A Downtown Identity: Expanding Carless Transit in Downtown Davis
Matthew Contursi, Zoe Kanavas, Omanjana Goswami, Sally Hang, Raisa A Rahim, & Richard Tran
University of California - Davis; Union of Concerned Scientists
Executive summary:
The United States’ (U.S.’) overreliance on cars has negatively impacted the environment, hampered sustainability goals, and threatened public safety, making our cities unappealing to live in. Several major cities have overhauled their infrastructure to promote transportation alternatives. Though Davis, California has robust biking initiatives scaffolded by federal legislation for transportation alternatives, there is still significant room for improvement especially around the Downtown area. We recommend Davis adopt legislation for street closures, fortification of bike infrastructure, grants for alternative transportation, and microcar permits for people with disabilities. Reinforcing alternative infrastructure provides a feasible solution for balancing peoples’ well-being with the needs of a vibrant local economy, furthering Davis’ abilities to meet goals of sustainable net zero carbon output to mitigate the effects of climate change and other systemic pressures ailing society.
Introduction:
a. Issue at Hand
Davis, like many cities nationwide, is still trying to recover the level of economic activity it had before COVID-19 closures and lockdowns (Brown & Minkin, 2021). The new development plan for Downtown Davis is a strong step in the right direction (Downtown Davis Specific Plan, 2022), though we advocate for larger implementation of pedestrian and bicycle exclusive streets. The initial G street closure allowed for outdoor dining while social distancing (Open Air Davis, n.d). Though conflicts stemming from low community input arose at first (CBS Sacramento, 2021), the local government has recently moved forward to permanently close G Street to cars with overwhelming approval from the community (City of Davis, 2023; Bellamy, 2023). In light of this, we think an expansion of these policies will help increase safety and also spur economic activity for the City at large.
b. Benefits of biking
The U.S. has a rich tradition of biking that dates back as early as the 1890s; bikes and other modes of carbon-free transport have recently enjoyed a resurgence of utility as concerns for personal and public health are growing amidst the climate crisis (Hoover, 2021; Francke, 2022). At the individual level, bikers may see several health improvements (i.e. cognitive, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal health) (Green, 2021). A higher rate of biking within a community is associated with a more robust local economy, while also improving car traffic (Waze, 2021). Expanding further, biking is a boon on the global scale as this mode of transportation is carbon-neutral. Reinforcing biking infrastructure provides a multi-level solution for simultaneously improving peoples’ well-being, supporting the needs of a healthy economy and meeting our goals of decarbonizing public transportation to mitigate the effects of climate change.
With pressing inflation and skyrocketing gas prices, it is more important than ever to encourage alternative transportations modes as it allows for more efficient land usage. Car-centric transportation has led to a horizontal style of development, which requires more maintenance costs for the city (Medema, 2018). This can be measured through the lens of economic revenue saved and the value of citizen safety.
c. Current Infrastructure Landscape
Car use rapidly declined at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as people stayed home for health reasons, prompting businesses to adapt in order to generate revenue. One way local governments provided support was by closing off sections of streets for outdoor dining (Combs & Pardo 2021). This spurred the rediscovery of walkable cities like San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Seattle which have enjoyed an uptick in business and general public safety, despite the many pressures imposed by the pandemic (Matan, 2011; Cheng, 2021).
Recently, H.R. 3684 — the Infrastructure and Investments Act — provided approximately $1.2 trillion to address climate change, transportation, and energy issues on a federal level (H.R 3684 2022). This has led to targeted federal programs such as ‘Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) that aims to improve transportation systems by providing grants to projects that focus on advancing community-focused technologies, efficiency and safety (U.S Department of Transportation 2022). There is much flexibility in funding, allocating based on the specific needs of the locale.
Major U.S. cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Washington D.C., and Portland have launched programs during the pandemic to promote an active lifestyle, increase accessibility for disabled individuals and encourage social distancing during the pandemic (EESI 2020). For example, San Francisco implemented the city-wide Slow Streets program to prioritize pedestrians and bikes (Slow Streets 2022). This program limited car passage to nearly 30 streets and corridors, improving accessibility for individuals traveling on foot, bike, wheelchair, et cetera. In a post-pandemic world, San Francisco is taking measures to make Slow Streets a permanent fixture.
d. Current state of Downtown Davis
The city of Davis has a long history of biking, installing the first bike lane in the U.S. in 1967; it has repeatedly found ways to increase bike usership, with over 100 miles in bike lanes within its 11 square miles (Davis, n.d). Bikes are heavily used in Davis; the majority of students admitted to University of California, Davis (UCD) rely on a bike as their main mode of transport (Fukushige & Handy 2021). Though Davis is often considered a model city for biking, it still has notable room for improvement (Dateline Staff 2022). The tragic incident where Trisha Yasay, who died after colliding with a garbage truck at UCD while biking, has rekindled the conversation of necessary and urgent infrastructure changes to prevent further accidents. Downtown Davis is in dire need of renovation due to its aging infrastructure, safety issues, and shrunken economy (Figure 1a). Since a majority of Davis residents regularly travel by bike (Statistics n.d.), inadequacies have the potential for significantly adverse consequences like increased casualties, generalized negative perceptions of biking in general, and lack of business vigor.
To narrow the city’s gap in feasibility of alternative transportation usage, Downtown Davis is currently undergoing renovation in accordance with the Downtown Davis Renovation Plan, which includes transitioning to more walkable streets (Figure 1b), improving bike infrastructure and reducing car use within the area (Downtown Davis Specific Plan 2019; Figure 1c). The Open Air Davis program has closed a portion of G Street, the main downtown restaurant thoroughfare, to cars during the pandemic (Open Air Davis n.d.). Encouragingly, Davis has seen an unexpected business boom around these car-free areas (Greenwald 2021).
Though this closure was recently made permanent, Downtown’s infrastructure as a whole requires major improvements to become a functional car-free zone and reap these benefits in turn. Car-bike collisions are 2100 times more likely to occur in downtown Davis than on streets elsewhere in town (Figure 2). A confluence of a high density of bikes and a poor infrastructure make accidents much more likely in this concentrated, highly trafficked area.
e. University-City Relations
Currently UCD has extensive initiatives related to biking. The BicyclingPlus Research collaborative has done extensive research with micromobility. Graduate groups like the Technology Transportation Policy Group have executed several research studies looking into biking feasibility for the city of Davis. We believe the relations between the city and university can be improved to be more collaborative, given the city’s demographics as a college town, the housing shortage and transportation insufficiencies. As these issues are interconnected, addressing any one will likely have profound effects on the others. This will thus ensure that Davis further lives up to its reputation as a leading safe, sustainable, and economical city to live in.
To meet these challenges, we recommend the following:
Option 1: Permanent car closure of Downtown Davis
We propose to close off streets (e.g. with bollards, signs) with a high density of car-bike collisions for community social events such as fairs, community festivals and alternative transportation advocacy events. This initial phase of street closures would be temporary, allowing the city to make improvements and adapt to active concerns; permanent closures can then go into effect with minimal disruption or pushback.
With the recent closure of G Street we recommend expanding to other streets in the downtown area to limit cars, prioritize pedestrians and cyclists and build infrastructure to help surrounding businesses. We recommend closing or limiting streets that are not high throughput intersections. One example is E street (from 2nd to 3rd) as it is an area that students frequent, but is far from highways or roads that have a high car traffic throughput. We also recommend cooperating with the Downtown Davis Business Association to provide informational forums for how to assist their businesses with the transition with factors like installing additional infrastructure (such as outdoor patios) and marketing.
Depending on the road design and the needs of the community, this policy recommendation can be modified to a half closure. One way to do this is to limit the majority of cars, while allowing the passage of cars that are loading (similar to 3rd Street), delivery vehicles and emergency response vehicles; streets can also be transitioned to allowI only one-way traffic.
i. Advantages:
This can be easily implemented, as closures have seen widespread adaptation for different purposes (SFMTA n.d.). Temporary closure provides an opportunity to obtain community feedback and gauge its effectiveness. This ensures the public is acclimated to the increased walkability transition and avoids conflict that may stymie the program’s progress.
ii. Disadvantages:
We anticipate a temporary rise in car traffic on the periphery of the closed-off zone as people acclimate to navigating in and around a car-free zone. Because of the fervid nature of car culture in the U.S., it is expected that there will be pushback to shifting toward bike-centrism.
Option 2: Enhance bike safety/infrastructure
We recommend increasing bike safety by strengthening infrastructure to promote micro mobility, going beyond the generic bike lane. This would require creating separated bike paths that are diverted away from car traffic (Figure 3). Davis has already integrated 98% of the city to have dedicated bike infrastructure with separated bike lanes, i.e. priority traffic lighting for bikes, accessible bike parking, and routes integrated to residential areas that link to schools and businesses. The integration is consistent throughout most of the city to increase feasibility for alternative transportation.
However, this infrastructure is not always practically efficient. With ongoing developments and implementation of the Downtown Specific Plan, the city is ripe for further strengthening in bike infrastructure. In the downtown area, there are a series of four-way stop sign intersections that make it difficult to traverse without high risk of incident. An easy alternative is the use of roundabouts to allow the flow of traffic while slowing car traffic. Though bike signals are already employed throughout the City of Davis, we advise implementing bike-only signals into the downtown area to reduce stress to cyclists.
i. Advantages:
Improving bike infrastructure increases bikeability (Science Daily 2019). This will ensure the safety of people that are biking and thus encourage more people to bike.
ii. Disadvantages:
This will require thoughtful and effective investment of tax dollars to have effective long-term use of bike parking. If ineffective, then the bike lane and safety measures will only create car traffic rather than the intended purpose of making areas easier to travel.
Figure 3: Recent bike renovations at the intersection of East Covell Blvd and J Street. Note the dedicated bike lane to allow bikes to safely turn and take priority as well as the separated bike paths that are away from car traffic (Ryan, 2015).
Option 3: E-bike or Bike-Share systems and/ or grants/discounts to Davis residents
We recommend municipalities consider implementing bike-sharing and electric bike (e-bike) rental options to increase opportunities for alternative transportation usage. Bike sharing programs have seen success in other environments such as the Google campus (Fitch et al. 2022). Thirty percent of Davis students report driving alone to campus which is a staggering number considering approximately 4150 UCD students living in off-campus housing; this implies that there is a need for the supply of independently utilized alternative transportation to be increased to match the city’s demographic-based demand (TAPS n.d.; Davis Student Housing, 2017).
i. Advantages:
This can help reduce the city’s carbon footprint by filling the bike-void for students who either need a bike temporarily or if they are commuters/visitors from outside of Davis. Although the university has introduced a program to decrease bike theft, it is still a recurring issue in the city of Davis (Bruchez & Jones 2021; City of Davis 2021); bike-sharing rentals would need dedicated docking stations across the city but would not require the user to provide external security measures to the communal resource and would defray the psychological and monetary tolls associated with bike thefts.
ii. Disadvantages:
Individuals may bear the burden of these rentals, which poses a concern from an equity perspective. However, there are grants the city can apply for through the Federal Transit Adminitration or CalBike to help subsidize the costs and also act as a motivation for residents to consider these alternative transportation methods (CalBike, n.d.; FTA, n.d). E-bikes could also increase clutter if there are not a sufficient number of dedicated docking stations in place.
Option 4: Permit microcars for equitable accessibility
A microcar is a small vehicle with three or four wheels equipped with an engine with the same power as a motorcycle (Dan 2015). Microcars are an alternative transport that are already used in cities like Peachtree City, Georgia, with a fleet of golf carts, and in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with the Canta designed to be driven on smaller lanes (Peachtree City n.d.; Waaijenberg, n.d.). Comparatively, Davis and other walkable cities have yet to follow suit to provide micromobility vehicles for people with disabilities; we recommend that accessibility for this population be maintained and accentuated within car-free zones by granting special access to microcars in bike lanes.
Currently in California, most micromobility prioritizes scooters for short-distance travel. This has had varying levels of success in most metropolitan areas, but there have been no active efforts to apply such travel to access for people with disabilities. Promotional technologies such as the Micromobility Conference exhibit major advances in micromobility technology that can be widely implemented to the public sector (Micromobility America, 2022).
i. Advantages:
Incorporating microcars into decentralizing car transit ensures that those with disabilities have equitable access to all municipality areas. In addition, due to the small engine size, driving a microcar does not require a license or formal registration in California and thus lowers cost of use (DMV n.d.). The vehicle’s small size allows for convenient passage on pre-existing bike lanes, requiring no additional infrastructure to the expanded bike infrastructure proposed in Option One.
ii. Disadvantages:
Microcars are still a form of car, so their incorporation prevents a complete shift away from carbon-emitting vehicular transit. Furthermore, microcars on a bike path may pose safety concerns to surrounding bikes, defeating the purpose of expanding bike infrastructure for the safety of cyclists. In addition, not all persons with disabilities may be able to operate a microcar, further posing accessibility issues; a public ride-share system may be more appropriate.
Conclusions/Recommendations:
It is recommended that all four policy options should be implemented for the City to increase its bikeability that can be beneficial to all who reside in Davis. Currently, the momentum is strong to implement Option 1 and should be an immediate first step for a more welcoming and economical Downtown. Along with the Downtown Davis Business Association, Option 2 should be implemented to further support new infrastructure projects planned for the 2023 year. Options 3 and 4 should be implemented to provide accessibility to those who need immediate affordable and equitable transportation to ensure equitable access to a more diversely navigated and sustainable city.
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