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City Manager <br />OCTA Bus Terminal Building <br />March 26, 2012 <br />Page 3 <br />Pedestrian Safety Must be Considered <br />The OCTA bus terminal building is situated between two one -way streets — Santa Ana <br />Boulevard and Fifth Street. However, the ground floor bus terminal orients primarily <br />toward Santa Ana Boulevard. Designated as a "primary arterial" in the City's Master <br />Plan of Streets & Highways, Santa Ana Boulevard is a relatively fast three -lane highway. <br />Further, this street curves in front of the OCTA bus terminal, which may limit the <br />visibility of both motorists and pedestrians. This could prove especially dangerous if <br />people cross illegally mid -block between the existing crosswalk and the Intersection at <br />Ross Street. <br />We would expect to see heavy use of this crosswalk, similar to the two mid -block <br />crosswalks on Ross Street. But, in contrast, Ross Street is a much slower, two -lane <br />street flanked by diagonal parking on the east side of the street. Ross Street is designed <br />as a "local street" in the City s Master Plan of Streets & Highways. <br />Santa Ana Boulevard is Already a Barrier from the Civic Center to the Downtown <br />One of the most vexing urban design challenges we face is how to facilitate greater use <br />of the Downtown by visitors and employees within the Civic Center. The distances are <br />easily walkable. And yet there are barriers that discourage people from walking to the <br />Downtown. One of the most significant of the barriers is Santa Ana Boulevard itself. <br />in the 1960s, Santa Ana Boulevard was widened and curved to help form a "couplet." <br />Unfortunately, this resulted in Santa Ana Boulevard becoming an unintended barrier. <br />The wider, faster arterial roadway was designed to efficiently move a high volume of <br />cars through the Downtown. But in the ensuing years we've come to understand how <br />this affects pedestrian circulation. As a general rule, pedestrians are most comfortable <br />walking along smaller, slower streets — typically those with on- street parking or other <br />features that separate the sidewalk from the travel lanes. Additionally, pedestrians are <br />naturally drawn along a streetscape when there are shops, businesses or other features <br />of interest. <br />The City has always hoped that the OCTA bus terminal building could evolve into a <br />facility with restaurants, cafes or other businesses within the ground floor areas. Ir <br />addition to serving the needs of Civic Center employees and visitors, such a change <br />would help to better connect the Civic Center to the Downtown. <br />85AA -33 <br />