Evan Kindler's Portfolio

Evan Kindler Planning + Design Portfolio

Welcome I am a transportation planner focused on street land use and cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. Streets are the veins of a city, circulating people and goods. They are also the most prevalent public space where one can run into a neighbor or enjoy a meal. Healthy and lively cities have safe and enjoyable streets that allow people to move, gather, and connect.

My work showcased here focuses on creating a safer and more equitable transportation network that gives people flexibility. It ranges from challenging vehicle subsidies through underpriced parking to creating safer routes to school for children and parents. Driven by a passion for transportation justice, my projects aim to improve the daily lives of residents by offering them a vision that prioritizes them over vehicles.

Thank you for taking the time to look through my work.

I hope you enjoy, Evan

Contents 3

Safe Routes to School

7

Livable Lynnway

11

Oak Park Bike Plan Update

15

Parking Benefit Districts

21

CareCard

Safe Routes to School Broadway Corridor, Somerville, MA Collaboration with Briana Villaverde & Juliana Beekenkamp Course: Planning for Pedestrians and Cyclists Spring 2024 Goal

Suggest interventions to increase safety and comfort for pedestrians and cyclists on trips to and from three elementary schools.

Methods

Using an urban network analysis tool in ArcGIS, we identified Broadway as a key connector for our three schools.

However, pedestrians and cyclists avoided Broadway when we accounted for the boulevard’s LTS and PLTS and people’s desire for the shortest path of least resistance. This finding was supported by a survey of students’ parents.

We then biked and walked the boulevard, allowing us to examine intersections we identified as especially dangerous.

We spoke to people walking by and surrounding business owners who shared their experiences and pointed out perceived dangers.

Impact

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Traffic violence kills thousands of US children every year. The danger is growing as cars are increasing in size, resulting in less visibility and increased force of impact. In a dense urban environment children and parents should be able to get to and from school safely without a car. Walking or biking to school provides children a myriad of health and social benefits, and should be encouraged through design interventions.

Edgerly Education Center Unrestricted Network Analysis

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Brown School Unrestricted Network Analysis

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Winter Hill Community School Unrestricted Network Analysis

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Brown School Low-Stress Restricted Network Analysis

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Livable Lynnway Corridor Plan in Lynn, MA Collaboration with Abby Glass Course: Core II Studio Spring 2024 Goal Methods

Design an intervention in Lynn that will mitigate a climate hazard and create surrounding co-benefits.

The Lynnway is the city’s main thoroughfare, connecting it to Boston. Low-density retail with large parking lots creates a high-speed, auto-centric environment that blocks water drainage, causing rainfall to consistently floods the street.

The city has also identified this site as its primary development zone for residential densification.

Responding to the existing development plans and changing conditions, we proposed raising the road, redesigning the street, and redeveloping the area according to a form-based code.

Impact

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As crises compound, urbanists must responsd multi-functionally. This project demonstrates this thinking by easing the damage of flooding and creating a safe and enjoyable street along a corridor that the city had designated for new residential use. Planners must work in the space between existing constraints and brighter futures.

100’+

6’

33’

15’

33’

6’

11’ 5’

22’

23’

22’

5’ 11’

100’+

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Graphics made in collaboration with Abby Glass

Oak Park Bike Plan Ten Year Update Collaboration with Mark Bennett & Emily Kennedy Internship: Sam Schwartz Summer 2024 Goal

Review previous plans, rework the greenways network, suggest bike facility improvements, and create a demand model to inform discussions about reintroducing a bikeshare system.

Methods

Through mapping we identified 3 corridors where the village could remove on-street parking to install bike facilities. We then conducted parking counts and mapped parking occupancy at various times during the week. We presented the Village with a suite of potential improvements ranging in cost, land use requirements, and reduction of stress for cyclists.

We created a demand model that uses ridership data from Chicago’s community areas to weigh factors that correlate with demand and determine how similar each community area is to Oak Park. We then used the most similar community areas to predict ridership in Oak Park.

Impact

As a bikeable, family-oriented community, bike safety is often framed as a way to protect children and adolescents, similar to Safe Routes to School. Streets that protect the most vulnerable are safer for everyone.

This project was of particular importance to me as my bike was my primary mode of travel while growing up in Oak Park.

Revisiting my hometown as a planner allowed me to apply my newfound skills to the streets that I know best.

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10’

5’

6’

8’

7’

5.5’ Bike Lane

5’

9’

10’

9’

5’

Bike Lane

Vehicle Lane

Planter

Vehicle Lane

Bike Lane

11’

11’

11’

3’

Vehicle Lane

Turn Lane

Vehicle Lane

3’

8’

5’

5.5’

8’

6’

Bike Lane

Graphics made in collaboration with Mark Bennett

Harvey Ave

Elmwood Ave

Kenilworth Ave

Signalized Intersection

Hayes Ave

North Ave

Signalized Intersections

Le Moyne Pkwy

Signalized Intersection with Bike Detection RRFBs with Bike Activation HAWK

Division St Protected Bike Lanes Striped Bike Lanes

Thomas St

Neighborhood Greenway (Existing)

Augusta St

Neighborhood Greenway (Planned 2024) Neighborhood Greenway (Proposed)

Park

Chicago Ave

School Library Rail Station Entrance (CTA and Metra)

Erie St

Lake St Lake St

North Blvd Pleasant St

Washington Blvd

Madison St

Adams St Jackson Blvd Van Buren St

I-290

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Austin Blvd

Lombard Ave

Harvey Ave

Ridgeland Ave

Scoville Ave

East Ave

Oak Park Ave

Home Ave

Harlem Ave

Harvard St

Roosevelt Rd

Average Parking Occupancy

Harvey Ave

Elmwood Ave

Kenilworth Ave

Parking Occupancy Week Night

Hayes Ave

North Ave Le Moyne Pkwy

0 cars 1 - 2 cars 3 - 4 cars > 4 cars

Division St

Protected Bike Lanes

Thomas St

Striped Bike Lanes Neighborhood Greenway (Existing)

Augusta St

Neighborhood Greenway (Planned 2024) Neighborhood Greenway (Proposed)

Chicago Ave

Park School Library

Erie St

Lake St Lake St

North Blvd Pleasant St

Washington Blvd

Madison St

Adams St Jackson Blvd Van Buren St

I-290

Austin Blvd

Lombard Ave

Harvey Ave

Ridgeland Ave

Scoville Ave

East Ave

Oak Park Ave

Home Ave

Harlem Ave

Harvard St

Roosevelt Rd

Graphics made in collaboration with Mark Bennett

Parking Benefit Districts Guide for Activists Advised by Tony Jordan and Jane Wilberding Parking Reform Network Co-Designed with Kristen Blackmore Dec 2020 - Sep 2022 Goal

Create a guide to parking benefit districts (PBD), explaining how they work, showcasing success stories, advising implementation steps, and providing resources for further inquiry.

Methods

I conducted extensive primary and secondary research, reading parking management plans, speaking with experts and city officials nationwide, and cataloging the US cities with PBDs. After explaining their operations, I suggest how PBDs could center equity to create more just cities and offer a starting point for a holistic review of parking policies.

I published a modified copy of the guide in the APA’s State of Transportation 2022 with Jane Wilberding, a Parking Reform Network co-founder.

Impact

This project sparked my interest in parking and developed my understanding of its critical role in transportation networks and street design. It was a watershed moment for me to feel like I was an expert in a planning topic.

For access to the online version visit https://parkingreform.org/playbook/pbd/

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Parking Benefit Districts

Do your streets have a parking problem?

Do people circle the block looking for parking?

Is convenient parking at the curb hard to find?

Are many parking spaces occupied by long-term parkers?

Do residents fear new development and the traffic it will bring?

Are parking lots and garages more expensive every month?

Parking Benefit Districts

Consider a Parking Benefit District What is a parking benefit district (PBD)?

As parking reform pioneer, Donald Shoup, describes it, a PBD is an area where the local governing body “spend[s] meter revenue for public services in the metered area. These cities offer each neighborhood a package that includes both priced parking and better public services.

Everyone who lives, works, visits, or owns property in a Parking Benefit District can then see their meter money at work.” 1 We will expand this definition slightly to also include parking permit revenue, as it is also a way to charge for parking.

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Parking Benefit Districts

Charging for parking is central to PBDs. The fee serves two purposes: 1. To manage parking 2. To generate revenue to reinvest in the PBD area A curb parking space is a limited commodity and should be managed using the economic principle of supply and demand. By charging a market-rate price for spots in high demand, there will almost always be an open spot. Generally, 85% occupancy is optimal because it guarantees drivers a curb parking space close to their destination.

PBDs are a parking management tool to garner support for ‘right-priced’ parking. They aim to make increased parking rates more palatable to the public by using a portion of the revenue to improve the surrounding area. If the funds are used to encourage alternative transportation, parking demand will decrease bringing the price of parking down with it.

Parking Benefit Districts

PBDs for Equity Avoiding a Concentration of Wealth PBDs work because there is a high demand for parking in a particular area.

If the money generated from this demand is reinvested to improve the public services in the metered area, you could envision a scenario where the nicest areas in a city continue to improve through meter revenue, creating more demand. Rather than improving the quality of life for all city residents, this cycle would reinforce existing inequities and benefit areas that already have high levels of investment. How can we avoid this unintended consequence and are there other ways to share the benefits that PBDs generate?

As we mentioned before, a good reason for the 51-49 revenue split between the PBD and the city is to help avoid this issue of concentrated investment furthering inequity in public services. It is no secret that areas with higher

19

Parking Benefit Districts

levels of investment like downtown business districts or affluent neighborhoods often receive priority in spending and services over low-income neighbors.17 By sharing the revenue throughout the city, the PBD can help fund alternative transportation options citywide. Just as with the revenue spent within the PBD, we suggest that the ordinance stipulate that the city must spend their share on transportation justice measures to keep the money from disappearing into the wider budget. The overall goal should be to reduce dependence on single occupancy vehicles and the vast amount of parking they require. If the parking revenue is not earmarked for alternative transportation, it becomes a revenue stream based on car dependence without providing an ‘out’. This earmarked spending makes high demand areas more accessible for all residents while strengthening the local economy by increasing the availability of both consumers and labor. There are ways to promote this economic accessibility through the PBD’s share of the revenue too. Portland and Columbus’ PBDs buy transportation wallets that use the city’s existing public transit and rentable transportation options to fund employees’ commutes without increasing traffic and parking occupancy. This use of PBD revenue directly benefits the PBD, while simultaneously expanding the economic opportunities it generates.

Obviously, the parking revenue remaining within the metered district is the main selling point for PBDs for area stakeholders. Guaranteeing that nearly half the money will leave the district may spark opposition, even after the reasoning is explained. There are a few solutions to this problem. An initial pilot that keeps revenue within the district can help ease the transition by demonstrating how right-pricing can solve parking problems and acclimating stakeholders to paid parking. Once people see the parking management aspect of right-priced parking at work, they may be more willing to concede some of the revenue. Another solution may be a transitional period over the course of 5-10 years where the revenue split gradually evens out between the district and the city, giving the PBD ample time to implement various projects before their share of the revenue decreases. If the PBD is located appropriately, the area’s 51% of the meter revenue should still generate at least $150,000 a year after expenses. This substantial annual investment within a concentrated area will provide significant support for public projects.

We’ve also thought through a scenario that uses PBD to promote equity in a fundamentally different way. As of late, city budgetary priorities across the US are shifting more towards racial and economic justice. Cities could approach PBD eligible areas and explain that this shift has redirect funds the city had previously spent on projects in the area towards underserved parts of the city. If they want to continue to fund these projects, they could institute

CareCard Informing Parent-Centered Transit Policy Collaboration with Chadwick Bowlin Course: Core I Studio Fall 2023 Goal Methods

Propose a health intervention in Roxbury We wondered: how would public transit look if it was catered to caregivers rather than commuters?

Speaking to experts and advocates, we discovered that there is a lack of information about caregivers’ movement patterns.

We proposed a phased benefits program: 1. Provide families with CareCards with reduced rates and online reloading that allow the MBTA to study their transit use 2. Pilot potential amenities in Roxbury at three key transit hubs accessible by CareCard 3. Engage with program participants to determine the type and location of future amenities.

4. Use the travel data to incentivize TOD for care trip destinations

Impact

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Public transportation should be accessible for everyone, especially those with limited options. Transit agencies should recognize and study the complexity of care trips and trip-chaining to better serve their users, who rely on the network to keep their families safe and healthy. It was important for us that every step of the CareCard plan centers caretakers and escalates their benefits.

Amenity Pilot Locations

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Roxbury Crossing Nubian Station

Amenity 1: Family Bathrooms

Amenity 2: Lockers

Graphics made in collaboration with Chadwick Bowlin