Crises like COVID have interesting dynamics. They can mask things and they can also reveal them. COVID has killed around 47,000 people in Pennsylvania alone. It has injured many more. It has destroyed lives and dismantled businesses, disrupted educations and derailed so many plans. In the world of community revitalization, both the disease itself and its many impacts mucked up a lot of what we do. But the response to this massive societal crisis also unleashed new thinking. In some ways, COVID has had a crystallizing effect.
In the rush to activate our streets and make the most of opportunities for safer outdoor gathering in spring of 2020, whether for dining, retail, re-envisioned community events, movies, or open streets, communities had to get more creative with their logistics and planning. Old patterns and practices were tweaked and sometimes inverted. Street furniture, activities, merchandise, and gatherings spilled into the well-ventilated outdoors and distanced/expanded into any space available, starting with sidewalks and parks and often including road rights-of-way (ROW). Early on, with little other activity and traffic and so much urgency, everything that could be done to effect these major changes was put into place. Municipal officials, community revitalization organizations, and state agencies recognized the need and figured out how to make it happen.
In many cases these desperate and beautiful experiments were a hit. They were safer in COVID terms and they were also vibrant and exciting and popular. With a little distance from the early days of the pandemic and the period before vaccines became available, it’s now time to sort through what worked, what didn’t, and what barriers might exist to sticking with the best of the new practices.
At the end of 2021 the Pennsylvania State Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) decided to commission a study on the subject of these innovative transformations of our streets. In transportation engineering parlance, this topic has been termed a study into “Demand for Alternative Uses of PennDOT Right-of-Way.” The TAC is an organization you may know without realizing it. It is an independent advisory board created in 1970 to advise the state Department of Transportation (DOT). Information about it and the allied State Transportation Commission can be found on the talkpatransportation.com website. You may know the website if you have participated in the statewide transportation survey which is conducted every other year.
The TAC typically conducts two major studies each year on deep dive topics to help inform decision-making and planning for the DOT. Those reports can be found on the website noted. This past year, in addition to the two annual studies, it also ran a short-term study to look at these “alternative uses of state road rights-of-way.” The process entailed conducting interviews in communities in different parts of the state, investigating issues that arose for them in the course of making these events happen, and checking in with some other state Departments of Transportation to find out about their experiences with similar circumstances. The final report was issued in mid-August and can be found here.
In many cases, communities already had experience from putting on special events like parades, festivals, and street fairs. In some cases, they translated their knowledge from that process and applied it to the logistics for these longer-term street encroachments and closures. Others forged new agreements and plans. Many shifted gears, cancelling scheduled annual events that would normally have been held in 2020 and focusing instead on these vital downtown economic rescue missions.
As it happened, in 2019 PennDOT had updated the form that would under normal circumstances make these events possible, the Special Event Permit Application. The revised form already existed but was not really put through its paces that promptly because of the cancellations and chaos of 2020. In addition, during the pandemic PennDOT’s operations underwent adjustment, with any applications that did come in being processed by the central office rather than in the different districts. On top of the disruptions of the pandemic, the process was also just a little bit different even in how it was reviewed and who was involved. As a result of these changes large and small, it wasn’t until annual events really resumed in earnest in 2021 and questions started to arise about the potential continuation of the new ROW uses that the revised Special Event Permit Application was really put to the test. Some communities struggled; some managed. State legislators even got involved and passed a law to try to help make the special events more feasible. But there were still outstanding questions – about the permit process, about its terms, about the relevance and applicability of the permit to the explosion of new “alternative uses,” about the definition of activities that might constitute said uses, and so forth. And so the TAC commissioned the study to examine and answer those questions.
PDC was fortunate to be able to participate on the steering committee for the short-term study and support the work of the consultants conducting the study. The resulting report and recommendations address many of the concerns surrounding “alternative uses of PennDOT right-of-way” that were unearthed throughout the experience of the past two years, as well as some stretching further back that were only revealed in the crucible of the pandemic. It also begs the question of new issues that have arisen and so among the current TAC studies underway now is one on the topic of Tactical Urbanism, a name given to sometimes temporary, quick implementation or “pop-up” projects developed for the purpose of creating place where once there was just space, often pushing for better use of the public realm, some of it (once again) road right-of-way. We are once again participating in that process and will keep you updated!
We entered 2020 with high hopes and grand plans and pivoted to experiments in lighter, quicker, cheaper placemaking, driven by the need to maintain economic activity and protect public health. We have learned many lessons. Some of the changes wrought in our public spaces will be permanent and others will have to contend for permanence. We had an obligation to innovation because of COVID – and we rose to the occasion.