good traffic Brad Biehl

Rob Parker — president of the Town at Trilith — is in good traffic this week to share on constructing a walkable town around creatives and the film industry. 40 minutes outside of Atlanta, a 235-acre neighborhood is taking shape. It’s budding around one of the largest film studios in the U.S., and is looking to become a cradle for creatives, on the way to establishing a revamped, stronger model of an industry town.



Even amongst all of the glitz and glamour of movie studios — simple, practical walkability is top of mind.







We discuss:

00:00 Centering a town around a leading Atlanta movie studio (the home of multiple Marvel productions).

01:44 Building and curating a walkable community, specifically designed for creatives.

07:20 Intentionality in crafting diverse, ‘missing middle’ housing options.

11:53 New, greenfield development that doesn’t feel fake, cheap, or cookie-cutter.

15:14 Challenges and solutions of a ‘new urbanist’ development project.

29:28 Connectivity and transportation between suburban and rural towns.

37:37 Balancing cars and walkability.

42:28 Wrapping up.







Further context:

The Town at Trilith.

The studio.







Connect with Rob:

On LinkedIn.







Connect with me, Brad:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On Instagram.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On TikTok⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On LinkedIn⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Musing from recent neighborhood walks. Notably: counting single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) entering and exiting the city during rush hour. Surely, some of these are coming from — and going to — similar areas of the metro. There has to be a better way. And, they're all driving increasingly-large SUVs, too.

Bigger, heavier cars. More inefficient, wasted space.

There is much we can glean from a basic neighborhood wander. This is one such observation; what is one of yours?





We discuss:

00:00 Observations from neighborhood walks, amongst rush hour commuters.

04:27 The inefficiency of single occupancy vehicles.

11:28 The exploding popularity of larger vehicles in the U.S. (SUVs, trucks, etc.).

16:44 More on inefficiencies in American cities.

21:30 What have you noticed in your neighborhood?



For context:

U.S. commuter data (via CSIS).

Market share by vehicle type, 1975-2021 (via Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan).

Cost of empty airline seats (via Forbes).

Most popular vehicle type in each state (via iSeeCars).

This is a brief excerpt from my appearance on the Real Finds podcast, last week. Within, we examine why walkability, livable neighborhoods, and human-scale environments should be top of mind for commercial real estate professionals and business owners.



Find the full hour here.

Thanks to Gordon Lamphere for the audio.

Road signs seem to get read less than a seventh-grade history textbook. Even the most ubiquitous, exact signs like — STOP — are seemingly up for interpretation (everyone is an artist now, or something). Unfortunately, we're not obeying those crafty yard signs that encourage slowing down, either. Signs that give dynamic feedback — thanks to a radar function that feeds a display board — do make an impact, but not enough. Thorough, safer urban design is the way to lower speeds, and thus lower pedestrian and bike fatalities and accidents.



The bottom line: we humans aren't good at judging the proper speed at which to drive. Whatever number is listed, we add nine-ish mph. We need an environment (streets) that demand driver caution, care, and presence.



Also, data to follow up on last week’s Tara Hill Drive conversation. Hint: traffic calming measures work (see links below).





We discuss:

00:00 Slow down: duck crossing.

01:38 Becoming desensitized to pedestrian safety?

02:28 Effectiveness of road signage.

07:31 Dynamic, electronic feedback signs.

10:07 Why we need urban design and traffic calming infrastructure.

10:59 Data on speed and fatalities on U.S. roads.

16:59 Case study follow up (from last week): traffic calming in Dublin, Ohio.

23:47 The new studio, soon.

25:57 Wrapping up.





For context:

On street sign design (via Behavioral Scientist).

On the chance of being killed by a car, correlated with vehicle speed (via ProPublica).

On the efficacy of radar speed signs (via Radarsign).

NHTSA speed data (via The League of American Bicyclists).

Tara Hill Drive (Dublin, Ohio), BEFORE the traffic calming implementations.

⁠Tara Hill Drive AFTER the traffic calming implementations.⁠

Reflecting on traffic calming infrastructure seen this week in suburban Dublin, Ohio, on Tara Hill Drive.



When car-dominated suburbs build infrastructure like neighborhood traffic circles, it's an acknowledgment that we surely know how to design safer streets, and thus every street designed on the contrary is an active choice against resident livability.



The road to stronger, safer, and more livable neighborhoods is not a mysterious one.



In addition, we briefly touch on an impactful Twitter thread from the week. It's on road accident death rates, how we compare to Russia (not good), and how to operate amongst the attributable dangers here in the states. The credit belongs to Mark Abraham, and you can find the thread here. It's worth your time.





We discuss:

00:00 Live from the new home: Columbus, Ohio!

02:27 Traffic calming measures spotted in suburban Columbus.

04:00 We know the proper way to design safe streets.

10:54 Rising traffic deaths in the U.S. (we've passed Russia).

14:21 Wrapping up.





Thanks for bearing with me during our studio move. Apologies for any sub-optimal sound, this week.

Live from the move from Tempe, Arizona to Columbus, Ohio: noting constant roadway maintenance, contextualizing intercity v. intracity transportation, and looking forward to getting out of this car.



Also, just a tad bit of CNU Cincy FOMO.