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40 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / DECEMBER 2016
M any new master-planned communities
are incorporating principles of healthy,
more livable streets into community
design. Ridgegate and Daybreak are two such
communities currently exploring and building
pedestrian, bike and commuter-friendly streets
that will create a stronger mixed-use environ-
ment and sense of place, while allowing for good
traffic flow and circulation.
Ridgegate East Village Center – Couplet Street Concept.
At Ridgegate East in the city of Lone Tree, outside
metro Denver, the master plan for the eastern half
of the project will incorporate a mixed-use village
center forming the central heart a new 2,000-acre
mixed-use district. The Village Center will be served
by Ridgegate Parkway, amajor thoroughfare that will
bisect the community and carry upwards of 50,000
vehicles per day. To avoid the roadway becoming
a physical barrier that could ultimately divide the
community, the roadway will be split into two one-
way couplet streets that will reduce the width of
the street and number of lanes, creating a safer and
more pedestrian friendly environment.
The couplet street will incorporate a central main
street and series of midblock cross streets will cre-
ate an interconnected grid, linking the surrounding
neighborhoods and helping knit the entire com-
munity together. In addition, an off-street dedicat-
ed bikeway, or “cycle track,” will parallel the couplet
streets and connect the Village Center to the larger
system of bike and pedestrian trails.
The use of couplet streets is not a new idea in build-
ing safer, healthier streets. Many of the newest and
largest new urbanist developments, like Summerlin
(Las Vegas), Daybreak (Salt Lake City), Stapleton (Den-
ver) and San Elijo Hill (San Marcos, Callifornia), have
incorporated couplets as a way to create mixed-use
places using narrower, pedestrian-friendly streets
that allow for good traffic circulation. Research by
Metro Analytics ( , which
develops and analyzes multimodal circulation solu-
tions for mixed-use, high-density environments, be-
lieves “couplets can play an important role in ‘Com-
plete Streets and Place-Making,’ while handling the
higher traffic volumes that these places often gener-
ate or must accommodate.”
Of the top 10 advantages of one-way couplets, de-
fined by Metro Analytics, a key advantage is couplets
are friendlier and safer for pedestrians. Narrower
one-ways are easier to cross; pedestrians have few-
er movements that threaten to strike them; slower
traffic is less dangerous and less intimidating; and
studies show couplets are usually safer.
With the help of couplet streets, the Ridgegate East
Rick Volpe,
RLA
Principal
and Vice
President,
DTJ Design
Inc.
ELEMENTS Master Planning