Urban Design - UF-Facilities Planning & Construction - University of ...

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FUTURE LAND USE AND URBAN DESIGN
CAMPUS MASTER PLAN, 2005-2015 DATA & ANALYSIS
III. Walking Distance and Activity Center Analysis
In order to understand the distances and travel options across campus, an analysis of walking
distances between parking and activity centers was conducted. For this purpose, activity centers
were defined as clusters of university development. These centers include existing clusters of
development and those sites where existing development could be expanded to a more critical
mass within an already impacted area. Similarly, existing parking structures and potential
parking structure sites were analyzed to determine their proximity to activity centers. For this
analysis, a five-minute walk distance was based on a 1,000-foot straight-line path. Although, the
actual on-ground distance may be longer, the 1,000-foot path was based upon a very slow
walking speed of three feet per second.
The university has been operating under a policy to provide parking within a fifteen minute walk
of final destination for employees. By depicting a 15-minute walk distance from existing
structured parking, the following figure indicates that this policy has been met. However, a
different distance between destinations should be used to evaluate the degree to which the campus
accommodates walkable distances. Research on pedestrian and bicycle behavior indicates that
people will walk 1,000 to 1,500 feet between destinations, and will bicycle up to three miles for
everyday utilitarian purposes. For the pedestrian, these distances translate to approximately five
to ten minutes of walking. Analysis of the walking distances between existing and potential
activity centers reveals that the campus areas on the east side of campus (i.e. Planning Sectors
“C”, “F” and “G” as defined elsewhere in this report) have the appropriate proximity for
connectivity to destinations within and, in many cases, between these developed areas. The site
of the Genetics/Cancer/Biotech Pavilion building has the necessary proximity to the College of
Veterinary Medicine and several properties owned or occupied by the Shands-UF. The cultural
plaza area has the necessary proximity to the University of Florida Hilton Hotel, the Southwest
Recreation Center and the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory. The potential activity center on
Radio Road near SW 34 th Street is somewhat isolated, but could have convenient interactions
with the existing village housing complexes and some student recreation areas. However, other
sites including the area around the Law School, Fifield Hall, Mehrhof Hall and Energy Park will
remain somewhat isolated for easy access by pedestrians. Although pedestrian movement within
these activity centers can be accommodated, their more isolated locations will require that
development be accessed by transit and automobile with appropriate parking facilities on site.
Additionally, they will need to be more self-sufficient with either a mix of internal uses or a
function that does not require frequent interaction with other entities on campus. Two additional
figures presented below depict the five-minute walking distance analysis for activity centers and
parking structures.
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MARCH 2006