Nova Scotia Main Streets Initiative
Locate Main Streets.
Treat them differently from the rest of the roadway network, focus on walkability and community activity.
Main Street in Fort Langley, BC
Identify your community main street area. Make it safe for pedestrians and cyclists. Make it welcoming, with a sense of arrival.
Find your walk-shed.
A walk-shed is a cluster of destinations within an area of approximately 1km, this about the distance most people are happy to walk rather than drive, if walking is an inviting option.
Many community Main Streets are currently designed at an “automotive-scale”, meant to be experienced when driving at 50 km/hr, with large signs, large parking lots, and buildings spread apart. These environments are not pedestrian friendly.
A Main Street’s walk-shed, should feel “human-scale”, with buildings that are closer together, signs that are smaller, and places to pause and take in what makes the community unique.
Destination map in Kentville, Nova Scotia
"Visual friction" in Flagstaff, Arizona is achieved with on-street parking, curb extensions, cycling, sidewalks and buildings that frame the street.
(Photo: Dan Burden via pedbikeimages.org)
Calm traffic to improve safety.
Safe mobility for people of all ages and abilities is critical to Main Streets. Calmer speeds give drivers more time to notice attractions and businesses, making it more likely for them to stop, interact with the community, and spend money in the local economy. Slowing traffic on Main Streets improves the safety and experience of people walking and cycling, while also reducing noise levels.
The visible presence of a community on Main Street, through art or activity, causes drivers to slow down and absorb their surroundings. This concept is sometimes called “visual friction” or “stickiness.”
Traffic calming tools need to be tailored to the location, but some tools to consider include driver speed feedback signs, rumble strips, speed tables, special pavement textures, improved lighting, introducing on-street parking, adding street trees, providing curb-extensions at crosswalks, signalized intersections, roundabouts to slow traffic at the entry to a community, median islands, reduced width of travel lanes, chicanes, and marked or separated bike lanes.
Historic streetscape in St. John’s, with recently widened sidewalks
HRM's Street Improvement Pilot Project at Wentworth and Ochterloney, in downtown Dartmouth installed bollards to reduce the pedestrian crossing distance and limit illegal parking near the crosswalk. (Photo: HRM)
While Main Streets in Nova Scotia typically have a speed limit of 50 km/hr, efforts can be made through design and activity to reduce the speed drivers will naturally travel to 30 km/hr or lower on walkable Main Streets.
Some ways of differentiating Main Streets are major investments, while others are smaller community-based efforts, which can be just as effective. Low-cost and short-term tactical projects can shape neighbourhoods. These pilot projects allow communities to test out new ideas, to see if they function better than the status quo. Pilot projects can be used to assess different ideas and options before making a permanent change.
A Gateway mural in St. Peter’s tells the story of the community and marks the beginning of Main Street.
(Photo: Clair Rankin)
Think about a community’s “gateway moment”
the sense of arrival,
the face of a place,
the first and last impression when entering (and leaving) a community.
The gateway can be as simple as signage, but the gateway experience comes from a combination of elements that create a real or perceived narrowing of the roadway, such as:
street trees
sidewalks
buildings closer to each other and the road
pedestrians
public art
destinations
and a bustle of activity.
These will look different in each community.
Overhead features, such as strings of lights or banners, can be a gateway strategy.
Salt Yard, Halifax Waterfront (Photo: TJ Maguire)
Approaches
Thinking about the “gateway” experience.
What do people see when they enter your community?
How might you convey the character of your community in a “gateway“?
Identifying the “walk-shed” of the community.
Consider where people are walking to and where they are coming from.
Consider conducting a mobility audit to explore your walk-shed.
Traffic calming.
Consider ways to naturally make drivers slow down on main street and pay more attention to other road users, as well as businesses on Main Street.
Pilot projects to improve the walking experience
Test out changes to Main Street that might make it more pedestrian friendly.
Pilot projects can be easily tweaked after implementation to find what works.