A Look at MetroLink’s Shiloh-Scott Station

This past Sunday I took my time driving back to St. Louis from my bike ride in Illinois. When I drove by the newest MetroLInk station at Shiloh-Scott I pulled in to check it out. When the Eastern leg of MetroLink was extended a few years back the final stop was Belleville Area College.

More recently the line was extended to Shiloh IL and serving Scott Air Force Base. Military and their family at SAFB can now take MetroLink all the way to the airport. A large park-n-ride lot allows area residents to do the same and to make it to downtown St. Louis for work or pleasure. The plan is to extend the line to the underused MidAmerica Airport.

The station is similar to others in Illinois. It is attractive, inviting and highly functional. Particular attention was paid to helping customers with the use of audio reminders about upcoming trains and other little touches. All in all I’m quite pleased.

I’m not a fan of parking lots but as they go this was done well. The pedestrian was given consideration and provided with a clear path to the station.

The MetroLink list of stations indicates they have 645 park-n-ride spaces, 25 long term spaces and an additional 421 park-n-ride spaces on the SAFB side. That is a lot of people and on Sunday afternoon more cars were there than I expected. Great, people are using the system.

Despite being a rural area even bicyclists use the station as this mountain bike confirms. As an aside, a “mountain” bike is a humorous term in Illinois.

Anyway, I couldn’t believe that a bike was locked to a sign post out in the parking lot. Immediately I began to wonder if all this was done and no bike rack was included?

Yes folks, yet another post on bike racks. I think I’m going to call this “Bike Rack Week on Urban Review – St. Louis.”

Walking up to the station I began to understand why the bike was locked to a sign rather than the provided bike rack. To most people this looks fine, right? A nice big bike rack. You are thinking, how can Steve possibly complain about this situation?

Unlike Washington Avenue, this is actually the right rack for the job. These are quite efficient as this model is designed to hold up to seven bikes. Yes, seven!

The idea behind this design is that you get one bike on each end and then you alternate bikes from each side. Refer to this diagram from a rack supplier if you need a visual.

The specifications in the diagram call for 3 feet on each side of rack just for the bikes. Plus you need room to maneuver the bikes into place. This rack was installed way too close to the fence to fully utilize one side. Even putting the bike through the rack from the open side your front tire will likely hit the fence before you get it in far enough to secure the wheel and frame.

In reality, this is a single bike rack because the best way to secure a wheel and frame to this rack is to place the bike parallel to the rack. If you are going to spend the money to buy a 7-bike rack please install the right way.

Maybe they didn’t have enough space you ask?

Actually, they had more than enough room. The design, contractor and/or owner (Metro) didn’t understand the proper placement of the rack. If this is a surface-mount rack that is bolted in place it can be moved. If it is set in the concrete, it is here to stay. They could cut off the rack and toss it in the recycling bin and then install a surface mount rack in the open space.

This is just one station. I haven’t checked out the others to see what issues they have. I’m going to send few emails to some people at Metro and Citizens for Modern Transit in the hopes such mistakes can be avoided in the new stations currently under construction for the Cross-County extension.

– Steve

New Civil Courts Plazas Lack Bike Racks

After a number of years the new plazas and landscaping on the East and West entrances to the Civil Courts building are finally done. The material choices are nice as are the plantings. Numerous benches are provided for waiting jurors. But one thing is missing…

Bike racks.

How can we expect property owners to make provisions for bicycle parking when the city doesn’t do so on its own projects?

In the city’s new 2005-2009 Consolidated Plan Strategy the city makes very little mention of bicycling.

Looking at the Transportation (5.7mb PDF) section of Chapter 7 (Public Services, Facilities and Infrastructure) I found a small mention in the list of transportation recommendations:

That’s it? Eleven pages on transportation for the entire city and all bicycling gets is a pie in the sky dream of a downtown bike facility? Chicago was able to make their facility work because they’ve spent a number of years nurturing & building the bicycle community. They’ve installed thousands of bike racks throughout the city. The Chicago Department of Transportation has a special website called Chicago Bikes where they communicate all things cycling in Chicago. Through the site citizens can request a rack anywhere in the city. Chicago installs over 750 racks per year. I doubt we have a total of 75 public bike racks in the City of St. Louis.

Yes, a downtown bicycle facility with covered parking and shower facilities would be welcomed. I just think it is a down the road idea. We’ve got several basic steps before such a facility should be considered. Installing a few racks in front of the Civil Courts building would be a good start.

– Steve

For St. Louis, Great Expectations but a Slow-Rolling Renaissance

Recently the New York Times ran a story called, “For St. Louis, Great Expectations but a Slow-Rolling Renaissance.” Naturally, I have some opinions.

The same can be said for many US cities both bigger and smaller. At least we have sidewalks to roll up or wash – most newer suburbs are not even remotely walkable anytime of the day.

I’ve seen Kelly’s Deli a number of times when I am downtown but they are never open when I am there. Their hours are 7am to 2pm Monday through Friday according to Sauce Magazine. But Sauce also says Kelly’s is located on the Landing but at 1104 Locust it is a good 10-12 blocks from the Landing.

Suggestion Mr. Kelly, try being open more than 35 hours per week. Try being open on the first Friday of the month when hundreds of people are walking the sidewalks going from gallery to store. UMA around the corner from you in the same building gets many visitors on these Friday nights. Please don’t blame St. Louis because the week day morning and lunch crowd isn’t enough to cover your overhead.

Trickier terrain of sexual orientation? This should be good…

St. Louis does suffer from many negative perceptions which, in my view, are largely outdated or just false. I’ve lived in North St. Louis and never been shot or even shot at. With very few exceptions, I’ve parked on the street for nearly 15 years and my car has never been stolen. Granted, a few of my cars I would have had to pay someone to take.

Gays & Lesbians are an important part of revitalizing St. Louis and similar cites. A good source for information on this is Richard Florida’s Creative Class.

I am so over seeing these numbers. Out of context they mean very little. In 1950 St. Louis had substantial overcrowding. Basements and attics were poorly converted to living spaces to accommodate all the people. We either had to build up or out. Unfortunately, we chose to build out into the beautiful rolling hills of St. Louis County. Along the way we razed much of our area for highways, “open space”, housing projects and wider streets. All this past urban renewal forced out a good many of these people. With all the land devoted to highways, ever larger hospital complexes and universities we’d have to build much higher today than we would have in 1950. We don’t need 850,000 people again to be a rich, vibrant city. I’m targeting 700,000 eventually with a 500,000 in the next 20 years.

– Steve

Bike Racks: On MetroBus, Lack of in Places and Wrong Type in Others

I can only recall taking a city bus once in my lifetime, a few years ago to get to MetroLink to get me to the airport for a flight out of St. Louis. Thirty-eight years and I’ve ridden a bus once. Sad really when you think about it.

So today I did something really big. Not only did I take the bus downtown but I took my bike along for the ride. I made use of the fold-down bike racks on the front the bus to quickly get me from South St. Louis to downtown. From 4th & Washington, where I got off the bus, I was able to bike around downtown and to my meeting at the St. Louis AIA office. [UPDATE 4/19 9:20am – The bike rack on the front of the bus was very easy to use! I highly recommend to others to give it a try.]

Before the meeting I stopped at 10th Street Italian to have dinner. Great food, low prices and alfresco dining are a winning combination. As no bike racks are provided on 10th Street I had to secure my bike to a parking meter.

Locking to a meter is not idea. First, it creates a obstacle for those trying to add money to their meter. Second, it simply is not a secure as a bike rack or even a street sign. My bike weighs a whopping 50lbs so it would take a strong and determined person to lift it over the meter to steal it.

At left is my bike secured to one of the new stylish bike racks located on Washington Avenue East of Tucker. The placement of the smaller ring on the rack made it very easy to secure both my frame & front wheel to the rack – a very good thing. However, the design of the rack and its placement on the sidewalk put my front wheel in the path of pedestrians.

I’m sorry, this is bad planning. I can see what they did. Someone decided they wanted concrete to indicate where people should walk and then they have a section for decorative brick for the other stuff like street trees (good) and benches (not used). The bike rack placement is seemingly based solely on the fact they need to bolt to the concrete. This is not how a very functional item should be located.

The basic inverted U rack on Washington Avenue West of Tucker is the type I’d like to see all over St. Louis. This holds two bikes, like these, but it turns the bikes to be parallel with the street and sidewalk. This keeps the pedestrian path clear.

In the above picture I was locked to the ring away from the bench. Upon returning to the AIA office later I switched to the other position on the rack – nearest the park bench. Since the bench and other rack position was empty is wasn’t a big deal to get my bike in and out of this position. However, had another bike been locked to the rack it would have been a challenge to get my bike into place and secured to the rack.

I’ve got a theory about the placement of the bike racks so close to the back of the benches. Since they had to place the racks in the concrete walkway it was thought they should be near the benches so someone doesn’t accidently run into them.

This rack also places both bikes in the same direction. This is also a problem as handlebars often conflict if bikes go in the same direction. Using racks that allow the bikes to alternate direction are much better in sidewalk situations.

In summary, decorative brick where it is hard to secure a bike rack led to the wrong rack in the wrong place. The bike racks are close to the benches so they are not a trip hazard but if the rack gets used the front wheel becomes a hazard to pedestrians. We just finished this project so we will likely have to live with it for sometime.

The worst part is this was “professionally” planned. Someone made the decisions that let to a less than ideal situation. This is a case where I think the ideal, or at least closer to it, could have easily been achieved within the given time and budget. Aesthetic decisions were made over functional considerations. This was done either by choice or lack of understanding about the implications.

When we spend our tax dollars and build brand new projects we should be getting better design – not just pretty patterns in the paving.

– Steve

10th Anniversary of Oklahoma City Bombing

Tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. This home-grown tragedy has been understandably overshadowed by the horrific events of September 11, 2001. As massive as 9/11 was it doesn’t change the personal feelings about the Oklahoma City bombing. I haven’t lived in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years but when such an event happens in your hometown it sticks with you. On April 19, 1995 I had only been living in St. Louis for about four and a half years.

I remember that day well. A co-worker said he heard about a bombing in Oklahoma City and we quickly found a TV. Nobody knew what had happened, people were missing and rescue operations were just starting. National broadcasters were commenting on the face of the building being missing but I knew instantly looking at the images that a good chunk of the tower was missing.

While I don’t recall ever being in the building I driven down the street where Tim McVeigh parked the truck many times. I had been on the plaza on the South side of the building a number of times. I must admit I was never a fan of the building and plaza. Even the worst building doesn’t deserve such a fate. More important than the building were the 168 killed and the thousands more impacted by the bombing.

My uncle was getting ready to leave his house for a court case across the street. My cousin, his legal secretary, was home sick that day. Had she been well she would have been in the immediate area at the time. My parents knew a woman that had been their bank teller, she had just started her new job at the credit union. She was one of the 168 that perished.

My parents live about 5 miles away from the site but my mom says the house shook. She thought something exploded in their garage. Visiting the area a couple of months later I began to see the full impact. By the time I arrived the remains of the tower had been imploded. Driving into town it was weird seeing the whole in the skyline where the building once stood. The entire area was devastated.

In an instant what was once an urban section of downtown Oklahoma City became as bad as an urban renewal project – clearing blocks of buildings. Some buildings were able to be saved but many others were razed. On the 5th anniversary the OKC National Memorial was dedicated. My first visit to the memorial was on Christmas Eve 2000.

As memorials go this is one is moving. I cry every time I see it. As regular readers know, I am not fond of closing streets. The calm reflecting pool shown above is where the street was located. The street that 10 years ago was anything but calm. That is a powerful statement.

In the background on the left is the old YMCA building. A great modern building that I have loved since I was a child.

Ten years ago the YMCA immediately became abandoned as it was severely damaged by the bombing. The above picture is also from 12/24/2000. They were trying to find ways to save the building but a few years ago it was razed for a parking lot. I didn’t know any of the people that lost their lives 10 years ago but I did know this building and the area.

I feel the loss of the people, the buildings, the area and our innocence.

– Steve