00989142

Component

In the late 1980s, the majority of local units of government and the water works in central Iowa (specifically the Des Moines, Iowa metropolitan area) formed a committee to develop a common set of design standards and specifications for public works infrastructure to be used throughout the metro area. This common set of standards included standard drawings and specifications for such things as storm sewers, sanitary sewers, and urban streets. The City of Des Moines and a local engineering and planning consulting firm, Snyder & Associates, coordinated the project and developed the manual with guidance from an advisory committee comprised of engineers from the member cities. The common set of standards helped the member cities realize lower bids from contractors, who were now able to design and build to the same standards no matter what community they were working for. In the late 1990s, a complete update of the Urban Design Standards Manual was undertaken. At that time, the 34 central Iowa member cities decided to dedicate an entire chapter of the manual to access management standards for urban streets. This decision was reached partly as a result of the findings of research and technology transfer work conducted by the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) at Iowa State University and sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT); the research indicated how valuable managing access could be in terms of improving the safety of major urban streets in Iowa. The new access management chapter in the Urban Design Standards Manual included material regarding general access management concepts and definitions, access permitting, entrance types, conflict points, driveway spacing, driveway design guidelines, turning lane and two-way left-turn lane guidelines, internal circulation design guidelines for commercial developments, and a section on access management and pedestrian and bicycle safety. A second chapter on traffic impact studies also includes material related to access management. Major sources of information for the new chapter were the Iowa State University/CTRE materials, the Iowa DOT access management standards for state primary highways, and the National Highway Institute access management course notebook. Iowa is now taking the Urban Design Standards Manual statewide. Iowa will be the first state to have a set of statewide urban design specifications. A committee has been established and an expanded intergovernmental agreement has been drafted to allow additional cities and metropolitan areas to adopt the standards. CTRE has taken on the role of coordinating and keeping the Standards Manual updated. As new communities and metro areas come on board via the intergovernmental agreement, cities in Iowa will effectively adopt a uniform set of access management guidelines for its city street system.

The symposium proceedings are available on CD-ROM.

00989133

English

11p

2003-7

2nd Urban Street Symposium: Uptown, Downtown, or Small Town: Designing Urban Streets That Work

CD-ROM

Appendices (1) ; Figures (6) ; References

Access control (Transportation); Bicycles; Cities; Commercial strips; Design standards; Driveways; Highway safety; Manuals; Pedestrian safety; Specifications; Streets; Turning lanes; Urban design

Iowa

Design; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure

TRIS, TRB

Apr 4 2005 12:00AM

• A METHODOLOGY TO ASSESS DESIGN FEATURES FOR PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLIST CROSSINGS AT SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS
• A ROUNDABOUT CASE STUDY COMPARING CAPACITY ESTIMATES FROM ALTERNATIVE ANALYTICAL MODELS
• A TALE OF TWO STREETSCAPES
• BACK IN ANGLE PARKING IN THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
• BLIND PEDESTRIANS AT UNFAMILIAR SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS: RESEARCH ON SAFETY
• BUS RAPID TRANSIT ON CITY STREETS: HOW DOES IT WORK
• CHARACTERISTICS AND PERFORMANCE OF SMART GROWTH TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
• CHARLOTTE'S URBAN STREET DESIGN GUIDELINES: A CONTEXT-SENSITIVE DECISION-MAKING METHOD
• COMPARISON OF CRASHES ON MEDIAN-DIVIDED AND FIVE-LANE ROADWAYS IN CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
• COMPARISON OF SAFETY PERFORMANCE OF URBAN STREETS BEFORE AND AFTER LANDSCAPE IMPROVEMENTS
• CONTEXT SENSITIVE DESIGN CHALLENGES FOR MAJOR SUBURBAN ARTERIAL STREET PROJECTS
• CROSS BRONX CONNECTOR ROAD SYSTEM
• DESIGN CHANGES FOR LIVABLE URBAN STREETS
• DESIGN GUIDANCE FOR GREAT STREETS: ADDRESSING CONTEXT SENSITIVITY FOR MAJOR URBAN STREETS
• ENGINEERS, PLANNERS, AND PHILOSOPHERS
• EVALUATING OPERATING SPEEDS FOR LOW-SPEED URBAN STREETS
• FIELD OBSERVATIONS OF PATH AND SPEED OF MOTORISTS AT DOUBLE-LANE ROUNDABOUTS
• GRANT AVENUE IN ODESSA, TEXAS: A DOWNTOWN STREETSCAPE SUCCESS
• HOW MUCH DO YOU LOSE WHEN YOUR ROAD GOES ON A DIET?
• HOW PLANNING DECISIONS IMPACT HIGHWAY COLLISION HISTORIES
• IDENTIFYING LOCATIONS FOR BUS NUB INSTALLATION ON URBAN ROADWAYS
• IMPLEMENTING A PROGRAM FOR ACCESS MANAGEMENT IN TEXAS: LESSONS LEARNED
• IN-PAVEMENT FLASHING CROSSWALKS - STATE OF THE ART
• LEFT-TURN LANE INSTALLATION GUIDELINES
• LIVABLE STREETS INITIATIVE: THE TENSION BETWEEN ALTERNATIVE DESIGNS AND VIRGINIA CODE AND GUIDELINES
• MEDIAN BUS LANE DESIGN IN VANCOUVER, BC: THE #98 B-LINE
• MOVING FORWARD WHEN YOU CANNOT SEE: ISSUES OF PEDESTRIANS WHO ARE VISUALLY IMPAIRED IN THE URBAN STREET ENVIRONMENT
• NEW INTERCHANGE AND INTERSECTION DESIGNS: THE SYNCHRONIZED SPLIT-PHASING INTERSECTION AND THE DIVERGING DIAMOND INTERCHANGE
• OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY OF ROUNDABOUTS
• PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT PLAN FOR THE KELLY PARKWAY CORRIDOR STUDY: CONTEXT SENSITIVE DESIGN
• SAFETY EFFECTS OF MARKED VS. UNMARKED CROSSWALKS AT UNCONTROLLED LOCATIONS: RESULTS FROM 30 CITIES
• SIGNING AND PAVEMENT-MARKING STRATEGIES FOR MULTI-LANE ROUNDABOUTS: AN INFORMAL INVESTIGATION
• SIMULATING ROUNDABOUTS WITH VISSIM
• SLIPPERS METAL COVERS: HOW LONG ARE WE GONNA BEAR WITH IT?
• SMART GROWTH ALTERNATIVES TO MINIMUM PARKING REQUIREMENTS
• STREET SYSTEMS AND CLASSIFICATIONS TO SUPPORT SMART GROWTH
• THE DOUBLE-WIDE DESIGN: AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO INCREASE THE CAPACITY OF SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS ON FOUR-LANE HIGHWAYS
• THE EFFECTS OF SCHOOL ZONES ON DRIVER BEHAVIOR
• THE USE OF GPS AND GIS TO ANALYZE ACCESS NEAR INTERSECTIONS
• TRAFFIC CALMING IN A SMART GROWTH COMMUNITY
• TRAFFIC OPERATIONS AND SAFETY AT SCHOOLS: REVIEW OF EXISTING GUIDELINES
• TRANSPORTATION CONCERNS NEAR SCHOOLS
• URBAN MINOR ARTERIAL FOUR-LANE UNDIVIDED TO THREE-LANE CONVERSION FEASIBILITY: AN UPDATE
• URBAN STREET: IS THERE ROOM FOR SEGWAY (TRADEMARK) HUMAN TRANSPORTER (HT)?
• USE OF ROUNDABOUTS IN AN URBAN SETTING
• USING THE NUMBER OF PASSING AND MEETING EVENTS TO DESIGN PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE SHARED-USE PATHS