BikeWalkLee
has for some time focused on the need for a paradigm shift away from the current
auto-focused "Level of Service" (LOS). The paradigm shift is now happening in states and
communities across the country, as demonstrated in two recent national webinars
on the topic and reported here by FGCU student Vitor Suguri.
By
Vitor Suguri, FGCU MPA Graduate Student
Background:
One of BikeWalkLee's long-time concerns has been with the current Level
of Service (LOS) transportation planning methodology that spews out the "need" for
wider and faster roads. The current automobile
LOS is a fundamental barrier to a paradigm shift to a 21st Century
transportation vision that focuses on a balanced multi-modal transportation
system, supporting economic opportunity and livable communities (not just
congestion management). For the past 5
years, BWL has been emphasizing the importance of changing our transportation
planning tools and assumptions in order to realize the vision of complete
streets and sustainable communities. The
"poster child" of the problem is the auto LOS, which has resulted in
over-designed roads that handle capacity that only occurs at the very heaviest
travel periods and overestimates our need for more or wider roadways.
Over
the past decade, many in the transportation profession and policymakers across
the country have recognized the need to reform/replace this tool, and the
paradigm shift is beginning to happen in states and communities across the
country. Locally, BikeWalkLee has worked
with County committees and staffs on revising the current LOS as part of the
County's update of the Comprehensive Plan, Horizon 2035.
Report from "LOS and Livability" Webinar,
by Vitor Suguri, FGCU
MPA Graduate Student
A recent national webinar on this
issue highlights the potential positive changes for Lee County.
FHWA July 22ndWebinar, "LOS and Livability: Making the Connection".
The “Level of Service” (LOS) has
been traditionally used as a tool to measure the capacity of a road or
street. Until recently the main focus of
LOS was solely on the automobile and other motorized modes of
transportation. This focus, generally
speaking, only accounted for how quickly a trip would take from point “a” to
point “b”. Therefore, when a road became
congested, the solution was to make the road wider. With the update of the Lee
County New Horizon 2035 and MPO Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP),there is
an opportunity to incorporate more relevant planning tools to support a
balanced multi-modal transportation system. This may occur by placing more
emphasis on connectivity, accessibility, and safety.
On July 22nd the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in partnership with the Project for
Public Spaces and Sevatec, hosted a webinar that highlighted the need for LOS
goals that consider all road users, supports livable communities, and help
achieve Context Sensitive Solutions. The
webinar featured Keith Harrison, P.E. (Safety/Geometric Design Engineer, FHWA
Resource Center), Paul Krekeler (GreenLITES Program Manager, NYSDOT), Allen D.
Biehler (Executive Director, University Transportation Center, Carnegie Mellon
University), and Peter Hurley (Program and Policy Director, The North American
Sustainable Transportation Council).
One of the key words used through
the webinar was livability. The
presenters emphasized that livability is a key part of a “bigger picture” and
LOS should not be the sole measurement of roadway performance. According to
Keith Harrison, a design of excellence should incorporate indicators such as
the environment, safety, cost, mobility, culture, and preservation. All should
contribute to the decision making process of road design or construction. These represent a set of values that help to
increase pedestrian and bike safety – a significant issue for Lee County.
Florida Presenter Peter Hurley,
focused on the benefits associated with thinking of transportation from a “Triple Bottom Line” perspective. Transportation
investments that increase walking, biking, and transit will lead to improved
public health and reductions in per capita fuel consumption, thus retaining
within the local economy many hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. These
same investments can ensure benefits to the transportation disadvantaged;
reduce injuries and deaths while improving overall livability for everyone. Similarly, presenter Krekeler added that
having a sustainability mission statement would ensure that transportation
investments are promoting safety, preserving the environment, enhancing the
transportation system as a whole, maximizing the return on the investment – the
outcome of seeing beyond mere infrastructure to whole system thinking.
Allen Biehler shared how
Pennsylvania dealt with a tight transportation budget while improving their
existing roads in a way that responded to the livability principle. Similar to Lee County MPO’s recent commitment,
Pennsylvania DOT (PDOT) had adopted a Fix
it First policy, which drove a reduction of funding for new capacity from
25% to 4%. PDOT has worked to establish connections with a broad range of stakeholders
with the goal of maintaining community values and preserving the natural
environment. This type of forward thinking is beginning to be incorporated into
the development of Lee MPO's 2040 LRTP and the County's Comprehensive Plan
(Horizon 2035).
It is clear from the webinar
that there is considerable evidence to show that transportation planning must
go beyond LOS and take on a broader range of measures of transportation
success, including the environment, the people, and the economy. The webinar
demonstrated that this paradigm shift is happening all around the country. In fact, a new California law (enacted in
2013) calls for replacing LOS with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in traffic
impact analysis, supporting the state's goals of encouraging infill development
and mode shift. Another national webinar
on the California experience, "Paradigm shift: From LOS to VMT" was
presented on July 30th. The slides and audio
of the webinar are available online.
BWL's previous blog posts on the issue:
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