A week ago Sunday I drove the Northbound detour as all traffic was routed onto surface streets as MoDOT closed I-70 downtown as they removed the Madison Ave overpass.
ABOVE: a closed I-70 as seen from St. Louis Ave
Traffic made its way up Broadway and back onto I-70 between Madison and St. Louis Ave. It was not fast but it kept moving.
ABOVE: I-70 where depressed lanes rise up above grade
I’m now more convinced than ever that after I-70 is moved to the new bridge that we can convert the existing highway lanes to a tree-lined boulevard. The grassroots group City to River has organized a walking tour downtown this coming Saturday, March 20th (first day of Spring). The tour begins at the Stan Musial statue on the West side of Busch Stadium, 3pm (City to River is hosting a walking tour of Memorial Drive). Arrive via the stadium MetroLink station, the tour concludes near the Eads Bridge MetroLink station.
My 2004 Toyota Corolla is not part of Toyota’s current sudden acceleration trouble, but any vehicle can get a stuck accelerator and if you drive a car you need to know how to safely stop your vehicle. Drivers of manual transmission vehicles it is ordinary to shift to neutral. But all too often this is the story we hear:
For 30 miles, [James] Sikes said, he swerved in and out of traffic, narrowly missing a big rig and trying desperately to slow the vehicle down, at one point reaching down with his hand to pull back on the gas pedal. The brakes were useless.
“I was laying on the brakes,” Sikes said, “but it wasn’t slowing down.”
The “nerve-wracking” experience, he said, ended when a CHP officer, responding to his 911 call, instructed him through a loudspeaker to apply his emergency brake in tandem with the brake pedal. Sikes pressed down, hard. “My bottom wasn’t even on the seat,” he said.
When the Prius, which had reached 90 mph, dropped to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a stop. There was nothing else he could have done to stop the car, Sikes said. [LA Times]
Except there was something else he could have done, reach over and shift the transmission to neutral.
The following video from Consumer Reports illustrates the issue:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoIIT0WJS4s
If you drive a vehicle, please be sure you know how to stop it safely.
On Tuesday April 6, 2010 voters in St. Louis County will vote on a measure to help fund transit operations in the region. Voters in the City of St. Louis approved a companion measure years ago and it will begin once the county approves their measure. Myself and others have changed our Facebook profile pictures to show us using public transit:
ABOVE: from Steve Patterson's Facebook profile; photo by Courtney Sloger
There are some rules about photography but they don’t prevent snapping a quick pic such as mine above:
Photography on the Metro system is permitted with the following limitations. Photographers and videographers who plan to take photos or video for commercial use, or who need to set up tripods, lighting or other equipment need prior approval. For approval call 314-982-1440 or e-mail SpeakerTourResearch@metrostlouis.org. Please be advised that security personnel may approach photographers and videographers to inquire about their purpose. Activities may be limited for security, safety or customer convenience. Photography of critical infrastructure including MetroLink tracks, bridges, and tunnels is not permitted.
So get out there on our transit and get a picture of yourself using the system so your friends in St. Louis County will realize that even if they personally don’t ride transit, they know folks who do.
The groundbreaking for the main span of the new bridge over the Mississippi River was canceled last week because federal officials were unable to get out of Washington D.C. to make the event. But the contracts are set and work is starting:
The New Mississippi River Bridge is part of a group of roadway improvement projects that will connect I-70 at the I-55/64/70 interchange in East St. Louis to I-70 near Cass Avenue in Missouri. The entire project will cost a total of $670 million and is being funded through a combination of federal and state funds. The New Mississippi River Bridge project is expected to be completed in 2014.
When complete, in just four years, I-70 traffic that is currently routed between the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (aka The Arch) and downtown St. Louis will now bypass the area to the North.
ABOVE: the "depressed lanes" between city and river
With I-70 traffic being rerouted we are given an rare opportunity to correct a past mistake. For decades the Arch grounds have been disconnected from the rest of the city. Many of us now share a common vision to make a better connection and support is quickly growing:
“Today’s editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch calls for big thinking in aligning solutions for transportation and the decades-old challenge of eliminating the barriers between Downtown and the Arch. The Post suggests that the new Mississippi River Bridge is the key: this major public works project is expected to carry a lot of I-70 traffic, potentially making it possible to eliminate the depressed freeway and create a boulevard that would connect Downtown to the Arch. More details about this radical idea are available at www.citytoriver.org.
Before the naysayers get going, thought I would share: this is similar big thinking to what they did in downtown Fort Worth ten years ago. An elevated six-lane freeway divided the southern end of their downtown, cutting the downtown in two, and contributing to blight for more than forty years. When a freeway expansion was proposed by TXDOT in the late 1990’s, downtown leaders rallied around an alternative solution to instead tear down the elevated decks, and build a grand boulevard designed to slow traffic and revitalize the southern end of their downtown. This big idea was very controversial, and it took tremendous political capital, funding and even legal action to accomplish — but it got done, when many said it would never happen. Since the freeway was re-routed and the new Lancaster Boulevard opened there, millions of dollars have been reinvested in adjacent mixed-use properties, and most recently a new $200M convention hotel opened within a block of where the old elevated freeway stood. Similar projects have been undertaken to remove or reroute freeways adversely affecting the downtown experience in cities like San Francisco and Milwaukee; the effects are transformational. Today’s editorial calls for creative solutions and inclusion of this idea of a boulevard as a viable solution in the National Park Service’s Gateway Arch International Design Competition currently underway…..sounds reasonable and worth exploring to me. – Maggie Campbell Partnership for Downtown St. Louis President & CEO March 1, 2010″
Can’t get a much better endorsement than that! Still not convinced? Read on….
Last year MoDOT finally improved the ability to cross over the depressed highway lanes:
ABOVE: revised crossing at Memorial Drive
But the ramps and crossings don’t make the experience anymore inviting.
ABOVE: Sidewalk next to the Old Cathedral
The experience of walking along Memorial Drive is anything but memorable, except that you may remember how drab it is.
ABOVE: view looking North along Memorial Drive
Can it get any worse than the above? Why yes, it can.
Just rotate to look to the West and there between the buildings is Busch Stadium. The distance as the crow flies is 960 feet, less than a quarter mile walk. Before and after the 81 home games per year fans should be walking up and down Memorial Drive and spending time on the Arch grounds. The nearest route from Busch to the Arch grounds is along Walnut. That requires a walk of 2,570 feet to reach this same spot. For the new accessible crossing at Market St you’d need to walk 3,250 feet. People will walk a quarter mile but not more than a half mile each way.
Hopefully you will support the effort to remove what never should have been built in the first place! Many predicted disaster when MoDOT shut down 8 miles of I-64 for two years but we survived. This can happen. This should happen!
With a competition (FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE: The City + The Arch + The River 2015 international design competition) currently underway now is the time to tell everyone you know about this idea. Ideally we’d spend the next four years planning the work while the new bridge is being constructed. When the new bridge opens to carry non-local I-70 traffic then work can begin on removing the old lanes as well as lots of private development on adjacent land.
The vacant building at 4005 Delmar is an imposing structure, dwarfing neighboring buildings.
Boarded storefronts at sidewalk level
But the design is nearly perfect. The aesthetics are certainly appealing but I’m talking about how it relates to the sidewalk. Built in 1928, the building has 100 one-bedroom apartments, three larger apartments plus the storefronts. It occupies a lot that is just 150ft wide by 145 ft deep.
I see a modern streetcar coming West along Olive out of downtown. Just past Compton the streetcar would veer right to stay on Olive. For decades the streetcar did just this. At Vandeventer I would make a right turn to the North and then a left to head West on Delmar. The streetcar would pass directly in front of this building on the way to the Loop area further West on Delmar.
The modern streetcar would make the renovation of this building a feasible proposition. I can’t think of anything else that could happen that would put this building back into use. The vacant land in both directions along my proposed route would get redeveloped with new construction.
For years I’ve pictured myself living in this building and taking a streetcar East to Midtown and Downtown or West to the CWE or Loop. The location is ideal. This building is the ideal height for much of the city. Our main corridors could be lined with similar 5-story buildings. Many get all excited about high-rise towers making a statement on the skyline. Not me, this is far more exciting than any tower.
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