Urban Studies (Research Paper Sample)

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The Mill Avenue vs. S Jentilly Lane
Introduction
The streets that I chose as the study areas for this project are the Mill Avenue and the Jentilly Lane, which are situated at northwest and the South edge of the Arizona States University respectively.
The Mill Avenue
Mill Avenue is in a unique position, owing to its increasing potential to attract students in the campus restaurants, accommodation facilities and the shopping needs. This street is popular with student since it has the best night clubs and unique shopping stores. Most artists prefer to perform their dances in this street, ganging large population of the students and the public surrounding the school’s locality. Mill region is committed to provide accessibility to the Apache Boulevard, the downtown Tempe and then into the University. The Apache Boulevard route that is interconnected to the Dorsey Lane, then to the Tempe relies on the Mill Avenue since it is more open to the both international and local students. Mill Avenue is well served by the pathways, intersection roads and cross roads to link to the potential outlets; an aspect that helps in minimizing congestion and periodical commotions between the students and the local society in their daily affairs. Moreover, students prefer using this route while heading to their class session of personal businesses since it has full lighting at night and security is also tight. Students who ride on bikes are advantaged since the road has partitions for special bike lanes. The pedestrians utilize sidewalks to get to their destinations without getting interference from the flowing fleets. Moreover, these sidewalks are wide and independent from the interruptions from the cyclists, owing to smooth connection to various points. These aspects help to ease the transportation challenges and hustles that could arise from using the public means of transport.
S Jentilly Lane
Despite the popularity of this street to the students, it lack some of the fundamental aspects that would guarantee it "complete" to cater for the pedestrians and in this matter, students services around the university environment. Some regions of the roads have pot holes and cracks, making the transportation and accessibility to the University and the nearby shopping centers problematic. From a close examination of the major operations in this street, one realizes that students get into hustles of linking to various points, sometimes getting late to class sessions and the educational conferences in the university. The prominent use of the bikes has not adequately solved the accessibility issues since there are so specific lanes committed to serve the university community, including students, who use the bikes. Therefore, the recommendations made will provide a remedy to deal with the transportation issue, solve accommodation problems for the bikes and enable the learners avail to different points at the right time.
Analysis
Are there features that limit consideration of the S Jentilly Lane a complete street?
* Heavy congestion of the pedestrians, cyclists and the vehicles as one tries to link the University Village apartments
* Lack of biking lanes, making the cyclists unsafe while on the road
* Lack of the proper directional signs to indicate which lane is entitled to the vehicles and bikes users
* Few intersections given the increased growth of the traffic and the introduction of the motorcycles on the same route
* Lack of sufficient number of the sidewalks for students and the public makes the traffic flow sluggishly; hence a lot of time is wasted
* Poor marking of the crossroads makes children remain vulnerable to road accidents, increasing alarm to the whole community
* The poor lighting on the existing sidewalks and the crosswalks is primary cause of the collisions incidences since the visibility is also poor.
* The direction to Tempe and Phonex has the poor lighting conditions before getting to the main streams. Such road condition is a massive hindrance to the elderly people and the handicapped students who would be using wheelchairs.
All through the peak hours, the congestion is usually high due to a large number of vehicles and bikes leaving the Arizona States University and businesses surrounding this region. Due to the choke from the transportation networks along the S Jentilly Lane, cyclists, and the pedestrians are subjects to the impacts of the emissions from the vehicles. It means, therefore, that the longer the vehicles takes on the congestion, the more likely the cyclists are affected by the emissions created by the idling vehicles (Blanton, 2007, p. 330). With the resurrection of the Tempe in Motion programs, this will produce a resolution on the Jentilly Lane, reducing vehicular accidents, collisions of bike riders and the healthy impacts of the vehicle emissions (As shown below)
Encouragement of the TIM programs will lead to opening up of the arterial streets that link to the Apache and the Highland Avenue. There will also be increased physical activities between the students and the neighboring community in the Apache Boulevard where the Street Scape (SS) programs have already started to open up the S Jentilly region. Some of the Traffic Count programs focused to improve the transportation issues at the Jentilly Lane are indicated in the map shown below.
Recommendations of Improving the Transportation System at Jentilly Lane
Developing light rails: Since Jentilly Lane is a major street in the University vicinity; it requires an elaborate transportation network to enhance heavy foot traffic and cyclists operations. This idea is achievable through expanding the sidewalks and the crosswalk lane where the pedestrians can utilize to get to their different destinations without incidences of road accidents or commotions with the drivers or other automobile operators (Longhurst, 2012, p. 410). Providing a connection between the Highland Avenue down to Apache Boulevard and the Tempe, will be successful in encouraging mass transit. On-campus buses should provide partnership ride to students residing on campus as well as to those living off-campus. It will be a reasonable way of facilitate access to desired zones of the ASU perimeter.
Bicycle routes: Since the intersections along the Jentilly Lane are bisected clumsily; there is the need to establish a continuous and efficient grid that caters for the cycling students and the pedestrians. Moreover, in most cases, bicycles assume a parallel motion with respect to the flow of the traffic. Therefore, the feasibility of the transportation system could be improved by creating bike paths, separate from the main trail system. The Jentilly Lane 8th Street should take four lanes instea...