CIVIC-PG Track B: Catalyzing Walkable, Sustainable, and Equitable Urban Development using Innovative Transportation Strategies

这个城市创新挑战（Civic）项目旨在通过利用尖端的交通设计创新以及强大的大学和社区合作伙伴关系，建立创新的方法，将以汽车为导向的郊区商业走廊转变为可步行、可访问、可持续和负担得起的混合用途“活动中心”。该项目采用了最先进的“替代性十字路口”策略，该策略具有巨大的潜力，可以促进沿着衰败的多车道郊区高速公路的步行发展。其他好处还包括多式联运可达性、减少延误、提高安全性、减少碳足迹、提高公平性、降低人均基础设施成本以及增强经济活力。民间合作伙伴包括北卡罗来纳州交通部（NCDOT）、格林维尔市和史密斯菲尔德镇。非营利组织“坚强城镇”也将开展合作，确保广泛发现项目成果以及用于国家实施的相关工具和方法。该项目提供了一个过程，使社区官员和NCDOT能够利用工具和战略，通过参与式方法促进可持续、无障碍、多式联运的发展。工具和过程包括3D可视化和社区特定设计指南的开发，以实施混合用途开发和创新的十字路口模型。在这项规划工作中，由大学研究人员和社区组织组成的项目团队将共同努力，解决必要的研究问题，为研究领域准备设计指南。这包括收集关于土地利用、密度、交通机动性、旅行时间、当前经验和看法以及其他因素的基线信息。第一阶段工作的结果将包括初步的研究议程和评估，确定与第二阶段项目的交通、步行、公平获得便利设施和经济发展机会相关的社区具体优势、需求和挑战。项目团队和合作伙伴将制定一项为期12个月的战略，包括社区调查、焦点小组和研讨会，以提高对新想法的接受度，展示设计策略的3D渲染，以及进一步的性能分析。第二阶段还计划举办网络研讨会和新的网络应用程序，以扩大影响，并在更多利益相关者面前彻底审查这些战略，以便将以交通为中心的城市复兴战略轻松应用于社区规划和NCDOT规划过程。其目标是展示如何在目前正在努力振兴的郊区社区中，通过使用创新的场所制作策略，克服可持续、可步行和公平的城市设计障碍。通过与主要利益相关者一起审查项目愿景，项目还将确定实施战略的成本，以及从发展资助的价值获取战略中可以构建多少。这将有助于社区更有可能采用场所制作和替代十字路口策略和设施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) project aims to establish innovative approaches for converting auto-oriented suburban commercial corridors into walkable, accessible, sustainable, and affordable mixed-use “activity centers” by leveraging cutting edge transportation design innovations and strong university and community partnerships. This project relies on state-of-the-art “Placemaking Alternative Intersection” strategies that have great potential to catalyze walkable development along decaying multilane suburban highways. Other benefits will include multi-modal accessibility, reduced delay, improved safety, reduced carbon footprint, improved equity, reduced per-capita cost of infrastructure, and strong economic vitality. Civic partners involve the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), the City of Greenville, and the Town of Smithfield. The non-profit, Strong Towns, will also collaborate and ensure project results and associated tools and methods for national implementation will be widely discovered. The project provides a process for empowering community officials and NCDOT with tools and strategies for advancing sustainable, accessible, multimodal development through participatory approaches. Tools and process include 3D visualizations and development of community-specific design guidelines for implementing mixed-use development and innovative intersection models.In this planning effort, the project team of university researchers and community organizations will work together to address research questions necessary to prepare design guidelines for the study areas. This includes gathering baseline information on land uses, density, transportation mobility, travel time, current experiences and perceptions, and other factors. Results of this Stage I effort will include the initial research agenda and assessment identifying community-specific strengths, needs, challenges related to transportation, walkability, equitable access to amenities, and economic development opportunities for a Stage 2 project. The project team and partners will devise a 12-month strategy involving community surveys, focus groups, and workshops to increase acceptance of new ideas, 3D renderings to demonstrate design strategies, and further performance analysis. Webinars and new webapps are also planned for Stage 2 to broaden the impact and vet these strategies thoroughly before a larger audience of stakeholders so that urban revitalization strategies centered around transportation can be easily applied in community plans and NCDOT planning processes. The goal is to demonstrate how to overcome obstacles to sustainable, walkable, and equitable urban design by using innovative placemaking strategies in suburban communities currently struggling with revitalization. By vetting the project vision with key stakeholders, the project will also determine the cost to implement strategies and how much can be constructed from development-financed value-capture strategies. This will help communities more likely to adopt placemaking and alternative intersection strategies and amenities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.