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City Manager OCTA Bus Terminal Building March 26, 2012 Page 3 Pedestrian Safety Must be Considered The OCTA bus terminal building is situated between two one -way streets — Santa Ana Boulevard and Fifth Street. However, the ground floor bus terminal orients primarily toward Santa Ana Boulevard. Designated as a "primary arterial" in the City's Master Plan of Streets & Highways, Santa Ana Boulevard is a relatively fast three -lane highway. Further, this street curves in front of the OCTA bus terminal, which may limit the visibility of both motorists and pedestrians. This could prove especially dangerous if people cross illegally mid -block between the existing crosswalk and the Intersection at Ross Street. We would expect to see heavy use of this crosswalk, similar to the two mid -block crosswalks on Ross Street. But, in contrast, Ross Street is a much slower, two -lane street flanked by diagonal parking on the east side of the street. Ross Street is designed as a "local street" in the City s Master Plan of Streets & Highways. Santa Ana Boulevard is Already a Barrier from the Civic Center to the Downtown One of the most vexing urban design challenges we face is how to facilitate greater use of the Downtown by visitors and employees within the Civic Center. The distances are easily walkable. And yet there are barriers that discourage people from walking to the Downtown. One of the most significant of the barriers is Santa Ana Boulevard itself. in the 1960s, Santa Ana Boulevard was widened and curved to help form a "couplet." Unfortunately, this resulted in Santa Ana Boulevard becoming an unintended barrier. The wider, faster arterial roadway was designed to efficiently move a high volume of cars through the Downtown. But in the ensuing years we've come to understand how this affects pedestrian circulation. As a general rule, pedestrians are most comfortable walking along smaller, slower streets — typically those with on- street parking or other features that separate the sidewalk from the travel lanes. Additionally, pedestrians are naturally drawn along a streetscape when there are shops, businesses or other features of interest. The City has always hoped that the OCTA bus terminal building could evolve into a facility with restaurants, cafes or other businesses within the ground floor areas. Ir addition to serving the needs of Civic Center employees and visitors, such a change would help to better connect the Civic Center to the Downtown.