Neighborhood Greenwaysin the University DistrictAnne Gantt, Kyle Rowe & Eli GoldbergUniversity Greenways

Agenda

•What are Neighborhood Greenways?•U-District: why here? •Next Steps/Discussion

What’s a Neighborhood Greenway?

3

It’s a street with low traffic volume and low traffic speed where people walking, bicycling and who live on the street receive priority.

What is a Neighborhood Greenway?

Rapid growth in interest

Beacon Hill Greenways

Phase 1 greenways being built now.

Wallingford Greenways• Phase 1 greenways completed• Phase 2 greenways in planning

Laurelhurst

Fully funded, plan complete, shovel ready.

THE U-DISTRICT?

Key U-District walking + bicycling stats

• Only 37% of working adults in U-District core own a car (Year 2000 US Census)

• 4500 UW commuters go by bike each day (UW)

• Thousands of new housing units planned for (or under construction) in the U-District core• 12,500 new walking trips a day expected

from light rail construction (Sound Transit) 10

We need safer walking & biking

Community enthusiasm for Greenways!

•U-District Chamber of Commerce Director•UW Transportation Services• Low Income Housing Institute•University Park Community Club

What are we doing?

Building community support for safer walking & bicycling:• Community route planning workshop• Neighborhood walking audits• Possible joint charette with DPD• Bike Master Plan Update

Spreading the word:• Street Fair booth

Our asks of you

• Spread the Greenways word.• Advocate for safe walking and biking.•We would love to speak at your

community council meeting!

Discussion

THANK YOU!

The world’s best cycling cities are typically University towns

City Bike mode share

Groningen (Netherlands) 39%

Leiden (Netherlands) 33%

Enschede (Netherlands) 31%

Muenster (Germany) 27%

Freiburg (Germany) 22%

Cambridgeshire (UK) 10%

Oxfordshire (UK) 8%

(source: Pucher, John and Buehler, Ralph (2008) ‘Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany’)