Balancing Competing Interests for Curb: An Urban Neighborhood in Transition

The Casey Arborway Project developed an at-grade roadway design to replace an obsolete 1950’s era viaduct that bifurcated local city street networks around a major transit hub in an urban neighborhood in Boston. The solution involved redesigning a complex network of historic roadways, arterial corridors, transit facilities and bicycle and pedestrian corridors for both north/south and east/west connections. The challenge was to develop a new street network with flexible and self-regulating curb use at a transit hub in an urban neighborhood with limited enforcement and high demand by competing users. The project required coordination and collaboration among competing owners and balancing the interests of diverse users and stakeholders. Circulation and access to the curb was constrained by a history of changing roadways and transit corridors due to the removal of an elevated train, termination of street car services, and eliminating a key local link in the Olmsted Emerald Necklace corridor. Over the years, the ability to use the curb was further impacted by growing demand to access transit service, by demand for open space resources, and by demand to accommodate pedestrians, bikes and school bus needs as well as expanding local commercial and residential uses. The at-grade solution offers a unique opportunity to redesign and reassign curb use that is flexible and adaptable to competing needs, changing demands and limited resources. It will increase opportunities to provide equitable access to more users in the future.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE30 Transportation Issues in Major U.S. Cities. Alternate title: Balancing Competing Interests for Curb: Urban Neighborhood in Transition.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • d'Amato, Andrea
  • Kindsvatter, Don
  • McLaughlin, Steven
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Curbs; Highway design; Transit centers; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Historic automobile roads; Pedestrian and bicycle corridors; Road networks
• Geographic Terms: Boston (Massachusetts)
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01514490
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-1252
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 18 2014 5:21PM