SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS IN THE SUNSHINE STATE

EVERYBODY WINS WHEN FLORIDA’S 

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT IS PROTECTED

Angela Grannan has always been passionate about protecting the environment.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and management, and she worked as an environmental consultant for commercial real estate for more than two decades.

When she and her husband and business partner, Chad Grannan, formed The GRANNAN Group in St. Petersburg in 2022, they knew environmental stewardship would be a core part of their brokerage.

“Creating shade and building green are not just good for the environment, they are good for business,” Angela Grannan says.

“In our last couple of residential listings, we played up the big live oaks.

When buyers walked under them, they could feel the cooler temperature.”

 

 

 

 

THE CITY OF MIAMI MUST FIX ADA VIOLATIONS

CONSTRUCTION THAT CREATES BARRIERS DESTROYS INDEPENDENCE AND DIGNITY FOR THOSE WHO USE ASSSTIVE MOBILITY DEVICES

The triumph and failure of cities can be evaluated in the way they accommodate the vulnerable pedestrian population. 

In the case of Miami, its inhumanity shows abject failure.

This is the gateway between two of Miami’s biggest icons — the waterfront skyscraper Brickell district and culturally vibrant historic Little Havana.

Yet it blocks people with disabilities and is a tripping hazard to all with bumpy crappy asphalt.

This is an Americans with Disabilities Act violation.

Barriers created by construction then neglected for ages strip all independence and dignitiy for those who uses wheelchairs for mobility.

WHEN DRIVING IS NOT AN OPTION

STEERING AWAY FROM CAR DEPENDENCY

Straightforward Planning Tools to Serve Nondrivers

Make nondrivers visible. 

Place nondrivers on mobility advisory boards, make sure surveys include them, hire nondrivers for transit and transportation planning positions.

Reduce traffic speeds. 

Planners know it's not just lowering speed limits. 

Road diets, bulb outs, traffic circles, and raised sidewalks can slow traffic and make it pedestrian-friendly.

Allow for longer crossing times at crosswalks. 

Know that 30 seconds to cross is not enough time for a person using an assistive mobility device or younger or older citizens.

Take public ownership of sidewalk repair and maintenance. 

If a nondriver must walk six blocks to a transit stop, clear it of barriers and make it accessible to all. 

Treat sidewalks as any other infrastructure — plan, fund, and maintain them.

Make transit at least as reliable as driving. 

Approach transit as an equal part of the mobility ecosystem, making it safer and more connective for citizens.

 

WHEN DRIVING IS NOT AN OPTION

STEERING AWAY FROM CAR DEPENDENCY

In Anna Zivarts' 176-page book, When Driving is Not an Option, she points out that many states have concurrency requirements that require developers to build more car capacity.

But she thinks multimodal capacity, with an emphasis on transit and pedestrian mobility, would be a better, more inclusive approach.

Strong pedestrian and transit networks can support denser, transit oriented development that can include housing that is attainable, she writes.

"Make no mistake, I want an outcome of slower traffic. I want it to become less desirable, less convenient to drive places," Zivarts says.

When that happens, she adds, two good things will occur: a critical mass will demand great transit and pedestrian mobility and there will be enough users to create demand for that premium transit.

WHEN DRIVING IS NOT AN OPTION

STEERING AWAY FROM CAR DEPENDENCY

Anna Zivarts, author of When Driving is Not an Option, challenged planners and elected officials to do just that during the Week Without Driving challenge in the greater Seattle area.

Many never had to depend on public transportation for every work, recreational, medical, shopping, or social trip. This showed them firsthand the gaps in the system.

Her work — and words — have clearly made an impact. Roger Millar, FAICP, the secretary of transportation for the Washington Department of Transportation, invited Zivarts to speak at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

He told Zivarts that his counterparts in other states were texting him during her presentation, checking in with staff and asking them to investigate the number of nondrivers in their states.

WHEN DRIVING IS NOT AN OPTION

STEERING AWAY FROM CAR DEPENDENCY

This overlay information can help planners focus dollars on filling in the gaps or rerouting transit to better serve everyone in the community, including the 31 percent who don't drive, according to WisDOT's analysis.

Anna Zivarts, author of When Driving is Not an Option, says a simple way to value the experience of nondrivers is to put yourself in someone else's shoes, like a person trying to cross an eight-lane arterial, while negotiating mud puddles and overgrown bushes along the edge of a road with no sidewalks.

Or, try pledging to ditch your car and rely only on public transit for a few days.

 

WHEN DRIVING IS NOT AN OPTION

STEERING AWAY FROM CAR DEPENDENCY

Anna Zivarts' book -- When Driving is Not an Option  -- offers a useful tool. The OpenSidewalks project at the University of Washington's Taskar Center for Accessible Technology uses open data sources, verified by on-the-ground community audits, to map sidewalk networks.

It goes beyond a typical Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) assessment, empowering planners and others with information about sidewalk slope, minimal effective width, and lighting.

Zivarts details how in 2020, disability advocates convinced Wisconsin's Department of Transportation (WisDOT) to form a nondriver advisory committee.

"When you overlay where the transit is, where the routes are, and where the stops are with where people who are nondrivers actually live, those two things don't overlap," committee co-chair Tamara Jackson says in the book.

"This forces transportation planners to consider whether people are unable to use transit because 'it doesn't go where they need to go, or they can't get to it.'"