Designathon 2020: Tactical Urbanism for Street Safety
What is a Designathon?
A Designathon is a two-day event created for teams to design solutions to relating to mobility and urbanization and planning issues on campus. Teams develop solutions to real-world problems through the spirit of collaboration and competition. Solutions are developed by analyzing mobility data and designing multiple test and iterations.
This Designathon focuses on designing a solution to an on-campus urbanization and planning issue affecting mobility users. The main issues identified that are affecting mobility users is street safety; this safety risk is due to high vehicle speeds and behaviors. The goal is to develop a solution that reduces safety risk. To learn more about the event details visit the official event site.
Problem
The focused problem area on UC San Diego’s Campus was Voigt Drive Hill.
Problem Area
Voigt Drive Hill
UC San Diego
Intersection A
Voigt Drive & Hopkins Drive
Intersection B
Voigt Drive & Engineer Lane
User Testing and Empathy Mapping
User Testing
To develop a problem statement, user testing was conducted at the problem area to determine the multiple issues and problems micro-mobility users might face. Multiple trials of riding bikes and micro-mobility transportation down Voigt Drive were conducted to see user experience.
Empathy Mapping
After user testing, we created an empathy map to put ourselves in the users' shoes to brainstorm what they might feel, say, think, and do; we found four major problem areas. The empathy map allowed us to create a specific problem statement.
Problem Statement
The Voigt Drive Hill fosters an unsafe and ineffective travel environment for all road users due to hazardous entry/exit at intersections, excessive vehicular speed, unreliable traffic flow, and an absence of modal separation.
Solution
Intersection A
Voigt Drive & Hopkins Drive
1. Bike Box
Reduces right-hook collisions
Increases visibility for bike and micro-mobility users
2. Broken White Line
Directs vehicles traveling South → East
Prevents non-transit vehicles from entering bus/bike only lane
Buses & authorized vehicles can pass over the line to enter the bus/bike only lane.
Directs bikes and micro-mobility traveling South → East to bus/bike only lane
3. Signage
Must yield to bus sign
Bus/bike only sign
Skateboarders “Walk Your Wheels”
Discourage skateboarders from using the bus/bike only lane or sidewalk; the Voigt drive grade is too steep to skate safely.
Intersection B
Voigt Drive & Engineer Lane
4. 4 ft Bike Lane (Westbound)
Dedicated bike lane to ensure model separation for bike and micro-mobility users; they travel slower due to the long uphill grade.
5. ½ ft Buffers with Botts’ Dots
Botts’ Dots
Divides lanes without displacing vehicular traffic.
Helps prevent lane incursion incidents
Buffer Separating Westbound Bike Lane (4) and 10 ft Travel Lane (6) Will Not Include Botts’ Dots
Can lead to further accidents if cyclist/micro-mobility users hit Botts’ Dots
6. 10 ft General Purpose Travel Lane (Westbound)
Narrow lanes force vehicles to travel slower - protecting pedestrians and micro-mobility users.
Width is sufficient for commercial vehicles
7. 1 ft Double Yellow Line With Botts’ Dots
Discourages vehicles from crossing into oncoming traffic
8. 9 ½ ft Automobile Travel Lane (Eastbound)
Narrow lane discourages speeding downhill
Staggered stop sign at Intersection B
9. 10 ½ ft Bus/Bike Lane (Eastbound)
Increased reliability on North Campus Shuttle route
Triton operators can be trained to not pass bikes and micro-mobility user, and leave safe following distance.
Can be used by construction vehicles with prior authorization
Allows emergency vehicles to bypass traffic
Awarded the Complete Streets Award
UC San Diego Campus Planning
January 2020
