Calming Traffic: Virginia Walkability Action Institute

Charles Brown:
When we talk about racial discrimination in American cities, we usually focus on housing, schools, or policing. We talk less about streets and sidewalks, but in many communities of color, decades of disinvestment have resulted in a built environment where people are unable to move through public space in a safe and healthy way. Those communities tend to look a lot like Landsdowne, a predominantly Black, low-income neighborhood in Roanoke, Virginia. It’s a place where fast, wide roads cut through a residential area, and pedestrians have spent years navigating streets that weren’t built with them in mind. The conditions of places like Landsdowne have existed for a long time, and they can be difficult to reform, but there are cities that are starting to get it right. The Landsdowne Traffic Calming Project in Roanoke is one of them.

My name is Charles T. Brown, and this is Arrested Mobility. My guest today is Dr. Melicent Miller, a program manager for the Virginia Department of Health. Dr. Miller, along with my company, Equitable Cities, which is now doing business as Horizon 54, co-founded the Virginia Walkability Action Institute in 2019. This is an organization that works with local teams across Virginia to make streets safer and more accessible in communities that have been historically left behind.

Dr. Melicent Miller:
I’m Dr. Melicent Miller, and I serve as the Chronic Disease and Obesity Prevention Consultant with the Virginia Department of Health. I’m located in Richmond, Virginia. And I consider myself a public health practitioner, and I’ve worked in this field for over 16 years now. My primary focus in public health has been on chronic disease prevention, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and obesity. And I’ve served mainly at the local state and national levels.

And so, this work, I think most likely stems from, growing up in South Carolina it was really commonplace to hear that, “Uncle Such-and-such has diabetes,” or, “the sugar.” Or, “Aunt So and-so has high blood pressure,” hypertension. Or even worse, they’ve had adverse events like a stroke, amputation, or even succumbed to those preventable conditions. So for a long time, I approached my work through the lenses of focusing on health communication, programming, and education, with the assumption that people just need the right education on these topics and that they would do better to improve their health. So I guess, under the guise of, knowledge is power. However, we know that the system is not designed in that way and it’s not really designed for people, all people, to have the same access to the same resources and tools they need to be healthy and live optimally.

So I would say about nine years ago, I intentionally integrated more upstream approaches into my work. In my chronic disease prevention and community-based work, I kept encountering the same barriers. We asked people to be active, to eat healthy, to access healthcare, be engaged in their communities, and do all the things, right? But the streets and their environments around them don’t support safe walking, biking, transit access, or even the basic comforts of life. And so, my entry point into urban planning, if you will, I’m not an urban planner by any stretch, but it really came from a simple reality that people’s health is shaped by the conditions of everyday life.

Charles Brown:
The Virginia Walkability Action Institute was founded to work on active transportation, walkability, and community-led design in an intersectional, multidisciplinary way. Their approach to planning projects seek to affect policy changes at the federal, state, and local level, and even institutional level. A few years ago, they began working with the city of Roanoke on the Landsdowne Traffic Calming Project. I asked Dr. Miller to give us a description of Roanoke and Landsdowne.

Dr. Melicent Miller:
I’ll preface by stating that I’m not a resident of the Landsdowne neighborhood or Northwest Roanoke, so what I’m sharing is really based on what either I’ve observed or I’ve been privy to based on our wonderful Roanoke team that participated in the Virginia Walkability Action Institute.

So in Northwest Roanoke, specifically in the Salem Turnpike area, the built environment has a lot of real consequences to daily life. So city partners and others identified conditions like high and fast traffic volumes, narrow sidewalks that weren’t ADA compliant, limited pedestrian focused lighting, limited safe crossing opportunities, a variety of different environmental factors that really impeded individuals from being able to traverse the neighborhood safely.

The Landsdowne community is a large housing development of about 800 people, and it’s been described as a food desert, or food apartheid, where residents often need to take a bus to reach grocery stores. Many of the households don’t have access to a vehicle, and so they heavily rely upon public transportation. And one story that has been shared with us was the direct observation of watching a mother with a stroller and groceries in hand, and a toddler in tow, trying to cross a very busy street to get from the bus stop to her apartment. And she was crossing at a location that was, of course, most convenient for her and her children, but wasn’t the most safe. So this example really points out the misalignment between design and not having a properly marked crosswalk between the bus stop and the apartment complex, and individual behavior.

So people prioritize convenience over safety, right? It just makes more sense, if the bus stop is here and I’m going to a place directly across the street, I’m going to cross mid-block. I’m not going to go to the corner to cross. So being unsafe to cross, from a design perspective, doesn’t necessarily discourage walking in order to meet everyday needs. It may do so in terms of recreational use. But it does encourage inherently unsafe behaviors, and so it also affects access to transit, parks, neighborhood connection. And so that’s where this project really comes into play. It was really about restoring safe, dignified, everyday mobility between the residents and the existing and future community assets for the community.

So the project initially started off as looking at a traffic-calming measure on Salem Turnpike. And this particular corridor is located off a main thoroughfare through Roanoke. And so the road, as it’s designed, as you cross the main thoroughfare it’s going uphill, then downhill. As you can imagine, in more mountainous areas, there’s lots of peaks and valleys and the roads follow suit. And so as you’re coming through the main thoroughfare onto Salem Turnpike, you are going sort of downhill on this wide road, which is meant to really be a two-lane road, but looks like a four-lane road. And so cars treat these really wide lanes as a racetrack, if you will. There are marked speed limits. However, when the roads are wide, it does allow for unsafe behaviors by drivers. And so they’re driving faster than the posted speed limits in most conditions.

But as you’re crossing into the Landsdowne community, you’re moving into a more residential area. So there is on one side, there’s the large apartment complex, there are some businesses, there’s a once thriving community garden or park, but you’re essentially merging into this residential area. However, the way that the streets are set up, it’s not conducive to having a driver think, “I am now in a neighborhood. I need to slow down and be cautious for pedestrians or bicyclists.” And so, it’s really created this unsafe environment for anyone that’s not in a car to traverse this area. But in addition to the street mural project, there’s more noticeable things in the environment to let drivers know that they need to slow down. But before the project, it was very unsafe for individuals. I would even say for drivers as well, because the landscape just was not conducive to lower speeds of traffic.

So the project started off with, I think, a clear safety challenge. So you have Salem Turnpike, which is a very busy corridor, where children and families from the Landsdowne Park community cross the streets on a regular basis. And so the conditions were encouraging of speed, rather than safe crossing. So the response became this Landsdowne Community Walkability Improvement Project, which had been in the making for a couple of years. And it was really looking at combining quick build safety upgrades with a street mural.

So the project was really identified as a focus of the Roanoke team’s Virginia Walkability Action Institute action plan. So initially, as a quick build project, the improvements grew to include a beautiful ADA accessible bus stop that was designed by a local artist on Salem Turnpike, a high visibility crosswalk at Salem Turnpike, and I think it’s at 24th Street, as well. And also a flashing beacon that had protective high visibility bollards as well.

So some of the additional work that has been done, thinking about other technical benefits of this work, in addition to the beautiful mural that was created in partnership with the community, were looking at other benefits such as curb extensions, high visibility crosswalks. So curb extensions or bulb-outs, they help to shorten the distance so pedestrians can spend less time in the travel lane, in a protected area, and they also improve the sight line as well, so it reduces the parking shadow, or daylights, at the corners or the intersections. And so, they can slow turning movements, and really tighten the geometry of the cars as they’re traversing through these areas and making the turns from the main thoroughfare onto Salem Turnpike. And so, high visibility crosswalk really tells drivers that pedestrians are here. There are people that are crossing, and so this is a pedestrian priority location.

So together, these treatments work as a system. So the street looks different, it feels different, the crossings are clear. The driver’s behavior shifts because there are inherent design cues that force them to change their behaviors. And so, for this project specifically, those design elements were paired with additional measures, like I mentioned, the flash beacon and the protective bollards, to give that added benefit to the pedestrians as well.

Charles Brown:
Dr. Miller, tell us about the artistic philosophy behind the mural in this project.

Dr. Melicent Miller:
I will say that Roanoke took a great approach of centering community in this work from the outset. So the art that was installed was intentional, it wasn’t just decorative. So it was really meant to be a part of this traffic-calming strategy, but also a way to put community identity into the street itself.

So the mural was designed by lead artist Simone Paterson, who has been an artist in residence and working with the young people in the Landsdowne community for a number of years. And she’s been working with the youth through the Dreaming Big Art Program at the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority. They have an EnVision Center there, which hosts a variety of different programs, and an art program was just one of those that the center hosted.

So Simone had been working with the youth for a number of years, and interestingly enough, even though she eventually signed on to be the artist to curate the design for the mural, she was hesitant at first because she herself is not a member of the Landsdowne community. She is a white woman from outside of the US, and so she questioned her ability to really capture the essence of the community through art in this project. But after hearing more about the importance of the program, how we wanted to incorporate art, because of her involvement in the art program and her connection to the community. And how the community, even though she wasn’t a born resident of Landsdowne, she was still incorporated and welcomed to the community, and she was very much so a part of it. And so, because of that connection that she’s made with the youth and their parents, she definitely decided that this was definitely a role for her to serve as the curator of the mural.

And so, the imagery itself was co-created. So the mural design depicts hand prints in the Roanoke Stars, which are a symbol of the area, and it also includes colors of Black Liberation throughout. And it was really a way to incorporate both the history of Roanoke and the Landsdowne community, and some of their visions and philosophies of what it means to be a part of that community. So they had the youth that participate in the Dreaming Big Art Program create a design, that design was then deconstructed into what we see as a mural. So you see the Black Liberation colors, you see the Roanoke Stars depicted differently, the hand prints, all depicted differently throughout the street mural project. And so, I really love how Dr. Paterson was able to incorporate the storytelling into this one piece. And I think one of the things that was stated in an interview, is that art in this instance is really saving lives, it’s slowing traffic and it’s saying that, “Children cross here, so people must pay attention.” So it’s not just art for the sake of art, it’s really art for the sake of safety.

From what I gathered, and what I’ve seen through interviews and talking with other people, it really felt like it was a community build day. They had residents that came out, neighborhood members. It was not just the work, it was really a neighborhood gathering. And so people of the public, whether they signed up to participate or not, if they saw the mural being installed, they picked up a paintbrush and they became part of the creation of the mural. So it really was an opportunity for community building, in addition to constructing the mural itself. And so they had dozens of volunteers that pitched in over the course of a few days to put the stencil down, fill the stencils in, and it was really an amazing opportunity.

Charles Brown:
Dr. Miller, how do you measure the success of a project like this?

Dr. Melicent Miller:
Sure. I think ideally when you think about a project like the Landsdowne Project, you think of some key success measures, so I think there are four things that come to mind.

You have safety and operations. So you want to ensure that you are seeing a change in driver behavior. So vehicle speeds, yielding behavior, turning speeds, crossing functions. Especially when we’re thinking about the crosswalk upgrades, the beacons, the bollards, all of those structural things that we’ve incorporated here. We wanted to see changes in behaviors there.

We also want to see increase in access and use, so whether people feel comfortable walking to these destinations, given the structural changes that have been made here. Are they walking to destinations across the street? Are they using transit more, especially in places where we have access to these community assets?

So since the install of the street mural, and the bus stop and the beacons, there has been a new grocery store. The EnVision Center is now up and running. So we’re wanting people to access those community assets safely, and other services. And so, are we seeing increase in access and use? Are we seeing an improved community experience? So is there perceived safety, and even neighborhood pride, right? Because the community had a direct hand in beautifying this space. And so, is there an increase in their community experience, the connectivity of the project? And because of perceived safety, does that translate into behavioral change, not just through the signage and the environmental changes that have been implemented?

We also want to see systems impact. So whether the project has the ability to be repeatable, can we replicate this model in other areas of the city? Are there other quick build approaches that can be made and applied to other priority locations? And we are seeing this in the Landsdowne sound community. And these are things that we would want to see if someone were implementing these changes within their communities. We want to see safety and operations. We want to see access. We want to see an improved community experience. We would want to see systems impact.

But from a Virginia Walkability Action Institute perspective, I would say that we measure success through systems change. So as a result of the Virginia Walkability Action Institute, are teams incorporating the key underpinnings or focus areas of their work? Are they centering community? Are they working with multiple partners to represent diverse backgrounds and lived experiences? Are they sustaining this work beyond just their matriculation through the program? And ultimately, are we saving lives through this work? Are we seeing a reduction in crashes? Are we seeing a reduction in mortalities? And so I think all of these together, to me, are really the true measures of success.

Another key example of success is that they have seen the traffic-calming measures to be successful, as well. They may have some data tied to the speeds that they’ve been tracking there, but I think they have seen reduction in speeds. They’ve seen improvements in terms of usability of the crosswalk, increased access to the bus stop. So those would be some key successes that we can measure offhand. The project is still relatively new, but I think it’s gaining traction, and it’s setting a model for things that can be repeated in other parts of the city to increase safety for both drivers and pedestrians.

I think the important piece to remember here is that, when they endeavored upon this project, they really took a community-led approach. It was really based on community engagement. Oftentimes, we as professionals come in with our ideas of how to improve communities based on what we’ve learned through our degree programs, what we’ve learned professionally. But one of the key things is always centering the needs of the community in your design, and moving away from, “We’re going to intervene on, or provide an intervention.” It’s really based on working alongside and even letting the community lead the way.

And I think Roanoke did a really great job in that they recognized the historical trauma that had been imparted on this community. They recognized that this community had been disinvested, and even ignored, for generations, right? They had been promised so much, and very little had been delivered, but through this project, by working hand in hand with the community, they were able to show up in a way that others had promised, but had not delivered in the past.

It was an opportunity for them to really acknowledge, see, and elevate the community and the design, working alongside them. And it really helped to help repair some bridges, and rebuild trust that had been broken, for many years. So I think it’s done a great job of creating citizen champions. It’s done a great job in really diving deep into what true collaboration and community engagement looks like. And I think that’s one of the first steps, and one of the most important steps that doesn’t always happen in the work that we do. We lead with the professional’s lens, and we often forget about the community, or bring the community in as an afterthought. And a way to repair these relationships, we have to do the opposite. We have to ensure that we are engaged in community from day one, and not continue to treat them as an afterthought.

Charles Brown:
Since the Traffic Calming Project was installed, the Landsdowne model has been replicated in other parts of the state, and Roanoke has gone on to successfully lobby for other grants. The project shows what an engaged, thoughtful approach to community-driven design can do for a neighborhood like Landsdowne.

I want to thank my guest, Dr. Miller, for her expertise and time. If you don’t already follow Arrested Mobility on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, head over and tap the follow button. Find past episodes and more at arrestedmobility.com.

This podcast is a production of Shuqualak Media, with support from Puddle Creative.