A few places in the U.S. get a lot of attention for their planning and transportation policy reforms. New York City’s PlaNYC, unprecedented in its ambition, is a worthy model for others, and unusually progressive smaller cities like Portland and Seattle are often in the news for their efforts. Other than these outliers, it’s rare to hear about municipal efforts to bring local streets in line with contemporary standards – but many of the nation’s dozens of smaller cities are working on improving their physical forms in ways that often escape wide notice.

Hartford’s One City, One Plan was created in order to fulfill a state requirement that a “Plan of Conservation and Development” be created every ten years. Adopted by the Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission in June of 2010, the current plan contains many goals to be reached over the next ten years. The transportation component of the plan – one of five broad sections – is a solid example of current, non-automobile-centered thinking, and contains ideas and techniques that could apply to many cities similar to Hartford, a city that, like many others of its size, could use more vitality downtown.

Early Outreach, Innovative Thinking

The Commission did a fine job with public outreach during the development of the plan, holding dozens of listening sessions, meetings with the community, and presentations throughout, ensuring that a good portion of the community was aware of the plan and had a chance to comment. Commission members assessed commuting patterns from Census data, finding that nearly half of Hartford’s working residents work in Hartford itself, leading to short commutes. The Commission also undertook an examination of existing infrastructure, including road types, signaling patterns, parking facilities, bus service, and likely future projects that will have an effect on the city’s transportation systems.

The Commission also wisely considered two upcoming major transportation projects in the region – the New Haven-Springfield commuter rail line, and the New Britain Bus Rapid Transit. The rail line will provide new frequent rail service to Hartford’s Union Station, currently only infrequently served by Amtrak. The BRT service, expected to begin service in 2013, will provide quick travel between New Britain and Hartford. The plan makes clear that any changes to Hartford’s transit infrastructure must be designed to mesh with these two projects.

Besides installing sidewalks and painting bike lanes, the plan suggests holding events to encourage residents to try walking and biking, and emphasizes such details as improving signal timing, providing safe bike parking and shower facilities, and developing a pedestrian wayfinding system to support these efforts, showing a good understanding of the multi-faceted approaches that have led to success elsewhere. More nebulous, but still positive, are such recommendations as reassessing parking regulations, examining existing one-way streets, and adopting Complete Streets design standards. If these ideas are fleshed out some more, they could become the backbone of a solid street design policy.

Funding and Bureaucratic Challenges

However, only a few of the stated goals are scheduled for implementation in the next two years. Many of the problems are bureaucratic; Hartford has no transportation department, so the work falls to the Public Works department, which has no history of transportation policy reform. The Planning Division has no real implementation powers, so it will have to rely on its parent department – the Department of Development Services – to make this plan a priority, and it is far from clear that it will do so. Also, many of the goals require cooperation between different departments at the city and state levels, always a difficulty.

Funding is also a challenge, particularly with harsh federal and state cuts (under the “Plan B” budget) a possibility. Moving up the timeline on bike and pedestrian infrastructure improvements would give the city a better chance of leveraging state and federal funds and could increase support for initiatives like a bike-sharing program, which is absent from the plan.

How much momentum city leaders put behind the plan may depend on the results of Hartford’s municipal elections in November. There are compelling reasons for whoever wins to embrace “One City, One Plan,” which offers a greener future for the city.

Michael Lenore is a TSTC graduate fellow.