Making Bike Lanes Visible & Useful

When visiting Portland, OR you notice a lot of bicyclists.  Then you notice why.

The city of Portland has bike parking everywhere and many connecting bike lanes to help the cyclist navigate through the city.  Above, the green on the pavement is to mark the spot where motorists can get over for a right turn.  It alerts the motorist they are crossing a bike lane.  The cyclist is alerted to be on the lookout for right turning cars.

Look further into the picture, the bike lane continues on the other side of the intersection.  Yesterday I was driving home across the new Jefferson Ave viaduct. On the South end was a sign indicating the start of a bike lane.  Sure enough, at the end of the bridge a sign indicated the end of the bike lane.  So cyclists are on their own to get to the bridge and to keep going after they cross.  Brilliant.

Portland has cyclists not due to great weather but due to great thought into bicycling as transportation.  In St. Louis bike lanes are simply a way to rope off exceess pavement.

Walkable Retail in Suburban Locations, Part 2

Yesterday I blogged Seattle’s updated Northgate Mall.  Today we head East to University Village, long known as U-Village.

Like Northgate Mall, University Village dates to the 1950s.  Unlike Northgate Mall, U-Village has remained an open air shopping center since opening in 1956 (view aerial) .

This shopping center is just East of the University of Washington. Although it is very auto-friendly it is also pedestrian friendly.  Students & others have the choice of this center or a more traditional gridded area on the West side of campus at The Ave.

Most of the buildings are original but remodeled to the point they look different than they did decades ago.

Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza came to mind as I was here, although I prefer the grid and public streets at the Plaza.

Above, this area with storefronts facing each other has existed since opening.  Such spaces often became the basis for an enclosed mall.

New structures have been woven throughout, helping break up the parking.

Bike racks are numerous and highly visible.  Pedestrians were everywhere as are signs to remind motorists.

Nice details give folks a pleasant place to sit and chat.  U Village succeeds where Northgate Mall fails.

Outside my mecca, the Apple Store, a woman walks her dog.

More Information:

• Wikipedia
• Official website

Right now U Village is not mixed use but that may change:

City to review car impacts from U. Village QFC project

A project to add 31,000 square feet of new retail space and 350 residences around the University Village QFC grocery story would likely have a significant impact on traffic and parking in the area, Seattle planners have determined.

The city has called for an environmental impact statement, which would include a detailed examination of such issues and how they could be addressed. While planners have preliminarily identified traffic and parking as significant issues, they will host a March 16 to allow people to comment on which issues should be part of the review. (source)

Parking is not excessive by typical suburban standards.  Hopefully they will be able to add residential to the site.

Walkable Retail in Suburban Locations, Part 1

While in Seattle my hosts and I ventured away from their walkable Capital Hill neighborhood to a more suburban environment in the northern part of the city.  We drove past an urban-ish project that I reviewed in April 2005 featuring a 2-level Target store, others stores and structured parking:

But the above was not our destination.  Northgate Mall across the street was (map).  According to Wikipedia, Northgate first opened in 1950 and was enclosed in 1974.  Eclipsed by newer retail options the owner, Simon Malls, had a few choices.  Raze the mall and start over like the Galleria or West County Center have done.  Change the focus to more mundane uses like back office operations.  They chose to create a more walkable experience.

The indoor mall still exits but along the West face (I-5 side) they attached new structures that in many places would be individual buildings on parcels in the vast parking lot.

The bottom row above (B&N through P are newly attached structures. In the parking lot (below) bioswales absorb water runoff and offer greenery to soften the harshness of the plantings.

The new structures present a more friendly face to both traffic on I-5 as well as approaching customers.

The backside, shown above, is very original and dated.

To the South a parking garage was built.  In the background you can also see new multi-story housing.

Throughout the property walkability became a focus with new sidewalks along the roads at the edge of the property as well as leading into the property.  Would I want to live/work/shop here?  No way! But for those who do this is a huge step over what has been here for nearly 60 years.

South of the parking garage and West of the new residential is a major bus stop.  To the East a hospital.  The North is a Target store.  One could live in a apartmet here and work downtown and do it all without owming a car.  The bus would take you to/from work and you could walk everywhere once you got home.  Couples could easily go to a one car lifestyle to save money.  Again, any form of suburbia is not for me personally but fore those who don’t want to live right in the midst of the old core of regions this solution is a good one.  More dense use of the land provides housing for more without having to go to the edges of the region. Transit & retailers are supported by the new residents. The old mall was updated without filling a landfill. A large suburban area is now much more walkable.  Tomorrow we’ll look at a walkable development on the site of an old big box hardware store.

Another Anniversary

Regular readers know I suffered a major stroke on 2/1/08 and spent all of February, March and April 2008 in three hospitals recovering and receiving therapy.  A year ago today I transferred from hospital #2 to #3.  This was a big deal because except for a few times in therapy I had not been outdoors for very nearly two months.  My middle brother Randy drove up from Oklahoma City to drive me to Missouri Rehabilitation Center in Mt. Vernon, Missouri — a 4 hour trip made longer by flooding along the Meramec River.

Staff at St. Mary’s/SSM Rehab helped get me into his car for the trip.  It was scary because I couldn’t walk yet and we had no wheelchair with us for the journey.  I managed to get there without needing facilities.  It was Good Friday.

Once there I of course waited in the car as Randy went inside to tell them we had arrived.  The facility and grounds are quite attractive but the addmitting entrance (above) is less than appealing.

I spent five weeks there.  Turns out the director is named Steve Patterson.  I returned in August for a quick visit as I pased by on I-44 headng to Oklahoma. I was scared as I arrived and scared to leave and return home.  They taught me well so my recovery continues to progress.

A Smoke-Free Vacation

On Monday I returned from a 9-day trip to the states of Washington & Oregon.  Both are states with bans on smoking in public places. Most of the trip was spent in the City of Seattle.  Going out to eat was never a chore of having to wade through various lists of non-smoking restaurants as I do here.  Instead we could focus on the location, menu and price.

One day was spent visiting the small mountain town of Granite Falls, WA and the bay side town of Poulsbo, WA.  Granite Falls is not a tourist town.  It has only a few restaurants.  Without the smoking ban they few restaurants in town would have all had smoking.  This would leave persons with no choice but to endure the smoke if they wanted to eat out.  Poulsbo, on the other hand, does cater to the tourist crowd so some of its places might have been non-smoking without the ban.    As with Seattle, we could select our dining options based on factors other than smoking.

Saturday we drove to Portland for an overnight stay.  Our downtown hotel was across the street from numerous gay bars.  We visited three that night.  All were very busy.  Gay bars are notoriously smokey.  But these were smoke-free thanks to Oregon’s smoking ban.  We met up with friends for lunch on Sunday but our first choice had a long wait so we went to another restaurant.  If business was hurt by the smoking ban you couldn’t tell.

Having to seek out non-smoking places is a major hassle.  Not having to worry about finding non-smoking places truly was a vacation.  I’m established here in St. Louis but if I weren’t I’d consider relocating to a state that placed greater importance on the health of the public. I personally don’t care if someone wants to smoke cigarettes (or marijuana) in their home.  I just don’t want to be forced to inhale their smoke while in establishments serving the general public.