Observations and Traffic Counts on St. Louis’ Washington Avenue
Continuing my quest to get parking on Washington Avenue I decided to do a quick count of traffic on three blocks of Washington Avenue during today’s rush hour. My methodology was pretty simple and incomplete.
I stood mid block for 10 minutes and counted the number of vehicles (cars, trucks, buses) traveling in each direction. I started in area of Washington Avenue that does permit on-street parking. Specifically I was in the 1300 block where eight new businesses just had a ribbon cutting ceremony last Friday. I then moved East to two different blocks where parking is prohibited. I counted traffic for 10 minutes in each block and then multiplied the total count by 6 to get the Vehicles Per Hour (VPH).
Let’s look at the numbers first and then talk about what they mean:
13th – 14th Washington; 4:30pm – 4:40pm
> Eastbound: 62
> Westbound: 46
> Vehicles Per Hour: 648
10th – 11th Washington; 4:50pm – 5:00pm
> Eastbound: 114
> Westbound: 57
> Vehicles Per Hour: 1,026
9th – 10th Washington; 5:10pm – 5:20pm
> Eastbound: 110
> Westbound: 76
> Vehicles Per Hour: 1,116
First I want to critique my own methods. Ideally the counts would have been taken at exactly the same time of day rather than progressively later during the rush period. Second, the sampling is only for one day and it rained part of the time. Ideally counts would be taken more often and on different days. But, the data is what it is — fairly representative of a typical afternoon rush hour.
I tried to find some data online as a guide as to what constitutes congestion, how much traffic can two lanes with parallel parking handle and so on. I found nothing online or in my books to be helpful. Perhaps a reader with greater knowledge of these issues can comment?
Here are my observations. The lower volume of traffic in the 1300 block of Washington with on-street parking was moving at slower speeds. You’ll note that drivers are not required to stop at 13th so they have a clean shot between Tucker (12th) and 14th — a greater distance to build up speed, yet they didn’t. With less cars around you’d also think they’d be going faster but the presence of pedestrians and cars parking slower traffic down. This slower traffic may have also lead to some drivers taking other routes? One could also argue that volumes are most likely generally lower West of Tucker.
The two blocks I observed where parking is currently prohibited were quite similar to each other. 9th and 11th are both one-way going North while 10th is one-way going South. I observed more cars turning Westbound from 9th than Eastbound from 11th. From Southbound 10th more cars turned Eastbound on Washington than Westbound. Quite a few cars on all streets continued across Washington.
At times the 1000 and 1100 blocks of Washington were empty. Literally. Zero cars moving or waiting for lights. The traffic signal timing caught traffic from one light to the next. Cars seemed to speed to try to make it through at least one set of signals before getting caught by the next. The most congestion I saw was in the block between 9th and 10th when three buses arrived at the same stop. I’m not sure if they are all scheduled to be there at the same time or if they were ahead or behind schedule. The traffic and buses all moved very quickly except when caught by changing lights. Buses were splashing water from the gutter onto the sidewalk. I observed one car turn from Eastbound Washington the wrong way on 11th street. One DHL delivery van stopped on Washington in the no parking zone and the driver ran across the street to the Lammert Building. Traffic seemed to adjust to the one lane without any problems or backups.
I just don’t see our rush hour as being that significant. Changing all or most of our one-way streets back to two-way traffic would help ease confusion among out of town guests as well as reduce unnecessary driving trying to find that next block going in your direction. This would actually help take some traffic off Washington and disperse it throughout the remainder of the CBD grid.
Sure those days when we have a major sporting event, concert or convention in town the situation will be different. People know the difference between a street that is congested because it can’t handle the volume of people fleeing and a street that is congested because it is the happening place to be. Suburbanites think nothing is happening downtown and if they go to the convention center for a local event they are likely to come and go and continue to think nothing is going on. Have them sit in 15 minutes of traffic as it makes its way through lots of vibrant street life between Tucker and 8th and they’ll come away with a different tune, “There was so much going on downtown traffic was backed up for blocks.” Ditto for visitors here on business/conventions. Interesting places simply do not have empty streets and sidewalks.
I’ve got more to say on this subject but it will have to wait for another day (it is almost time for the Daily Show).
– Steve
Maybe some of the traffic improvements being talked about for downtown will trickle out into the rest of the city?
One-way streets are just as much a problem for neighborhoods as they are for downtown-maybe more. Since most of the blocks in the outer neighborhoods are much longer than the downtown blocks, one-way drivers have that much more room to build up speed before they get to the next corner.
We frequently observed drivers travelling upwards of 40 mph down our old neighborhood street. We moved to a new block.
The two reasons we moved off of our old block were:
1) a lack of street trees (many of the elderly neighbors [either in terms of years or state of mind] objected to having street trees.
2) speeding traffic, largely encouraged due to the one-way traffic status of the block and the lack of street trees providing a more visibly open space for speedy drivers.
Talking to old-timers, you learn that many streets were originally 2-way, but then changed some time later to be made 1-way.
Any theories as to why people would want to change a street from 2-way to 1-way?
My old neighbors used to say that if we changed our block to two-way, they would no longer be able to park in front of their houses…Isn’t that the limit? They were totally serious!
If alleys can be two way, then why not the streets?
RB
Here’s a theory- by not allowing on street parking you create demand for all the new paking garages DT. Just think of how empty some garages would be if a couple hundred spaces were available on the street.
[REPLY – True, somebody has to pay for those garages so they can justify tearing now historic buildings. – SLP]
steve- I want to voice my support for your quest. This seems like a simple solution that with minimal effort and money will have a positive impact. I looked on Downtown NOW! website, and their Action Plan has a section (#12) titled ‘Streets for People’ where it classifies every type of street in downtown. In each of the eight different street types there is on-street parallel parking on both sides of the street.
The way I see it is- we have a comprehensive plan to map out how we should procede; we have the support of the public, retail owners, and the Downtown StL Partnership; and no one is out saying this is a bad idea. So lets get it done.
You and others have raised some good questions, but I’d like to take this in a positive way and ask what can be done remedy the situation. If someone or some organization does come out against then we can let the dogs out, maybe organize a ‘park-in’ or something 😉
keep up the good work
[REPLY – I’ve been reading up on the Downtown Now plan and will have post devoted entirely to it shortly. – SLP]
There is an on-going traffic survey — timed to anticipate the installation of the new traffic signalization. Participate.
[REPLY 6:45pm – One must be asked to participate. At this point I have not found one person that has been asked to participate nor have I found any information on a public meeting to gather data. I haven’t found any kind of website survey. People want to participate but at this point do not know how. I get the feeling the study is being done by traffic nerds that get all excited the faster traffic moves. – SLP]
I know many many business and property owners downtown. None that I know of have been asked to participate in such a study. How, PE, does one get involved?
[REPLY – exactly, see my reply above which was entered after this commenter posed the question. How PE does the public participate????????? – SLP]
I am both a business owner and a resident downtown, and just as soon as I am allowed/invited, I look forward to sharing many perspectives on traffic, parking, pedestrian infrastructure and the success of downtown as it pertains to all of the above. But you didn’t doubt that, did you? ; )
Meanwhile, I appreciate Steve thoughtfully raising these issues here, where anyone can share their thoughts at any time. It’s a valuable public service.
Margie
PS Hey Publiceye — speaking of public service, are you on the payroll of/under contract with both Downtown NOW and Larry Williams at this time? What about the Partnership? It would be helpful to know so we know whether you’re speaking on these issues as a citizen, as an official spokesdude, or something else.
[REPLY – oh, very good question! – SLP]
As someone who takes the bus every day (how many of you can say that?), cutting Wash Ave down to one lane would be a disaster during rush hours, unless busses are re-routed off Washington. To have only one lane in each direction, with heavy bus traffic and many stops between Broadway and 14th would make for a lot of congestion. Currently, quite a number of lines (at least #10 Gravois – 2 branches, #52 Forest Park, #97 Delmar, #80 Shaw/Southampton, #30 Soulard) use the street, and many are timed to allow transfers, thus the busses are often stacked together, and would block traffic as they pick up/drop off passengers. 6th and Washington is also a designated time point where busses sit and wait if they’re ahead of schedule…It’s already pretty bad on some days – it probably would have taken at least 30 minutes to get from Tucker to Broadway going EB yesterday at 530. You’d also have to clean up and finish construction on streets like Locust before doing so. Nights and weekends would be no problem, but between say 7-9AM and more importantly, 4-7PM, one lane would be a problem.
[REPLY 8:15am – First, I’m glad to see a transit rider check in! While I don’t ride the bus every day I do ride it 2-3 times per month. I do have days where I don’t use my car – either just working from home or bicycling where I’m going.
It still seems to me that non-game rush hour is no biggie. Tuesday night was a Cardinals baseball game and traffic was a mess everywhere. In that context we might as well make the street pedestrian friendly if traffic is going to be a mess anyway.
You are correct that we can’t simply put up meters and think all is well. The bus routes must be considered. I still contend that a considerable amount of traffic is routed to Washington simply because it is two-way. If we change all the one-way streets back to two-way it could greatly improve the situation. Think about it, everyone is traveling Eastbound after work so wouldn’t it be great if we doubled the number of EB lanes?
Again, great points. The bottom line is Washington Avenue is the street that many visitors see when they visit St. Louis. What image do we want to project? A vacant downtown or a vibrant street?
Hey stlterp, good point. I ride the buses every day, too, but most of them turn use Olive and Locust for east/westbound travel. I wonder if a solution could be found by routing some of the Washington buses onto other streets if congestion is a problem.
I also think that street parking in front of the Convention Center could be disallowed, as a compromise; it is not exactly a pedestrian-mindful area as is. That would allow buses to use that section as a time point. Otherwise, what about fewer designated stops on Washington, each having a small bump-out (?) in the sidewalk to pick up and drop off passengers? This would be mindful of passengers in wheelchairs who would not be able to make it into the street to board the bus.
REPLY 8:15AM – More good points from transit riders. I don’t have a problem with having a few areas where the bus can pull to the curb – leaving out selected parking spaces. This would allow traffic to get past the bus while it is loading/unloading and wouldn’t present challenges to those in wheelchairs. You’ll note that in the streetscape West of Tucker most of the curbs are sloped so that someone in a wheelchair can get to the bus which stops in the single lane.
The timing of all this is what amazes me. Why weren’t these things considered before the streetscape was finished? – SLP]
I agree that it can be done – an example would be the Delmar Loop. Admittedly, there’s only one major bus line that runs, but the street combines a fairly high level of traffic, meter parking (though those with lack of parallel parking skills can really block traffic) and a vibrant sidewalk scene.
I still really wonder why busses are on Washington to be begin with, especially with all the cobblestones, etc. I know that one reason may be to connect with Metrolink at 6th & Washington, but there’s a stop not far away at 8th & Pine as well where some busses also stop. I would be for re-routing all busses off Washington, and use Locust going uptown and Olive going downtown. I do think that a lot of the congestion on Washington could be eased in the evening if the Broadway/Locust area was cleaned up and open to traffic again – that seems to be a large source of bottlenecks, with many of the Express busses headed from 4th to Washington and then onto Broadway before making a right on Locust.
Also, I guess there is a bit of a chicken/egg scenario going on East of Tucker. There isn’t a lot of street level retail/restaurants along that strip yet, though it will be interesting to see what the opening of more lofts will bring…
The issue of one-way streets and their impact is important. Something to look at.
Regarding buses on Wash: In the old days, Washington Avenue was not a street anyone cared about. So it made sense to use it as a bus corridor or whatever else. But now it has become the face of St. Louis. It is the first and last thing many people see. A fact that should be considered carefully. Of course, that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for the bus. I just hope they are considering Wash Ave’s new role when doing their traffic study.
One thing that is a tough call — you don’t necessarily want buses to be able to pull over if they’re just picking up/dropping off passengers. Getting back into the lane of traffic is difficult because cars tend to not let buses in. It might be OK on Washington because of the timing of the lights allowing gaps in traffic, but it is a consideration.
[REPLY – good points! Given that the streetscape has just been finished I don’t see that we have any choice but to allow the buses to pull over into the parking lane. Otherwise, the disabled will not be able to access the buses. I just love our rebuild it first and then study it later approach. – SLP]