Group Project Design Connect: Lansing Team

A Design Connect team spent a semester looking into transportation issues in the Town of Lansing, New York. The community is changing rapidly in the face of development pressure, and many people in town feel like the existing infrastructure won't be able to accommodate new growth. As a start, the team assessed current traffic levels, streetscape conditions, amenities for bikes and pedestrians, regional connectivity, commuting patterns, and land use policies that influence transportation choices. Next, to get a sense of how things might be expected to change, students used traffic models to project how traffic volumes and flows will change as new developments come online and took note of areas where traffic increases could exacerbate existing issues. The group also looked into goals established during an ongoing comprehensive plan update in Lansing, and whether or not current physical and policy landscapes make those goals realistically achievable. Finally, the team proposed a set of recommendations, policy tools, and best practices that could be applied in the town to improve transportation system performance, including safety, comfort, and sense of place.