The photo to the right shows a new, landscaped median on E. 14th Street in the Ashland community of central Alameda County. It is not unlike many other medians found all over the East Bay. Well-intentioned roadway architects install medians like these to ‘green’ a street and thereby make it a more scenic, more interesting place. While there may be useful applications of medians where there is little pedestrian traffic, along commercial corridors like E. 14th Street there are many things wrong with them. Let’s list a few:
- Medians Divide the Street: medians have the effect of dividing the street by separating the ‘scene’ on one side of the street from the ‘scene’ on the other side. Heavily landscaped medians multiply this effect. Some landscaped medians are burmed, which creates even more of a visual barrier from one side of the street to the other side. None of these effects are good. One attribute of a great street is that it is one coherent place or ‘scene’ if you will. People on one side can see people on the other side, maybe even hear them or talk to them. One really particularly important reason to join opposite sides of a street together is for personal security. Streets benefit from eyes on the street, including eyes from the other side of the street. The Ashland community could definitely use more eyes on E. 14th Street.
- Medians Crowd out the Bike Lane: streets like E. 14th Street, with its new median cannot have a bike lane added to it, at least not without removing parking. With two vehicle lanes and no bike lane, cyclists like the one shown in the photo are squeezed between moving traffic and parked cars and have a generally miserable, and often dangerous, experience on the roadway. Only the fastest of cyclists can safely take the lane and keep up with traffic. Such long, straight streets like E. 14th Street can never be bike-friendly because speeds will always be high.
- Medians Increase Vehicle Speeds: we have no documentation for this claim, just personal experience. But think about it: medians remove one potential point of conflict for motorists in the inside vehicle lane. Nothing can cross the path of the motorist in the inside lane, at least not from the left. Thus, with one potential conflict removed from the equation, motorists naturally speed up and even pay less attention to things on their left. This can be really dangerous where there are mid-block pedestrian crossings and is always problematic at unsignalized intersections. In addition, the increased speeds induced by medians only make bicycling more dangerous.
- Medians Encourage Sidewalk Riding: as shown in the 2nd photo here. By precluding the striping of a bike lane and encouraging faster traffic, and less attentive driving, medians encourage cyclists to ride on the sidewalk. This of course can be dangerous to pedestrians, but is also dangerous for cyclists. Motorist never look for cyclists coming off of sidewalks at intersections.
- Greenery can be Achieved by other Means: the greenery provided by medians is certainly a good thing, but could just as easily be achieved by adding the greenery to the sidewalks. Cities could also widen sidewalks to add more greenery, or as Berkeley has done on University Avenue, add tree planter bulb outs in the parking lane. This is a much better and safer way to green a street. And it allows space, potentially, for a bike lane.
Any additional thoughts on medians? Please share.