Imagining an ever greater whole

Preface

Do not construe what is offered here as a definitive vision — or even my definitive vision — for Shepherdstown’s expansion west. As a start, the work contains inaccuracies inherited from source data which I have not taken time to correct. Certain elements (e.g. terrain, ownership, parking — more on that later) are being willfully ignored. The purpose here is a proof of concept — a suggestion of how an expanded Shepherdstown might evolve when following planning principles derived from, and related to, those which shaped Shepherdstown’s historic core.

The year is arbitrary, plucked from the future to suggest a long range vision…

Shepherdstown, a 2030 plan

Followers of this process might notice that the following figure-ground plan for 2030 does not match recently presented sketches for proposed traffic patterns in an expansion west. (See the thumbnail to the right.)

This is partly due to differences in base layers and techniques used to generate each drawing, and partly because of the content being presented: mass versus movement. The image below is linked to a larger image file. Also available is a higher resolution PDF.

The plan includes a number of distinct elements.

1. A collection of commercial blocks (akin to German Street between Duke and Princess Streets in the existing core but larger in scale) accommodate the proposed grocery store anchor of the Rumsey Green development and ancillary commercial properties. This grouping of blocks eclipse that particular parcel but its genesis is contained within. The proposed development is the anchor (and generator) for this plan.
2. East of that commercial core is a mix of development ranging in scale from what we find on German Street between Duke and King Streets, and on the blocks behind — to the south in that case, to the east here. (Imagine taking that slice of German and the blocks south to Fairmont and rotating it 90° counterclockwise. Give it a push-pull to make it fit. The plan includes alleys similar to those in the historic core.)
3. The large green to the south is Elmwood Cemetery. The western half of Elmwood is currently wooded. Imagine Elmwood as part of the village landscape — similar to a Victorian era cemetery — a park for the living as well as a place for the dead.
4. West of Elmwood is a second area of development similar to that mentioned in point 2 above, perhaps with slightly larger homes and lots.
5. Shown to the north, back toward 45, is mixed-use infill at a smaller scale than the commercial core. Included is green space, suggesting some of this medium density development is dedicated to housing.
6. The new library (the red rectangle) anchors the westward expansion. More development is planned beyond this point and will eventually provide essential links to the bypass. East of the library, solid bars suggest housing which defines a town green, focusing attention to the library site.

See the video to better understand the elements of growth.

Click on “HD” or ”vimeo” to view this slideshow at a higher resolution.

How do you get there?

From the pipeline I mentioned…

Splitting pairs

I’ve written once before about traffic flow through Shepherdstown — only as an idea for managing congestion on Halloween night. The suggestion involves a traffic pattern where through-town east and west bound traffic each has a one-way street: Washington for those going east and German for those going west*. While mentioned only as a lark, I did receive a comment implying that the suggestion might be permanent. A number of towns in America have patterns of traffic like this: it is called a “split pair”.

That Halloween night idea was not to increase the capacity of the roadway but the sidewalks. What a split pair for vehicles does best is better manage flow and conflicts. Street grids with one-way patterns help manage traffic conflicts by reducing left turns across traffic. Left turns are like right turns and joining a one way flow is easier. Crossing a one-way flow is easier.

Split pairs are found everywhere in all manner of variations. And, in the end, a true split pair in my mind makes little sense for Shepherdstown traffic flow and would almost certainly have a negative impact on the character of the town. Small variations on the idea are perhaps worth exploring. (I won’t expound on these now.) Can vehicles move through town more efficiently without sacrificing pedestrian comfort?

On road capacity

Traffic planners have attempted to solve problems of traffic flow by adding road capacity. Anyone who travels regularly to the District of Columbia (DC) will question the success of this approach. As an alternative, some cities are addressing in-town congestion by decreasing road capacity.

These places have learned that “if you build it, [vehicles] will come” so why not build less? Provide less space for cars within the city and the number of vehicles entering self-adjusts. Fewer people will drive. Other means of moving people need to be in place for this to work but that adjustment does have one significant benefit: it removes cars from the roads that feed into the city — without changing capacity, traffic moves more freely†.

A smaller scale

But what of small scale Shepherdstown. It has the opposite problem. The Potomac River bridge, 45, 480 and 230 are not going to four-lanes any time soon. Congestion has increased in town without an increase in road capacity feeding into town. One might argue that congestion on the feeders has increased but congestion is not the same as increased use.

Everyone in town knows where the choke points are. Jefferson County and the State of West Virginia are concerned with one of them: the Four Way Stop.

Splitting traffic into two or more paths is simply a component in a distributed grid. Envisioning solutions for expansion to the west side of town might begin to satisfy many concerns of disparate interest groups: WVDOT, developers, residents (in center and west Shepherdstown), patrons of new commercial development and local institutions: e.g.  the library.

Envisioning expansion

This first drawing is a first look at the nodes introduce in the existing figure-ground of Shepherdstown which includes the center-point plan of hexagons. The bold lines are not definitive, but suggestions of main paths of movement through the existing town center and the expansion west. 

This second sketch builds upon the first, this time giving more attention to main paths of vehicular movement. The eggs swallowed by the road might be traffic circles but are diagrammatic functions here, noting points where the flow of traffic is not necessarily as simple as a crossing in the new or existing grid.

These plans are mere diagrams. Aside from the more detailed planning required to bring such ideas to fruition, a master-stroke of policy and team building is required. While this is not my forte, I will attempt, in a future update, to address how that master-stroke resides in the realm of possibilities.

Notes:

*I was speaking to someone earlier today who does this during their daily commute through town. Her morning eastward commute is on Washington; her evening westward commute is on German.

†The introduction of HOV lanes outside of DC is one solution for reducing the number of vehicles on the road. People are encouraged to carpool to shave some minutes from their commute. But what if people chose to carpool simply because when they arrived at their destination, there was not where to put their car? This is an idea that is being put into practice. Fewer places to store cars means fewer cars on the paths to get there.