Denver Living Streets

Resources

Website Links

Case Studies

Other Online Tools

National Complete Streets Coalition Fact Sheets
These fact sheets provide detailed information on the problems with contemporary street design and the potential benefits that communities can realize by reforming their policies. Topics include health, climate change, economic revitalization, transportation costs, and sustainability.

American Planning Association Complete Streets Resource List
The American Planning Association has compiled a list of online resources related to complete streets, including research studies, design guidelines, and legislation.

Institute of Transportation Engineers Guide to Context Sensitive Solutions
Context sensitive solutions is a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a transportation facility that fits its physical setting and preserves scenic, aesthetic, historic and environmental resources, while maintaining safety and mobility.

Active Living Research: Research Summaries & Briefs
The research arm of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has published research summaries of studies focused on the link between health and the built environment.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Healthy Places webpage
The CDC has established a website devoted to “Designing and Building Healthy Places,” with additional information on a variety of topics related to community design, including accessibility, children’s health, mental health, physical activity, and water quality.

AARP Public Policy Institute on Livable Communities
The research and policy division of American Association of Retired Persons has conducted several studies on livable communities, including a comprehensive analysis of complete streets policies around the country.

New Urban News Walkable Streets Resources
The Congress for the New Urbanism has compiled a list of news stories, research studies, and case studies on walkable streets.

Brookings Institution Walkable Urbanism webpage
The Brookings Institution has conducted numerous studies on “walkable urbanism,” a development approach focused on creating pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use, and mixed-income places. Visiting fellow Christopher Leinberger, director of the University of Michigan’s graduate studies in real estate, has expertise in downtown redevelopment, real estate, financing, and strategic planning for downtowns and suburban centers.

“Rethinking the Street Space” series
In this four-part series published by the Planetizen website in 2009, Los Angeles-based planners Amber Hawkes and Georgia Sheridan of the consulting firm Torti Gallas and Partners discuss the latest developments in street design.

The first article establishes a rationale for reforming street design policies and discusses where we are today in designing “street space.”
The second article discusses the evolution of street design in America, from the early twentieth century when cars were nonexistent to the early twenty-first century when most streets are designed solely for cars.
The third article focuses on street design manuals and analyzes some of the most innovative ones to be released in the past few years, including New York City’s new Street Design Manual.
The fourth and final article looks at street design checklists and provides recommendations for jurisdictions on how to construct simple, straightforward guidelines that encourage planners and developers to create more attractive and successful streetscapes and places.

How walkable neighborhoods increase home values, illustrated
National Resources Defense Council Smart Growth Program Director Ken Benfield discusses the CEO for Cities report “Walking the Walk: How Walkability Increases Home Prices in the U.S.” on the NRDC Switchboard blog.

Website Links

Streetfilms features short films about the many issues facing pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transportation users around the world, as well as interviews with some of the most influential people in the livable streets movement.

The National Complete Streets Coalition is a national, non-profit organization that advocates for complete streets policies around the country, including at the federal level.

Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP)
The STPP conducts research on and advocates for transportation policies that ensure safer communities and smarter transportation choices. In conjunction with Transportation for America, they released the Dangerous by Design report in November 2009, which ranked U.S. metropolitan areas for pedestrian safety.

Case Studies

Sacramento, California
Peer-reviewed medical journal article on the results of a five-year multi-disciplinary partnership to support increased walking and bicycling in the Sacramento area. (“Partnership Moves Community Toward Complete Streets;” American Journal of Preventive Medicine; Vol. 37, No. 6S2)

US EPA Living Streets Case Studies
Columbia Pike, Arlington, Virginia
El Camino Real, Palo Alto, California
28th Street, Boulder, Colorado
(Implementing Living Streets: Ideas and Opportunities for the City and County of Denver; Appendix C; US EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance program; April 2009)

University of Colorado Denver Master of Planning Studio Case Studies
Charlotte, North Carolina
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Portland, Oregon
The spring 2008 Studio I in the University of Colorado Denver urban and regional planning master’s program prepared these case studies for the Living Streets Initiative.
(Patton, Adams, Holst, Sweppenheiser; Complete Streets Case Studies; University of Colorado Denver, May 2008).

Other Online Tools

WalkScore
See how walkable your neighborhood is. WalkScore calculates the proximity of a location to nearby shops, services, and public transit.

Personal Emissions Calculator
Ever wonder what your carbon footprint is? AirHead allows you to measure your environmental impact based on automobile, electricity, and other energy usage. Developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Housing & Transportation Affordability Index
Find out how much it really costs to live in certain communities, based not just on housing prices, but also on transportation costs, auto greenhouse gas emissions, and gas prices. Developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology.