LOCAL

Hagerstown City Council to consider 'liveable' street designs

Dave McMillion
davem@herald-mail.com

As people embrace alternative forms of transportation, communities across the nation have developed guidelines to ensure that bicyclists, pedestrians and others are comfortable using public streets, according to a Hagerstown official.

City Engineer Rodney A. Tissue said that the city is now looking to adopt such guidelines.

The Hagerstown City Council Tuesday night is expected to consider implementing "Liveable Street Design Guidelines."

"Liveable" or complete streets are designed to ensure safe access for all users, Tissue said.

"It's not just for vehicles as roads have been done in the past, which I guess would be an incomplete street," Tissue said in an interview Monday.

To help accommodate all users and "foster a sense of place" on city streets, eight different zones have been identified for the proposed Hagerstown guidelines, according to city documents.

They include sidewalk, furniture, buffer/green, bicycle, motor vehicle and median zone zones, the documents said.

The furniture zone addresses the area of the sidewalk between the unobstructed part and the curb. It provides a buffer from traffic and space for street furniture and other amenities, under the proposed guidelines.

The bicycle zone is an area reserved for a bicycle right of way adjacent to traffic lanes. The zone width is typically 4 to 6 feet of pavement, the proposal said.

Tissue said the guidelines would apply to all new streets or when streets are repaved.

For example, when a street is scheduled for repaving, the city could consult with Washington County government on establishing new transit stops for the County Commuter system, he said.

Some city streets would not be large enough to incorporate some of the guidelines, Tissue said.

About 700 municipalities across the U.S. have adopted liveable street guidelines, a trend that has developed as more people turn to alternative forms of transportation, he said.

"As we try to give people these opportunities, I think you will see people use (alternative transportation) more and more," Tissue said.

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