Project Overview
From the input of 50+ community members who interact with Pettaway neighborhood, we learned that the intersection of Commerce and 17th Street, nestled between a school and a church, was an important intersection to make safer for people walking, rolling, and biking in the community.
America Walks, Pettaway Neighborhood Association and other partners decided to do a tactical urbanism pop-up, which is a low-cost, high-impact experiment to see if we can change this intersection into one that is safer for people with some paint and temporary infrastructure.
Community Workshop
There was a full-day community workshop that included an orientation and walk and bike audits. From these, participants developed and shared community design concepts for how we could make Commerce Street more pedestrian-friendly.
Pop-Up Party
That same weekend, community members painted crosswalks, bulb-outs to extend the pedestrian area and shorten street crossings, and tires to provide safety barriers between pedestrians and traffic. The community workshop design concepts were available for people passing by to review and ask questions. Also, AARP was present to introduce their walk audit kit, a key resource used in the planning process.
Project Impact
The data is in. This intervention showed that there was a considerable impact on driver speed. With the intervention there was 38% decrease in fastest speed and 525 less enforceable violations! Why does speed matter? Chances of a pedestrian surviving a car collision is 95% when a car is driving 20 miles per hour compared to 15% if a car is driving 40 miles per hour. Speed kills.
During the installation, we had a feedback survey available to learn from users how the new infrastructure impacted their commute. Here’s what we learned:
Next Steps
The installation ran its course after two months. It was intended to be a temporary demonstration. The Pettaway Neighborhood Association has since submitted an advocacy letter to the city Public Works, City Directors, and Mayor (available to read here) on March 14, 2024. We’ll keep you all posted on what develops!
Project Partners
