Bringing Better Streets to Topeka: You've Got to Start Somewhere

"I've never seen a bicyclist or pedestrian there! So why would we build something nobody wants to use?" 

How often have you heard this cited by an opponent of a bike or pedestrian safety project as the reason for their opposition? This logic begs the question. It's analogous to saying, "I don't see anyone swimming across this alligator-infested river, so why would we build a bridge?"

Snark aside, it is true that to change the status quo of how people get around, you've got to start somewhere. And how to build that momentum is a real question in hundreds of cities—one of which is Topeka, Kansas. Topeka is undertaking a major project right now to calm traffic and make a city street function better for all of its users.

Active Transportation in Topeka: A Growing Movement with Unmet Demand

Topeka is no stranger to bicycle and pedestrian advocacy. The city has a bike-share program that is the envy of much larger places, and a well-established bicycle co-op. There have been Critical Mass rides, and nighttime Glow Rides that attract children and families, some past events numbering over 400 participants.

Strong Towns recently interviewed Karl Fundenberger of Bike Topeka on our It's the Little Things podcast. He describes in the interview how advocates fought for and won a bikeways master plan for Topeka.

The question is how to build on this momentum—a question faced, perhaps most acutely, by mid-sized cities like Topeka. (Last year, we wrote about a similar situation in Shreveport.)

What all of the advocacy efforts haven't done yet is pierce the perception among a broader number of mainstream Topeka residents that cycling is just recreation—that you need a car to actually get places. But even this observation can be misleading. There is evidence that interest in cycling in Topeka stretches far beyond the community of advocates who are the most visible cyclists. As Karl describes in his interview, in a recent visioning process intended to identify residents' priorities for Topeka, the city found that biking was 5th. The biggest obstacle? People who would like to bike don't feel that there's anywhere safe for them to do so.

Enter the 12th Street Corridor 

The current conditions on Topeka's 12th Street for anyone who isn't in a car warrant some... colorful adjectives.  Sidewalks are poor or absent. There are not always adequate crosswalks. Residents cut through yards or walk in the street—and if you are in a wheelchair, this is almost completely prohibitive. The street is a two-lane, one-way street: a configuration that almost always results in something resembling a drag-racing strip. 12th Street's existing construction reflects a very crude set of engineering priorities: move cars and trucks. Fast.

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12th Street doesn't actually carry that much vehicle traffic, though: only about 500 cars during the busiest afternoon hour. A conservative estimate for the capacity of a single travel lane is 900 cars per hour, which makes 12th an excellent candidate for a conversion to one lane, making room for vastly expanded sidewalks and shared-use paths.

And that is exactly what the city plans to break ground on in 2021. You can see details of the project here, including an animated fly-by.

From a planner's perspective this is a slam-dunk. The project will calm traffic through a residential area, enhancing safety, accessibility, and desirability of the area. This is the kind of low-hanging-fruit investment that cities of all sizes are rife with opportunities to pursue. And it's the kind that Topeka's complete street standards and pedestrian and bicycle plans are designed to encourage.

The project, though, has attracted its share of skeptics, thanks to two chicken-and-egg problems. One is that there is little visibility of active street users now: the "I've never seen a bicyclist there" problem described at the beginning of this post.

The other is that there isn't really a gold-standard precedent project already built in Topeka to point to and say, "See how nice this is when we do it?" The map of existing bikeways in Topeka, as of this writing, reveals that the city does not have a coherent network of bike routes, and that existing ones are largely on-street, unprotected bike lanes and sharrows. But that's exactly why you've got to start somewhere. 

Overcoming a Community’s Fear of Change

Absent an example to prove that the sky won't fall, fear of change often rules the day. Based on public and social-media feedback on the 12th Street project, some Topeka residents appear unconvinced that there is any demand for a complete street on 12th; meanwhile, they experience the street as drivers and their view of what is important is shaped by that experience. What they don't realize is that while it may feel like the city is creating infrastructure for people who don't exist at the expense of the actual neighbors and their needs, it's actually opening up possibilities for people to do what they don't do yet.

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And opening up those possibilities would have huge benefits. These are especially timely given the COVID-19 epidemic, which may be accelerating cultural change. Nationwide, the outbreak has driven a surge in bicycle sales, as people look not only for safe outdoor recreation but for a way to get around that is social-distancing friendly at a time when public transit might make them nervous.

Right now, speeding cars are the biggest threat to safe outdoor recreation or active transportation alike in Topeka's neighborhoods. As Bike Topeka's Emma Wittmer describes:

Pedestrians, including kids walking to and from school, are often forced to walk in the street or through yards. In order to enjoy time out of the house on a walk, [community member Brandon] Barnett and his young daughter drive to Gage Park to find safe walking trails. With no existing safe options near his house, the addition of sidewalks along 12th Street would give the option of walking down a nice, well-lit, and tree-lined path separated from the auto traffic.  

A Lifeline for Topeka Residents’ Health

Part of the gap in perceptions may also reflect that the 12th Street corridor is socioeconomically and racially diverse. The eastern section in particular is a lower-income neighborhood, and in this section there is already a lot of walking as a primary mode of transportation. (The corridor runs just south of the "Holliday Park" and "Elmhurst" neighborhood markers on this pedestrian activity heat map from the city’s pedestrian plan.) In riding or driving down this corridor, it's common to encounter at least 1 to 2 if not more pedestrians or bikes crossing at about any time of day.

For people without reliable access to cars, the 12th Street project and others like it are not just about exercise but about basic access to community services. Susan Caman is a Health Planner for Shawnee County and an architect of its most recent Community Health Improvement Plan. Caman describes the public health implications of active transportation projects as follows:

Increasingly, we know that many of the factors that impact the health and wellbeing of communities happen outside the doctor’s office. … Improving the physical design of these spaces in a way that more easily connects neighbor to neighbor and decreases barriers to accessing businesses, parks, hospitals, and grocery stores ultimately supports better community health outcomes by making the healthy choice the easy choice.

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Marsha Pope, president of the Topeka Community Foundation, echoes the notion that the needs of the neighborhood are a primary motivation for the 12th Street project:

A person’s zip code has more influence on their future health than their genetic code, [so] we were compelled to work with others to address systems, policies and environments creating the inequity. The 12th Street Project is a step in the right direction in doing just that. Besides recreational use, this project will provide community design that opens up transportation options for our neighbors who don’t use a car to get to work, grocery stores or medical appointments.

Some opponents of the 12th street project have invoked equity concerns for a different reason: the neighborhood, they say, is a food desert, and a project that risks making it harder to leave the neighborhood to obtain food will harm residents. As we've observed, though, congestion is not likely to be a large problem on 12th after the project. (This is particularly true since the city has committed to including turn lanes and removing some existing stop signs that are current pinch points for traffic, in order to address drivers’ concerns.) So it's more likely equity is actually served by creating more options for Topeka residents (including an estimated 1,780 carless households) to get safely around town.

COVID-19 only exacerbates the impact of an already car-centric transportation system on carless residents. The pandemic has prompted efforts to re-prioritize some upcoming plans: the city is working to take 1 lane of a 4-lane bridge and close it to cars to create safe access from the City's Mission to a primary food pantry in town. Right now, those without cars (including many of the users of these services) are forced to walk across the bridge on a narrow sidewalk with the ability to safely socially distance.

Residents unfamiliar with these experiences can still be forgiven for being change-averse. Hopefully, though, the 12th Street project becomes a turning point for Topeka. The bike advocates are there in force. The interest and plans at the local government level are there. What's missing now is the kind of on-the-ground demonstration of how nice a street that serves all users, not just drivers, can actually be. 

Topeka would be a more prosperous and resilient place if residents could walk or bike to where they need to go, and felt safe and comfortable doing so in large numbers. It's totally the kind of small-ish city where this is attainable.

But you've got to start somewhere.

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