City Equipment Blocks Sidewalk Near SLU Campus

Yesterday, while driving home from the doctor, I spotted this equipment sitting on the sidewalk along Olive at Compton (map link):

In the background is a corner of the Saint Louis University campus.  Behind me, to the East, is several restaurants that cater to SLU students. Between the two is equipment used in monitoring traffic counts.  Someone had to make the decision it was OK to place this device on the sidewalk, in the way of pedestrians.  Able bodied students can walk around but the more our pedestrian spaces are compromised the less likely we are to walk from place to place.

- Steve Patterson

A Small Pedestrian Victory

Friday night last week I was out later than usual.  After getting a veggie hot dog from Sam at Hot City Franks at 13th & Washington I started to head home.  At 16th I ran into a friend who was walking home to 10th Street.  It was around 11:45pm so I decided to escort her home.

On 10th Street at St. Charles Street I spotted this Chevy in front of a fire hydrant. While that is upsetting I was more upset by this car on St. Charles Street:

This Dodge was parked in the crosswalk and blocking the ADA curb cut.  I’ve blogged about cars blocking this ramp before.  It was now midnight and I call the police non-emergency number.  They had bigger issues to deal with on a Friday night.  As I sit there I realize that drivers may not realize the crosswalk exists.  The curb is faded yellow and the crosswalk is unmarked.

So from this spot at 12:05am I email the above photo to a trio of city officials to get some resolution.  I sent it to David Newburger, Commissioner on the Disabled, Todd Waeltermann, Director of Streets and Phyllis Young, Alderman for this ward (7th).  Newburger & Waeltermann both replied Saturday morning with Young replying on Monday morning.

Last night, less than a week later I pass by the same intersection and I’m pleased to see my requested crosswalk stripes.  Around the corner is a “no parking here to corner” sign as well.  So kudos to David Newburger, Phyllis Young and especially Todd Waeltermann for getting my requested solution completed.

Now I need to get this trio onto the problem one block West at 11th Street:

At this intersection a block away the crosswalk has two issues.  1) like the other it is not marked and 2) the near curb lacks a curb cut, eliminating the East side of 11th as a viable route for me.

I think to get action it is always a good idea to report a problem to more than one person.  In this case the three all knew the other two were aware of the same problem.  Many would have placed a phone call to the Alderman during the week but I think by going directly to the persons involved in a solution but making the elected representative aware helped speed up the fix.  Had I placed a phone call to Phyllis Young we probably would have played phone tag a few times, it would have been hard to verbalize the issue and then she would have had to turn around and do the same with others.  So before you pick up the telephone to contact your Alderman about a problem try contacting the department and/or Citizens Service Bureau by email, preferably with a picture of the problem.  Copy the appropriate Alderman on the correspondence so they are aware of the issue and request for service but the responsibility for action falls to a city staff person.

- Steve Patterson

Downtown Pedestrian Signals Dangerously Inadequate

The sidewalks in downtown St. Louis are as busy as I’ve seen them since my arrival in August 1990.  The sidewalks are increasingly busy with downtown residents, workers and visitors going about their lives and going to long-time favorites like the Arch and to newer destinations like City Museum & Citygarden. As time passes I expect we will see this upward trend continue.

But downtown’s crosswalks are a mixed bag.  Some are quite good with countdown timers in addition to push to cross buttons:

But the bulk of the intersections lack these.  In fact, throughout the City of St. Louis our pedestrian crossings are sub-standard.  I’m just focusing on downtown for this post.

If the signals don’t work or the intersection has changed it is common to simply covered over the pedestrian signals  (above &  below):

In other cases the crossing lacks a pedestrian signal all together, below:

9th & Market

We do not need another tragedy like the one on March 21, 2002:

ST. LOUIS — A Washington state woman who was one of the country’s top experts on bicycle and pedestrian safety was killed yesterday morning when she was struck by a tour bus while crossing a downtown intersection here.

Susie Stephens, 36, of Winthrop, Wash., was struck shortly after 8:30 a.m.  (Source)

In addition to consistent and improved signals we need to reduce the distances to cross many streets.  Reducing the crosswalk width to just the through lanes will help considerably.

I timed the pedestrian signal crossing 14th Street along the North side of Washington Ave.   Took 21 seconds until the walk sign began to flash to not walk.  Total time allowed was 36 seconds.  Different story crossing the considerably wider Tucker Blvd (aka 12th, map link).  There the walk sign went to flashing don’t walk in less than 4 seconds and you have 30 seconds total to cross.  Wider street but less time.

Now that we have more pedestrians we’ve got to work harder to ensure the street crossings work for people using them.

- Steve Patterson

Emergency Exit & ADA Entrance Blocked at a Tulsa QuikTrip

Yesterday morning I stopped at a QuikTrip location in Tulsa to use their restroom and get a snack for the road.  I did not park in the disabled parking spot because it was further away from the entrance (but close to the wheelchair ramp).  From my car I could see a problem at the entrance:

The extra space next to the door was packed full of merchandise.  Once through that door the problem was clear:

T0 comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act you need 18″ clear to the handle side of a door you are pulling toward you and 12″ to the side of a door you are pushing away.  As I am realizing this is not just for those in wheelchairs but for all of us that have some physical challenges.  The store was designed fine but their placement of xtra stock has made the above entry non-compliant.

Heading back to the men’s room more stuff is stacked in the way.  A wheelchair would never pass through here and with a cane it is now too narrow.  It gets worse.  Around the wall to the left is an emergency exit:

And in front of the emergency exit is a power washer.

I didn’t buy anything nor did I say anything at the time – I was too angry.  A couple of hours later, at my brother’s house in Oklahoma City I look up the phone number for the QuikTrip at 15th & Denver in Tulsa.  I get a manager on the line and complain about the ADA access and the emergency exit.  He is not concerned.  I asked if it will still be cleared a week later when I pass through again.  He said, “probably not.”  I filed a complaint on the QuikTrip website.

Folks, the ADA guidelines exist for a reason.  Placing your crap in our way is very disrespectful.  Blocking emergency exits is criminal.

- Steve Patterson

Street Repaving Presents Accessibility Problem

In the short time span between the opening of Citygarden and the All-Star game the city repaved Chestnut street between Citygarden and AT&T.  Generally new paving is a good thing, except for those of us using wheelchairs.  Certainly during the time that old asphalt is removed and new installed streets can be difficult to cross.  But once the new asphalt is down it should be good, right?  Wrong.

The repaving changed the relationship with the ADA ramp at 10th & Chestnut.  As you can see in the above picture the footplate on my chair now hits the ramp on approach from the street.

Similarly, the footplate hits the asphalt when attempting to enter the crosswalk from the ramp.   I’m alerting the appropriate officials about this issue so the excess asphalt at the corner can be shaved off.

This is not the first time I’ve had to do so — it is a recurring problem.  It is hard to capture in a photo without a chair as I’ve done above but anyone with any sense should be able to see the problem.  The street paving crews must be reminded to pay attention as they are putting down new asphalt — now many other ramps out there have the same issues?  I can’t check each and every ramp in the entire city.

Thanks to my friend Marcia Behrendt for taking the above pictures.

- Steve Patterson

Accessing One Memorial Drive

The other day I had a meeting st the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the St. Louis regional MPO. The building houses a number of firms as well as KMOV Channel 4 and KMOX radio.  I’ve been here numerous times before — including one in my wheelchair.

As you approach the building entry, above, you see the revolving door and individual doors to each side.  Obviously a wheelchair is not going through the revolving door.  So two choices remain.  Many buildings have door openers that can be activated by button — a nice feature.

There is the button just below the black square.  Interestingly they didn’t put the opener on the door on the left with the level sidewalk.  They opted for the door with the angled sidewalk.  In my power wheelchair this is not a major problem but anyone in a manual chair would have issues.  When walking with a cane I often use the openers to help with doors but I wouldn’t even think of walking near that button.

So often designers making decisions don’t realize how bad their choices are.  This door was probably selected over the left door because it is closer to the elevators.  The person that made the decision on which of the two doors would get the auto opener had a 50/50 chance of getting it right… or getting it wrong.

- Steve Patterson

Delmar Crosswalk Missing ADA Ramps

Twice now in the last few weeks I’ve crossed Delmar at the crossing shown below:

Both times I drove to the Loop area in my car and parked in the disabled parking next to the Pageant.  Note to Secretary Salazar, I have a state permit to allow me to park there.

Both times crossing Delmar I had to deal with the curbs on each side of the street.  A person that requires a wheelchair would be completely out of luck.  Many people use wheelchairs.  I use mine downtown all the time.  I’ve taken MetroLink to the Loop in my chair too.  Some folks, say just after surgery, use a chair temporarily.  But while walking I still find the ramps very helpful.  Parents pushing baby strollers also find ramps helpful.

When the roadbed was narrowed and sidewalks widened a few years ago the idea of crossing the street was overlooked.

The distance between Rosedale Ave on the East and Skinker on the West is nearly 1,000 feet – roughly the distance of three blocks downtown – with no place to cross in between.  This distance needs two, not one, crosswalk with curb cuts.

- Steve Patterson

Welcome All-Star Fans

Visiting St. Louis for the 2009 All-Star Game?  Welcome to St. Louis.

Whether this is your first visit to our city or you’ve been here often I want to share a few things with you. We’ve been busy sprucing up downtown for weeks & months.  Actually we’ve been working on downtown for decades.  Efforts over the years have been a mixed bag — some positive and others destructive.

Next month marks my 19th year in St. Louis.  For me it is a love-hate relationship.  This city is worth fighting for so I stick around.

The most recent in the positive category is Citygarden between 8th & 10th on North Market St — a couple blocks North of Busch Stadium.

As you walk around downtown spending money (thank you) you will notice a couple of things.  First, not all intersections have pedestrian crossing signals.

Looking South along 9th at Market St.

Please be careful crossing streets — look at other signals to see who has the right of way.  In the above example if you are leaving Citygarden heading south on 9th you get no clue as to when it is safe to cross Market St. It would be nice to get some stimulus money to make sure we get pedestrian signals at all intersections.

Normally I’d also warn you about cabs on the sidewalk in front of our convention center but they have been displaced by vehicles related to the Fan Fest.

We have a long way to go but we’ve come a long way in the nearly two decades I’ve lived here.  So please enjoy your visit and spend money so we will have funds to address our shortcomings.

- Steve Patterson

The Use of the Drive-Thru Lane

Most of you reading this have been to a drive-thru.  Be it a bank, fast food establishment or for coffee.  For your visit you were likely in a motor vehicle.  Duh, right? But what if you don’t have a car or don’t drive?  The most obvious is as a pedestrian.  Other options might include a bicycle or motor scooter.  When I rode a motor scooter I was able to use the drive-thru if they knew I was there.  Bicyclists have, for years, complained they have been refused service at banks and at other drive-thru lanes.  What about mobility scooters?

A reader sent me a link to an interesting story:

A White Castle in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a 24-hour establishment, but it locks its dining room doors at 11 pm. Unfortunately, its drive-through service is restricted to customers in cars, so the employees refused to serve a 37-year-old woman who pulled up on an electric mobility scooter. Now she says she’s madder than fish grease, which is pretty mad, and she wants to sue them for discriminating against customers who can’t drive.

Fish grease? Anyway, if a business is open is it legal to refuse access to the disabled who are not in a car?  Or even the able-bodied not in a car?  Our society has become so auto-centric we don’t know how to relate to other humans not in a car.  We use their car to judge them — their income & social standing.  The lack of a car presumably puts them at the bottom.

As someone who drives a car as well as an electric wheelchair I can tell you I expect service regardless of which “vehicle” I’m using.  I hope the woman in the story forces White Castle and such places to examine their policies.

- Steve Patterson

McCormack Baron Salazar Gets ADA Curb Ramps All Wrong at Renaissance Place

The old Bluemeyer public housing project was a combination of high-rise and low-rise buildings, all fairly disconnected from each other and the adjacent public streets.

October 2006

The entire complex was razed( in a few phases) and the replacement project is nearing completion.  The map below shows the project area:

Everything inside the shaded area is new.  Everything from underground infrastructure to the buildings to the street grid, curbs sidewalks and curb ramps.  McCormack Baron Salazar had a clean slate to work with.  Here is how they summarize the project:

Renaissance Place at Grand | St. Louis, MO
402 units
Total Development Investment  $68,792,300

The Arthur Blumeyer public housing development, constructed in 1968, consisted of four high-rise and 42 low-rise buildings and housed 1,162 families, including 585 elderly. The development is located north of Grand Center, the mid-town arts district in Saint Louis.

The Federal Omnibus Consolidated Reconciliation Act of 1996 requires that viability assessments be performed for public housing projects of 300 or more units with vacancy rates of 10 percent or higher. This law requires units to be removed from the housing stock within five years if public housing costs exceed the cost of housing vouchers and if long-term viability of the subject property cannot be assured through reasonable revitalization plan. In 1999, Blumeyer’s two elderly high-rise buildings, 174 of the family townhouses and both of the family high rises were declared non-viable by HUD.

The St. Louis Housing Authority took the opportunity to collaborate with the larger community, and elected to pursue a strategy of transformation through HUD’s HOPE VI program. The application submission was successful and the Blumeyer public housing site was awarded $35,000,000 in HOPE VI grant funds.

Overall the new project is quite nice.

Above is one of the new street intersections, Franklin Ave & Josephine Baker Ave (map).  I’ve drawn lines to show the path at the intersection that an able-bodied person would walk — a straight line.  No surprise.  While walking with my cane I’d follow the same path as well — dealing with the curbs is preferable to the longer distance required to use the ramps.

But what if you use a wheelchair or mobility scooter?  Keep in mind that the 1st floor units are accessible.  The other day I saw two different residents using mobility scoters in the area.  So the disabled are expected in the immediate area.

Above is the same intersection with one path for wheelchair/scooter users shown in red.  Rather than being able to continue in a staright line the disabled must angle out and cross one street while being very close with traffic going parallel.

This intersection needed twice the number of ramps so that a straight path could be maintained.  Rather than a single ramp out at the corners each quadrant would have two ramps – one per direction of travel.  Keep in mind that the entire intersection is new.  We are not talking about the expense to retrofit the intersection with 8 vs 4 ramps.  The additional cost would have been minimal when this was done from scratch.

Same situation at another intersection

I just love the mis-match of ramps crossing Theresa parallel to Delmar.

In St. Louis and other cities retrofit ramps are often placed at the corners.  As cities were retrofitting ramps following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 they had limited budgets.  Doing four ramps per corner was faster and cheaper than eight.  Additionally, obstacles like sewer inlets prevent more ideal placement of ramps.  The corner ramp was a valid retrofit compromise.

But in new construction the corner ramps are unacceptable.  There is no excuse for the way the ramps were placed in the above project.  None.  I’d like to see a public flogging of the engineers that designed these streets, sidewalks and ramps.  Better yet, they should have to live here and use a wheelchair to get around!

It may be too late but the city should not accept these streets from the developer.  Someone’s Errors & Omissions insurance policy should pay to correct these ramps.