I didn’t think this policy was good for a transit district.
ABOVE: Metro bus without a bike rack at 5th & Missouri in East St. Louis, IL. 2010
The St. Louis Beacon followed up on the topic and quoted St. Clair County Chairwoman Delores Lysakowski as she blamed cleaning issues for the lack of bike racks:
Lysakowski said it would be impractical for workers to remove the racks each day for cleaning. “Every time that bus goes through a wash rack, which is every night, you’re not going to stop and take a rack off and then put it back on again when it gets off of the rack,” she said.
The five-member transit district board never has allowed bike racks on buses in St. Clair County and isn’t considering changing its policy, she said. “It’s been a policy that we don’t have them so we don’t discuss it,” she said adding that the district receives few complaints about the policy. “Maybe one every five years,” she said. (St. Louis Beacon: Want to bike and ride on Metro buses in St. Clair County? Forget it)
This is why I was shocked to see bike racks on bus after bus on a recent visit to East St. Louis.
ABOVE: St. Clair County MetroBus in East St. Louis with a bike rack, August 2012ABOVE: Another St. Clair County MetroBus with a bike rack heading east on Old Missouri Ave in East St. Louis, IL, August 2012
I began searching for confirmation, just to make sure I wasn’t seeing a few exceptions. I searched minutes of the district for 2012 — no mention. I emailed them last week asking for an effective date and/or a copy of the press release, they’ve yet to respond. Unlike Metro, they don’t have a press release archive online. Maybe they don’t issue press releases…
ABOVE: Notice on the scctd.org website, retrieved on 8/13/2012
One sentence on their homepage is the only confirmation of the change I was able to find. I don’t know when this change happened, although it’s listed after the July 1, 2012 fare increase notice. I’m not sure who made the policy change, or when, but I’m very glad to see the change.
In the poll last week more than half the readers indicated they wouldn’t subscribe to
Q: Will You Subscribe If stltoday.com (Post-Dispatch) Creates A Pay Wall?
No 107 [60.11%]
Yes, I’d pay up to $25/year for online access 18 [10.11%]
Yes, I’d pay up to $50/year for online access 15 [8.43%]
Yes, I’d pay up to $10/year for online access 14 [7.87%]
I subscribe to the physical paper. 14 [7.87%]
Yes, I’d pay more than $75/year for online access 4 [2.25%]
Yes, I’d pay up to $75/year for online access 3 [1.69%]
Unsure/No Opinion 3 [1.69%]
But some are willing to pay. After the poll closed I began looking at other Lee Enterprises newspapers to see what kind of subscription plans they offered their readers.
The Arizona Daily Star offers a plan that comes out to $48/year, but this sounds like a way to view the printed paper online. I clicked through a number of articles on azstarnet.com and didn’t get hit will a wall notice.
The Missoulian in Montana is different, it does have a paywall. As noted below in their Digital Subscription FAQ, you can view 15 articles for free in each 30 day period. So non-subscribders aren’t totally shut out:
What is a digital subscription? What do I get when I subscribe?
To get unlimited access to missoulian.com, you’ll need an online subscription. When you subscribe, you’ll get unlimited access to articles, breaking news, photo galleries, blog posts, reader comments, Missoulian archived articles and more. All visitors are able to view 15 pages FREE during any 30-day period (not calendar). Exceeding that amount will result in the need for a digital subscription to continue enjoying missoulian.com’s suite of articles and tools. For more information on the recent changes to missoulian.com, please read the letter from our editor and publisher.
If I have multiple computers at my residence or place of work, do I need to purchase multiple digital subscriptions?
No. You will be provided a username and password to access missoulian.com at your residence, at work, on the go, at a library, wherever. It is this ease of access that allows our customers to obtain news and information instantly, anywhere by logging in with your username and password.
If I already subscribe to the print version of the Missoulian, do I receive a discount to my digital subscription?
Yes. Customers who already subscribe to the Missoulian print edition will receive a hefty discount to their online subscription. Enmeshing the functionality of missoulian.com’s online tools with the print version’s tactile appeal creates a news and information one-two punch unmatched by any other local news medium. For more specific pricing information, click here.
Is my digital subscription exclusive to missoulian.com, or does it include online access to other Lee newspapers?
The subscription package does NOT include access to the other Lee news websites in Montana and Wyoming.
What about viewing missoulian.com articles on my mobile phone? Do I need a digital subscription for that?
No. Mobile-optimized versions of our website and mobile apps do not limit the number of articles you can view. Click here for more information regarding our suite of mobile offerings.
Each time I clicked the link to view the rates I got a “403 Forbidden” error message, not a good way to sell digital subscriptions. So I looked at the Billings Gazette. Very similar to the Missoulian, but only 10 pages are free in any 30 day period before having to pay. I tried the rate button in two different browsers and got nothing.
I actually want to pay the Post-Dispatch something every year because I do get value from the news they provide. Many are cynical but I think we’d be much worse off if the daily “paper” didn’t exist.
A number of years ago the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) for the St. Louis region looked at options to get light rail transit to north county and south county, see MetroLink Northside-Southside Study. The final report on October 10, 2008 recommended future routes to North County and South County that included using part of existing roadway. I wasn’t convinced.
Last week I posted about things I liked about DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) but today I’m going to use DART to talk why I’m cautious about expanding out own light rail system, MetroLink. Light rail as a mode of transit moves people well, but it doesn’t automatically spur development the way a streetcar can and costs far for than a bus line.
Just before I left for my trip to Texas and Oklahoma I received the following publication at a transit-oriented development event here in St. Louis.
ABOVE: Cover of REALTORS & Smart Growth’s On Common Ground publication from Summer 2009 featured DART’s light rail on the cover.
Looked exciting, I couldn’t wait to see and experience it. Let’s take a look at the reality of light rail in Dallas.
ABOVE: Light rail in downtown Dallas uses Pacific Street, cars are banned except in a few places where they’re kept separate.
In downtown Dallas numerous light rail lines converge on Pacific Street, now closed to traffic, with exceptions in a few limited spots. It’s a pretty lifeless street other than people going to/from the light rail stations. Pedestrian traffic is less than other nearby streets. No sidewalk cafes, not much of anything other than a couple of stations. This is what you get when you give a roadway such a single, and limited, purpose.
On the plus side their light rail is highly visible, whereas our MetroLink is nearly invisible in downtown St. Louis since it runs under Washington Ave and under 8th Street. The planned northside-southside lines in St. Louis would go through downtown at grade and be visible.
DART’s blue Line South
n
ABOVE: South of downtown Dallas the light rail follows old railroad right-of-way initiallyABOVE: Continuing south the line goes through a neighborhood where the street arrangement has been modified to give the line a private route. The Blue line has been in place since June 1996 yet vacant land and boarded up houses remain.ABOVE: South of Illinois Ave. DART’s Blue line goes into the median of Lancaster Rd. Kiest, VA Medical & Ledbetter (end) station opened less than a year later on May 31, 1997ABOVE: One of several auto-centric strip shopping centers along the Blue lineABOVE: For miles I observed no indication the light rail line made any impact on development in the last 15-16 yearsABOVE: The stations for the Blue line are very removed from existing commercial and residential development.
Blue Line North
b
ABOVE: Unlike the Blue line southbound, other lines are often elevated along former rail lines. The result is disconnection from the suburban sprawl below.ABOVE: Many stations along the Blue line northbound are park-n-ride lotsABOVE: The current north end of the Blue line, downtown Garland TX, is starting to build more urban. Click image to view in Google Maps.
I’ve got hundreds more images from DART’s Blue & Red lines but you get the idea. Relatives and friends in Dallas said they don’t use the light rail because it’s too inconvenient to use, having to drive to the station and park. They’d just as soon drive to their destination.
Light rail, by design, is separated from its surroundings. It’s below grade, elevated above grade, squeezed in the middle of a busy roadway, etc.. But it’s not connected to the street grid in the way a streetcar or even a bus is. Thus, many have to drive to reach a station.
Both the streetcar and bus are right outside the door and both make frequent stops so you don’t have massive areas without service, like you do with light rail. That said, I can’t imagine taking a bus to the airport. Conversely, when I go to the Delmar Loop I take the #97 (Delmar) MetroBus because it’s far more convenient.
Back to the northside and southside MetroLink expansion. I’d support rail transit but only in streetcar or BRT form. Light rail costs more to build and as we’ve seen in St. Louis it hasn’t produced measurable development.
St. Louis was developed largely with help from streetcars, horse drawn initially. I expect, no I demand, development to be a result of investment in transit infrastructure.
As sorta a hobby I enjoy looking around East St. Louis. In July I was exploring the area to the west of the Emerson Park MetroLink station (aerial), I was shocked to see how many manhole covers and sewer grates were missing. Here are some examples:
ABOVE: A tire is in the hole created by a missing manhole cover in East St. Louis.ABOVE: Sewer drain missing grate.ABOVE: Sewer grate and manhole cover missingABOVE: More missing sewer grates
The curbs, sidewalks, and yes sewers all look relatively new, perhaps redone in 2001 when the adjacent light rail station opened? If you remember the saga of rescuing Jessica McClure from a backyard well then you can understand how dangerous these are and why old tires are in some.
Last Tuesday State Rep Tishaura Jones won the democratic nomination for the county office of treasurer. On November 6th she’ll face Republican Timothy Bachmann and Green Anthony Stevens in the general election. Given the St. Louis political landscape Jones will easily be elected.
ABOVE: Entrance to the Treasurer’s office in city hall
During the primary campaign Jones differed from her three opponents on the issue of parking falling within the responsibility of the treasurer’s office:
No major city in the US has a “Parking Czar” that controls the building of city garages and where parking meters are placed. The primary function of the Treasurer’s office should be to collect, manage, and invest the city’s funds…period. If elected, I will work with other city elected officials and the Missouri Legislature to transfer this function to the appropriate department and concentrate on increasing the return on investment of the $1.5 billion currently under management. (tishaura4treasurer.com)
Is this why Jones defeated her three opponents? Would moving the responsibility for parking to another part of city government just shift problems? Would development deals be easier or harder? Will city & neighborhood leaders better be able to plan the parking component?
The poll this week asks for your take. Vote in the right sidebar.
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historic architecture of St. Louis, Missouri – mourning the losses, celebrating the survivors.
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a guide to geospatial data about the City of St. Louis
