Charlottesville streets will be modified in the coming year to foster the safety and mobility of pedestrians and cyclists.
The Charlottesville Neighborhood Development Services is several months into the project and has hired consulting firm Toole Design Group to help complete the project. The renovations are scheduled to conclude next spring or early summer.
Public right of way has become a priority for the Charlottesville City Council. The Streets That Work plan was created last year and aims to promote public right of way. The project is intended to rectify an original lack of design consideration, NDS Director Alexander Ikefuna said.
“When [the streets] were designed, the needs of everybody were not considered,” Ikefuna said.
Safety as well as aesthetics are being considered in the project.
“Charlottesville is a destination,” Ikefuna said. “People love to come to Charlottesville because of its aesthetics and because of the design qualities of the city... We have to do what we can to keep it that way.”
Charlottesville has room to improve in terms of its attention to the needs of bikers and pedestrians, Assoc. Architecture Prof. Ellen Marie Bassett said.
Besides being more aesthetically pleasing, the new additions to add space for pedestrians and bicyclers could help raise property values in the area, Bassett said in an email statement.
Charlottesville has too many streets that have inadequate sidewalks, Bassett said, which can make travel very difficult for individuals with physical mobility challenges.
“We have far too many streets without sidewalks or with horribly obstructed sidewalks,” she said. “This is inconvenient for those of us who are able-bodied, but if you face any type of mobility challenge and use a walker or a wheelchair, there are many places in Charlottesville that are frankly unpassable.”
Toole Design Group is committed to fulfilling the wishes and vision of the community and have hosted open houses in the area so as to showcase their plans to the public, Ken Ray, an associate urban designer for Toole Design Group, said.
“We met with the public already last year during a couple of open houses and events and we want to do that in the spring so the public can see what we are recommending and to make sure they are in line with the wishes of the community,” Ray said.
Right now the streets of Charlottesville supports the flow of traffic, but Elwood R. Quesada Architecture Prof. and Chair Ignacio Nicolas Alday Sanz said a better balance needs to be struck in the streets between pedestrians, bicycles and runners, and those in private vehicles.
“This is an extremely important initiative, including...a plan of implementation in order to create a strong main framework of mobility and public space that can be progressively expanded,” Sanz said in an email statement.
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