Your Community - Model Ordinances

Achieving Buy-In | Create An Advisory Board | Community Master Planning
Getting Projects Implemented | Model Ordinances | Community Assessment

Master plans spell out a community's vision of itself and the policies that will enable the vision to take root. Ordinances, however, are the implementation tool – they regulate and specify what is and what is not legal.

For instance, many communities have ordinances that specify:

- the bulk and density of buildings (typically provided in a building code)
- travel speed
- parking regulations
- street design
- sidewalk design
- land use

Some communities are very prescriptive with their ordinances. Others are less so, and may choose to provide non-binding guidelines with incentives for conformance.

A community that wants to define itself as a pedestrian- or bicycle-friendly community can do so by adopting ordinances (or guidelines) that insure the realization of these goals. For instance, a community can by ordinance specify that every street include a sidewalk on both sides of the street, no less than 5 feet wide. They may even specify that the sidewalk width be greater in commercial areas, say 10 to 12 feet. Another example: a community may require all arterial streets to include a 4- to 6-foot travel lane for bikes.

The good news: you don't have to become an expert on these features or the ordinances that control them. What many communities do is find the community that they want to be like, and then adapt or adopt those policies and ordinances. In this way the outcomes are guaranteed. Even the professional planners, engineers and architects do this, by finding something that works and then duplicating or modifying it for their clients' needs.

The following are examples of some very specific ordinances that encourage and protect pedestrians and to some extent cyclists.

Ordinances that reduce travel speed when school children are present make it safer and more likely that children will walk to school. Some communities such as Plano, Texas, have instituted a system of flashing yellow lights on special speed limit signs that light-up at the beginning and end of the school day. This ordinance is strictly enforced.

Ordinances requiring motorists to stop for pedestrians anywhere in the crosswalk or waiting to cross. This makes it safer for people of all ages and abilities to get across the street. Example: In 2003, New York state changed its crosswalk law to protect the pedestrian in the entire crosswalk rather than half of it, as is the standard in many states. This law came about in large part because of the pressure exerted by pedestrian advocates in New York City.

A building code (set of ordinances) that establishes design standards for residential and non-residential buildings. This can go a long way toward creating a walkable community. Click here for an example of building codes used in Lambertville, New Jersey.

Resources
In early 2005 the Thunderhead Alliance (www.thunderheadalliance.org), a bicycle advocacy organization, published the Complete Streets Report, Analysis of a Survey of Complete Street Laws, Policies and Plans in the United States. You'll find this resource listed below as a downloadable .pdf file.

Also check out the Neighborhood Scale Planning Fact Sheet from the Local Government Commission. It's linked in the resource box below.

Communities and community groups can turn to specific organizations that serve as a reservoir for ordinances and best practices that will assure more walkable and bicycle-friendly communities:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) (www.nhtsa.dot.gov) has a Resource Guide on Laws Related to Pedestrians and Bicycle Safety available on-line. It includes model laws and ordinances, based on crash research, designed to have a positive effect on pedestrian or bicycle safety. (At the NHTSA site, type "Resource Guide" in the "Search NHTSA" box, and follow directions to download.)

The American Planning Association (APA) is another place to turn to for municipal codes and statutes. APA has chapters in every state.

Two groups that serve as a virtual reservoir for information on pedestrian friendly compact development are:

The Smart Growth Network: See their Getting to Smart Growth II document. This includes policies for implementation, and includes information on compact building design, zoning ordinances, performance measures, form based coding and more on creating walkable communities and providing a variety of transportation options.

The Congress for New Urbanism

- Complete Streets Report (Thunderhead Alliance) | PDF File 420KB
- Neighborhood Scale PLanning Fact Sheet (LGC) | PDF File 200KB

Note: You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read the items listed above. If you don't have Acrobat Reader already installed on your computer, you can get it here.