Plan Your Route
Start with a Mainstreet.
Your Open Streets project will have more luck building off existing pedestrian activity than starting from scratch. It’s strongly suggested to include one or more of your communities main streets in your Open Street route, and expand your route out to reach adjacent neighborhoods, open spaces, and amenities.
Connect to your surroundings.
Open Street projects are all about celebrating access offered by active transportation: access between communities, access to exercise, and access to open space. Extend your route from a main street to connect to adjacent neighbourhoods and park spaces.
Consider how people will arrive at your event. Attendees are likely to walk or bike if it will take 15 minutes or less. Knowing this, identify the surrounding area accessible within a 15 minute bike ride; think about advertising with posters along streets connecting to your route.
As much as Open Streets are about promoting active transportation, they are also about community and belonging. Some communities are dense, others are more spread out. Consider whether there are members of your community who will be driving to join the festivities, and what parking options are available near your route. Parking should not be your priority, but providing some parking may make your effort to build an active community more inclusive in rural areas.
Add Activity.
Walking and biking are fun, more fun with friends, and even more fun with things to do.
Identify open spaces for activities. They may be as large as a field or as small as a parking stall.
Identify partners interested in providing programming, like:
fitness studios, history and ecology groups, local businesses, community groups.
Activities can range from info booths for local groups to connect with community members, to drop-in fitness classes and walking tours.
Stagger scheduled activities[pop-up classes, performances, walking tours etc.] through the event and include passive activities [info booths, street vendors] to ensure there’s always something to do.
Open Streets are about getting active. Focus on interactive programming, avoid having too many buskers, food trucks, or other sedentary activities.
Note: Some Open Street Programs do not include activity along their corridors, but instead exist to provide a temporary AT trail where none yet exist.
Know your limits.
All good things must come to an end. Figuring out how long your route should be can be tough. Two kilometers provides an engaging 15 minute walk. Five kilometers is recommended to provide a 15 minute ride for cyclists.
While it would be ideal to connect as many neighbourhoods and community hubs as possible, the resources you have will ultimately decide the length of your route.
Street closure permits can be quite expensive.
Volunteers are needed to manage intersection closures.
Estimate your budget and volunteer count as your plan your route:
Plan for at least 3 volunteers per block or intersection, to allow for breaks.
Depending on the jurisdiction of the roads on your route, you may have to pay for road closure permits and/or police to manage traffic. Check with your municipal government and local police service for more info.
Account for Traffic.
While Open Street programs are intended to normalize active transportation as a mode choice, it won’t happen overnight.
Vehicular traffic must be accounted for when designing your route:
When possible, select streets with clear, intuitive parallel routes for vehicular detours.
Identify which intersections can be fully closed to vehicular traffic, and which can be “soft-closed” allowing vehicles and Open Street attendees to take turns crossing.
Consider on-street parking on your route, find alternative stalls when possible.
Sundays are recommended for scheduling your events, as they typically have the least vehicular traffic to manage.