Public notice signs face drivers, not pedestrians

If you are not paying close attention you could miss required public notice signs.

The expectation must be that motorists driving by at 35mph are going to read the notices.  But even up close it is not easy.

With the curve of the sign on the poles I couldn’t see all the information at one point.  I didn’t spot these until after the fact.

We need a public notice system for the 21st century.  Where you register your address and then set your preferences to how far away you want to be notified: 100 feet, 1/4 mile , 3 miles, etc.  You’d be notified via email for anything within the set radius from your address. Perhaps it would be tied to your voter registration?  Such a system should be regional and cross the many jurisdictional boundaries.

In the above example the pedestrians on the sidewalk probably have more interest than the motorists driving by.  At least post the signs where both can see they exist.

– Steve Patterson

Seeing our downtown disconnect first hand

On Saturday I participated in the City to River walking tour from Busch Stadium to Laclede’s Landing.

Of course we could have walked North up Broadway and then used the Lumiere Link to go under the highway to reach Laclede’s Landing.  But we have this large urban park that is supposed to be an asset so including the Arch grounds on the route makes sense.

Some say Memorial Drive is the problem, not the depressed lanes of the highway. But it is the highway that makes Memorial Drive such a dead street. Get rid of the highway and we can begin the process of transforming the street.

Much of the problem is buildings adjacent to Memorial Drive present blank walls to the sidewalk. The Arch is the biggest attraction in town but the buildings on the edge don’t connect to the sidewalk!

Parked cars occupy what should be some of the best real estate. Of course tunneling the highway here would solve the problem in a few blocks.

But North of Washington Ave the highway is an overhead obstacle.  We are building a new highway in Illinois to replace the stretch of I-70.  Now is the time to place to eliminate the redundant lanes after the bridge opens in February 2014.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: What activity do you want to see added to the Gateway Mall?

Now that I have been appointed to serve on the Gateway Mall Advisory Board I’m thinking about the master plan and what details still need to be worked out.  One of those is activities in some of the blocks.  As a representative of the people I know to get a sense of what you think is needed somewhere along the linear park.

The question is:  What activity would you like to see added to the Gateway Mall? Pick only one:

• Tennis
• Ice skating
• Skateboard/BMX park
• Picnic/BBQ area
• Basketball
• Level field for kickball, etc
• Minature golf
• Farris Ferris wheel
• Dog park
• Unsure
• Other

I have some strong feelings about what will work better than others but I want to get your viewpoint before I share mine.   The poll is open until the morning of Sunday March 28, 2010.  I will share the results on Wednesday March 31, 2010.  Please vote in the poll on the right and share any thoughts you have below.

– Steve Patterson

Minimum width sidewalks are less than optimal

I recently stopped at 7-11 located at 17th & Pine to rent a movie from the RedBox.

As I was standing there a customer came out of the store and needed to get past me, he was using a motorized wheelchair similar to my own wheelchair and the sidewalk was at the minimum width so I had to move to the side so he could pass.  Not a big deal but I’m not the most mobile person in the world.  When you build walkways to the minimum standard you inconvenience pedestrians.

– Steve Patterson

Water is wet and readers prefer Google Maps

Online maps it is not the most riveting subject, but still interesting.  I too use Google Maps as my online mapping service.  It is not always accurate; Google never did figure our the 2 year closure of I-64 while other mapping services offered alternate routes.  I assumed most everyone used Google Maps but I didn’t realize to what extent:

• Google Maps 113 [76%]
• MapQuest 25 [17%]
• Other answer… 5 [3%]
• Yahoo Maps 4 [3%]
• MSN Maps 1 [1%]
• I don’t map directions online. 1 [1%]

Four other answers were Bing Maps and one was the iPhone map, which is Google-based.  I had to look up #2 MapQuest to see who owned it: AOL.  I was never on AOL so that would explain why I never got hooked on their maps.

Competition is a good thing so hopefully other map services will keep Google on their game.  During the week the poll was conducted Google Maps made a big new addition:

“Google Maps started life in 2005 offering directions for drivers, added transit routes in 2007, expanded to pedestrian navigation in 2008 — and now it covers bicycles, too.” [Washington Post]

This service will need improvement but I’m very pleased to see the addition.  Happy mapping!

– Steve Patterson