DOMINION BOULEVARD CORRIDOR STUDY | Chesapeake, Virginia
56 | Planning Frameworks
Planning Frameworks | 57
Proposed Streets
All the streets within the Dominion Boulevard Study
Area, in addition to complying with all existing codes,
ordinances and design standards, should be designed
as “Complete Streets”, which are defined by the
National Complete Streets Coalition as streets that
“are designed and operated to enable safe access for
all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit
riders of all ages and abilities must be able to safely
move along and across a complete street.”
Conversely, incomplete streets are designed primarily
for the car, which limit transportation choices, and do
not have the necessary infrastructure to comfortably
and conveniently accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists
and transit riders in a safe and context sensitive way.
Combined with an interconnected street grid, greenway
network and transit service, Complete Streets reduce
the demand for automobile travel for routine trips and
contribute to a healthy community.
By providing a variety of street types (Highway 17,
parkways, neighborhoods) there is an opportunity to
provide equitable, multi-modal transportation networks
and connectivity through the neighborhoods, the focus
areas, the City and regionally. Street design focused
on the implementation of complete streets principles
along with designing streets for the appropriate speeds
promotes walkability and bikeabilty (multi-modal
transportation).
Implementation Recommendation:
The Master Plan provides recommended street
cross sections that integrate Complete Street design
elements. These sections should be used to guide the
design of future streets within the Dominion Boulevard
Master Plan. In general, the design and engineering of
the major streets should:
• Acknowledge that, as habits change, transit rider-
ship of all types might increase in the future and
that accommodations need to be made for that
eventuality.
• Provide efficient lanes of travel and Level of Ser-
vice (LOS) for automobiles (C or D) with the mini-
mal amount of lanes needed to create an accept-
able LOS with lane widths of between 10 and 11
feet.
• Utilize design speeds (35 mph or under ideally) that
promote safety and a pedestrian friendly experi-
ence.
• Locate intersections at walkable intervals that are
scaled to match the design speed of the street. Ide-
ally, most of the major roads within the Study Area
will have intersections that don’t exceed 450 - 600
feet.
• Integrate accommodations for bicycle lanes (6 feet
minimum) or cycle tracks into their design.
• Provide adequate sidewalk space (6 feet minimum)
located behind vegetated buffers (8 feet minimum)
planted with continuous and regularly spaced (40
feet on center average) street trees.
• Promote the place-making context that they are
located in (Urban, Suburban, and Rural).
• Utilize crosswalks and countdown signals at inter-
sections.
• Utilize street lighting that makes the road and pe-
destrian environment adequately lit for safety, while
also protecting the night sky.
• Accommodate mobility for people of all abilities.
• Locate attractive bus shelters at regular intervals
so that they create awareness and convenience
(1/4 mile to 1/2 mile intervals along major streets in
urbanized areas).
• Integrate water quality techniques such as rain gar-
dens and bioswales into the design and engineer-
ing of the landscape spaces.
• Locate streets alongside planned greenways and
canals so that they create an integrated system.
• Provide on street parking that serve adjacent build-
ings in urban and suburban areas of the plan.
• Utilize medians, refuge islands and “bulb-out” inter-
sections to create safer crossings of major streets
and to promote more landscaping.
Figure 31: The proposed street network provides internal connections through the
study area as well as connections to surrounding neighborhoods
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