LGC: Community Design: Safety

Issues related to crime and safety are often at the top of the list of 'concerns' identified by national polls even at a time when statistics show a steady decline in criminal activity. However, in spite of this residents still express fear over the safety of their homes, streets and neighborhoods. The common response in many areas has been to try to escape crime by moving into gated communities.

However, what is often forgotten in this discussion is that creating a greater sense of community is often key to neighborhood safety. A study published in 1997 by the Harvard School of Public Health found that community spirit and willingness to get involved reduces violent crime by as much as 40 percent. The study found that race and income were not factors in determining whether people were willing to watch out for one another. The key factor was whether or not there was a sense of community. Neighbors do not need to be formally organized or have close relationships to have an impact. According to University of Chicago sociologist Robert Sampson, 'we're talking about people just having a shared sense of responsibility.'

Design of our neighborhoods, streets and houses can play an important role in helping to create a sense of community. Seattle officials have noticed a decrease in crime when a community garden is established. Allowing a mix of uses with a nearby corner grocery store, as pointed out by Jane Jacobs in Death and Life of Great American Cities, also helps build a sense of community as do small neighborhood parks and shared courtyards. Grocery stores, parks, neighborhood schools, community centers and other destinations close to residential areas encourages people to walk and puts more eyes on the street at all hours of the day or night.

The design of our streets also helps create a sense of community. In the book 'Livable Streets' Don Appleyard reported on research that shows that residents on streets with low traffic volumes had more contact with their neighbors than neighbors on streets with high traffic volumes. Wide residential streets typical of most new subdivisions result in speeding and dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. The result is a disproportionately large number of pedestrian injuries and deaths in many parts of the country. In California, for example, pedestrians account for more than 20 percent of all traffic fatalities. And over half of all pedestrian fatalities nationwide occur on roadways that run through residential neighborhoods.

The design of individual houses can also help create a safer environment. Many new residential areas are designed with prominent garages and fences and few windows facing the street. As a result there are few 'eyes on the street.' Windows and greater visibility, on the other hand, discourage criminal activity. At the same time we need to make sure that we clearly define where public space ends and private space begins to avoid creating 'no mans land' that is poorly maintained and encourages the presence of criminal elements. Front porches and private yards provide semiprivate spaces that encourage contact with neighbors. Private courtyards also provide safe, protected outdoor spaces for young children to play in.

Resources

The Local Government Commission has developed several guidebooks that discuss how to design or retrofit streets and neighborhoods to make them more supportive of walking and bicycling.

Street Design Guidelines for Healthy Neighborhoods was written by Dan Burden, director of Walkable Communities, with assistance from a team that included two traffic engineers, an urban designer and a citizen planner. It discusses how to build low-volume, slow speed traditional residential streets.
Streets and Sidewalks, People and Cars: A Citizens' Guide to Traffic Calming, by Dan Burden, provides detailed information for local government officials and residents on how to retrofit streets to slow the traffic.
Emergency Response, Traffic Calming and Traditional Neighborhood Streets, by Dan Burden with Paul Zykofsky, is designed to address concerns raised by fire departments and other emergency responders to innovative street retrofit and design efforts. It also helps explain to traffic engineers, local officials and residents what the emergency responders' concerns are all about.
Walkable Streets and the Fire Department is a 30-minute videotape which discusses how to create more livable neighborhoods while allowing for prompt emergency response. It includes interviews with fire chiefs from Chico and Mountain View, California and Portland, Oregon discussing what works and what doesn't.

Two of our series of 4-page illustrated fact sheets with a Focus on Livable Communities provide a brief, easy-to-read overview on the following key topics related to safety and community design:

Designs and Codes that Reduce Crime around Multifamily Housing.
Fact Sheet | Example Guidelines and Codes.

Web Links

California Safe Routes to School (http://www.4saferoutes.org/)
Federal Highway Administration (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/)
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Kids Walk to School Site (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk/)
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (http://www.nhtsa.gov/)
Project for Public Space (http://www.pps.org/)
Safescapes (http://www.communitypolicing.org/publications/comlinks/cl16/cl16_kroek.htm)
Traffic Reduction/Street Reclaiming Made Easy (http://www.lesstraffic.com/)
Conservation Law Foundation's Transportation Advocacy (http://www.clf.org/transportation/)
Walkable Communities, Inc. (http://www.walkable.org/)