followed by a day-long walk audit that provided a lot of insight. Mr. Burden gave a history of traffic calming and showed why traditional traffic-calming of stop signs and speed humps do not really work. He showed examples of areas that have come back to life after traffic-calming techniques were applied that added beauty to the neighborhood and not noise. Mr. Burden felt that several roundabouts were necessary for the Franklinton area because they would help with the economic recovery. Converting intersections to roundabouts reduces all crashes by 40 percent and injury crashes by 80 percent. They also result in significant improvements in traffic flow, leading to reduced emissions and fuel consumption. Roundabouts are proposed for Mound Street, Harrisburg Pike, and Central Avenue. A mini-circle is similar to a roundabout, but smaller. It does not have all the same applications but has the same safety return. Mr. Burden added that if the roundabouts and mini-circles do not do their jobs in reducing speeds and crashes, other tools may be applied, such as speed humps or speed tables. Other tools include medians and curb extensions, although curb extensions cost much more. Mr. Burden said that he is also recommending many road “diets.” Lines are painted on the roads to make them appear narrower, thus reducing speeds. Mr. Burden explained and showed examples of all the traffic-calming measures he had proposed for Franklinton.

Mr. Burden asked for volunteers to staff two committees – steering and task force. He then asked for questions.

Question: How will this project be funded?

Answer: Funding can be done by soft replacement. Every time a street is resurfaced some of the appropriate changes can be built in. Mr. Stewart from the City of Columbus said that first the city would need to know what the residents wanted built and their priorities. There are funding sources other than the City of Columbus, such as Safe Routes to Schools and some safety dollars. Mr. Burden added that road diets cost nothing more than paint.

Question: How do you deal with the drainage at the curb extension?

Answer: Either the curb extension is attached to the current curb line, which interrupts drainage (very expensive), or (Dan never gave the other way to deal with the drainage).

Question: The city spent a lot of money putting in ADA ramps that were needed and had to redo some of them two or three times, and they still are not correct. The water and sewage are backing up at these ramps.

Answer: Mr. Burden said that Franklinton was not alone. There are many cities still behind Columbus in their learning curve. Sometimes the tools that are used have to be done many times because they don’t work, but that is not known until they are put in. This is usually because cities are trying to do things as quickly and as affordably as they can.

Question: What are you recommending for the Broad Street road diet?

Answer: Curb extensions and inset parking on both sides.

Question: Children have to cross Broad Street to get to Avondale School. Would there be some treatments there to indicate they are school crosswalks?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How wide are the medians you recommend?

Answer: Generally, 8 feet is preferred.

Question: Is there still room for bike lanes?

Answer: There could be two 4-foot bike lanes.

Question: In Sarasota County, Florida there is a huge volunteer base for the safety patrol area, and they man their busy intersections with volunteers and have signals and strobes, and they also cone the crosswalk. Have you found that to be a big help for curbing student problems at the crosswalks?

Answer: We have. Mr. Burden was the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for Florida, and he launched that program. They also train and certify all of their crossing guards.

Question: Most of the roundabouts you recommended add major entry features to the neighborhood. Is that also to help establish an image for the community?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Could you talk about a community that adopted such a practice in the past and the effect it had on that community?

Answer: Mr. Burden’s example was in West Palm Beach. He said that when they did the road diets, roundabouts and other treatments, within one year the average property value went up $150,000. In another neighborhood in Orlando where people were having trouble selling their homes we did traffic-calming, and in order to get the treatments they wanted, the property owners would have had to wait five years. They asked if they paid 100 percent of the cost if they could get it done right away. The city was amenable to that. Each homeowner paid $10,000, prorated over 10 years, and the city charged no interest. Within three months, the home values on that street shot up so much that they were now getting more than they had asked for their homes. A treatment was also done in a business district in Golden, Colorado, and their business went way up.

Question: The cost to the city of maintaining traffic signals would be eliminated by roundabouts at those intersections.

Answer: Yes. It would eliminate the cost of electricity, signal timing, adjustments, maintenance of the equipment, the bulbs, and the physical equipment itself. There is still a cost to maintain a roundabout, but you are adding value and attraction to the neighborhood.

Question: Studies have been done proposing a boulevard system along Broad Street. Have you looked at other, broader issues such as how Franklinton’s plan would fit into a larger strategy?

Answer: Mr. Burden is looking at Franklinton as being a great comeback neighborhood and a place where people begin to invest money and improve economically with the value of these tools. It’s not in competition with any other part of town.

Question: Is there any reason roundabouts would not be featured more centrally in the neighborhood instead of just at the entranceways?

Answer: There is no reason not to consider a future roundabout at Broad and Glenwood as well as at Central. The roundabouts that are proposed at the entranceways are just a beginning. Tools can be changed to fit the adjacent neighborhoods and issues.

Question: What about the improvement of walkability?

Answer: The biggest issue for most people who choose to walk is safety. We start with traffic-calming as the featured change, but we focus most heavily on the intersections, which are where most of the incidents occur, and then we will start to look at internal areas away from the intersections if the problem at the intersection has not yet been solved.

Question: If you slow down people on the thoroughfares, aren’t they just going to cut through the residential area?

Answer: Based upon decades of experience, when a proper treatment is done to a street (not stopping people), most people will find that it serves their needs better.

Question: In terms of prioritizing, what needs to happen next?

Answer: Mr. Burden pointed out the area on a map that needed to be done first. He then asked the residents to prioritize the corners, streets, and corridors they wanted done. He said that each resident could have three votes.

• Nortwest Segment
  • Chicago Avenue (4 votes)
  • In front of Dana Avenue School (1 vote)
  • Entry features (9 votes)
  • Central Avenue corridor including Gilford and McKinley parks(12 votes)
• South Segment
  • Mound and Central (7 votes)
  • Sullivant and Central (3 votes)
  • West Park and Dakota medians (6 votes)
  • Town and Glenwood (7 votes)
  • Sullivant and Glenwood (2 votes)
• East Segment
  • State and McDowell (1 vote)
  • Grubb and Broad (8 votes)
  • State and Gift (8 votes)
  • Grubb and Sullivant (0 votes)
  • Hawkes and Broad (7 votes)
  • Broad Street Gateway Roundabouts at COSI and Bridge (5 votes)
  • Town and McDowell (2 votes)
• • Sidewalks – rebuild (8 votes)
  • Sidewalks on Harmon (5 votes)
  • Glenwood and Mound (7 votes)
  • Souder and Mound (2 votes)
  • Greenlawn and Harmon (2 votes)
  • Chicane near Sullivant School (1 vote)

Mr. Burden again asked participants to sign up for committees. Mr. Gideon suggested that the Steering Committee become involved with the Mayor’s newly appointed 2012 Commission.

The workshop ended at 7:45 p.m.