Signs Point Out the Not So Obvious in Suburbia
Last week I was in the suburb of Des Peres. Typical sprawl near Manchester & Bopp Rd. While visiting two different places I spotted interesting signs in the windows pointing out things not readily apparent.
So while the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Manchester Rd apparently has a bike rack somewhere it is not obvious to the point they had to put a sign in the window. I’m glad they have bike parking and I’m glad they try to help direct people to the right spot. From the entry I could not see a bike rack. I didn’t have the energy to walk along the front of the store to peak around the corner to see where they had hidden a rack.
Across the street and just a bit East is a FedExKinko’s location:
“Handicap Ramp, Please do not park here” reads the sign in the window. They must have had people parking in the ramp space so they put the sign up. The space to the left of the ramp is a regular space, to the right a disabled space. With white markings the asphalt ramp is not overly obvious. A second disabled space is over one more to the right. Typically you want the ramp in between the two spaces. Doing so makes the ramp a bit more obvious to others. Blue strips would help distinguish this area from a normal no parking zone.
Last week I was out in the car and stopped by the Lammert Building at 911 Washington Ave. to visit the Landmark’s Association’s new offices and the AIA Bookstore. The building has a small parking lot on the West side of the building with a single disabled space. The unloading zone is to the left of the space with the ramp to the left of that. A car was parked in this unloading zone. I was able to get out of my car OK, I do have to open my door fully to get my legs in/out. Once inside I stopped at the guards desk to ask if they knew who’s car it was. Turns out it belonged to one of the security guards. If someone needed the ramp not enough space would have been left for them to get out of the vehicle and into a chair and access to the ramp was blocked – by building security!
Provisions such as bike ranks & curb ramps are great provided we know where they are and we don’t render them useless by parking a 2-ton piece of steel in the way.
I’m so goddamned tired of suburban sprawl.
One current problem with the LEED v2.2 (and v2.1) certification systems for New Construction is that it has an easy “gimme” point for putting Bike parking outside the building. There are a few rules, but essentially it’s an easy 1 point if you simply have a bike rack outside, regardless of how futile it may be given the urban or non urban conditions of the area. Although it will be weighted less in the future, it will remain. On the one hand LEED buildings will all likely have a bike rack somewhere near the entrance, and usable showers inside the building, encouraging people to actually commute by bicycle. On the other hand, the supporting systems may take a very long time to change due to such a trickle down demand by the few bikers.