Saint Louis University Corrects Accessibility Issues Created By Chaifetz Arena
Last month I highlighted an access issue that had appeared in the St Louis Post-Dispatch on August 4th (see post). In short, when Saint Louis University built the Chaifetz Arena at Laclede & Compton they omitted curb ramps that would permit a wheelchair user from crossing Compton, severely limiting East-West access in this area that was more accessible prior to the new arena. They also lacked an accessible passenger loading zone (examples). Both of these major access problems have now been corrected.
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As you can see no crosswalk is yet indicated on the pavement. Hopefully the work order is in place for that to happen soon. As many drivers blow right through this stop sign it would be advisable for the city to use a bold “zebra crossing” rather than the simpler parallel lines. A cop sitting on Laclede could write quite a few tickets in a single hour — I’ve never been here and not seen someone completely ignore the stop sign. Extra precautions need to be taken to ensure pedestrian safety. This could take the form of signs indicating “stop ahead” or just STOP on the pavement. Pedestrian crossing signs are another way to alert drivers to look for pedestrians. Having Laclede open to through traffic in both directions would be the best way but SLU and Harris-Stowe have both screwed up the street grid.
I’m glad to see this has been corrected. It never should have been an issue in the first place. This is simply evidence of design professionals not considering the needs of pedestrians, in particular those pedestrians that are disabled.
Perhaps a traffic light would be in order that could be in operation during events, and flashing red or yellow the rest of the time.
The new ramp is missing the raised truncated domes for the visually impaired!
*SIGH* Now if SLU could make their handicap-accessible entrances at various halls ACCESSIBLE. During the summer, SLU retrofitted a building on the northwest corner of Spring and Laclede into Laclede Classroom building. It has a handicap-accessible entrance that requires going across a parking lot and opening a very heavy door in order to use it.
A step in the right direction! Proof that when developers and city officals “accidently overlook” necessary features to comply with disability laws, private citizens can use blogs such as Urban Review STL to point out the “oversights” and allows them to be corrected and save face on the part of those developers, city officials, and people that need the accomodation in question. In other words, sometimes a tactful and pragmatic response such as Steve’s blog can prompt a faster response with less animosity than lawsuits and other strong-armed responses. Glad to see this step in the right direction, and as others said in the comments above, hopefully we see more steps in the right direction!
Remember when this intersection (Laclede and Compton) used to have an actual traffic signal?
That would be safer for all involved — pedestrians, and drivers exiting the Harris-Stowe lot.
As it is, Laclede is barely even recognizable as a street anymore, for much of its length east of Grand.
They were painting the lines for this crosswalk this morning. It is just the simple, parallel lines, not a zebra crossing.
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