Driving tips for urban motorists

As the St. Louis weather turns to rain, sleet & snow extra care should be taken by motorists to make sure you see bicyclists & pedestrias – as well as making sure they see you. I’ve got a few tips to share:

TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS
• Many newer cars have daytime running lights but these are often smaller or dim. Very few (Volvo) have rear lights on with the daytime running lights. Both are very important to make sure other see you
• In Illinois the law requires you to use your headlights (not just parking lights) when conditions require you to use your wipers. This is a good rule of thumb
• Remember, headlight usage is not just about letting you see at night – it is making sure others see you

Other tips
• Use your turn signals – let motorists, cyclists & pedestrians know your intentions. Signaling as your are making the turn is pointless – signal ahead of time
• Keep your distance at stop signs/signals. When you stop at an intersection defensive driving instructors tell you to keep a good distance from the car in front – you should be able to see the rear tires of the car in front of you. If not, you are too close. This is good in case the car in front stalls, is stuck in snow, someone rear ends you (giving you extra distance to you don’t hit the person in front of you), or for safety you need to change lanes/leave.
• Keep your distance on the road: remember that all-wheel drive & 4-wheel drive does not give you any better stopping ability. Tire condition & pressure are important. Wet/snowy brakes can lose their ability to work so make sure you keep that in mind.
• Consolidate trips & car-pool to reduce the numbers of vehicles on the road.

More tips from Click & Clack

St. Louis Regional Bicycling and Walking Transportation Plan

Below are a couple of notices for public meetings I thought might interest some of the readers:

Tuesday 11/30/04
The second public meeting for the St. Louis Regional Bicycling and
Walking Transportation Plan is scheduled for November 30, 2004. The
meeting will be held at the JC Penney Building, Room 222, on the
University of Missouri – St. Louis campus. The meeting will begin at
6:00 p.m. and end at 8:00 p.m. Topics for discussion will be an
interactive workshop related to the environments within which
bicycling and pedestrian improvements co-exist with other modes of
transportation, and an update on the progression of the plan to
gather community input about its development.
More Info

Tuesday 12/7/04
Great Rivers Greenway is working toward a greenway that would connect Webster, Maplewood and Brentwood. The next open house is Tuesday, Dec. 7 from 4:30-8 p.m. at Brentwood City Hall. Cyclists are encouraged to be there to learn more about their plan and offer their suggestions for making it a truly great place to ride. More info (PDF)

I attened the first Regional Bike & Ped plan last month – very informative. Now is your chance to have input into shaping St. Louis. Of course, Tuesday 11/30 is Dining Out for Life so be sure to have dinner at a participating restaurant before or after the meeting!

O’Fallon is trying to become more bicycle friendly.

“Aldermen last week approved a new off-street parking law that, among other things, requires builders to provide at least one four-space bicycle rack for every 15 required parking spaces.” – Post-Dispatch 11/22

This is really great news for cyclists and O’Fallon. Unfortunately, they are also requiring more “stacking” space for drive-thru restaurants but I’ll let that go for now since I’m being positive for Thanksgiving…

Read the full story

Urban Places in St. Louis I am Thankful for

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I thought I’d share the urban places in and around St. Louis that I am thankful for. These are in no particular order:

Crown Candy Kitchen
• City Life is great here as are the banana malts.
• Diversity is exemplified by the clientele
• An original element from a very urban neighborhood, Old North St. Louis

Downtown Loft District(s)/Washington Ave.
• It takes people to have city life and the lofts are brining them to downtown in droves
• Shops, restaurants and other signs of life are emerging daily
• It is hard to walk down the sidewalk without seeing someone I know
• Loft activity along Locust between Jefferson & Grand should also get grouped in here – bridging downtown with mid-town.

City Grocers
• Many stores have opened downtown recently but none as important as a grocer
• The store pulls you in from the sidewalk with its big windows and mezzanine level seating
• Provides necessary services to all these downtown residents

The West End
• Euclid between Lindell & Delmar is an awesome urban street
• Intersections at Maryland & McPherson helped motivate me to move to St. Louis in 1990
• Maryland Plaza will once again be a major shopping destination
• The Chase Park Plaza is a big asset, love the theatre.
• Kopperman’s deli & Coffee Kartel deserve special recognition

Soulard
• Who doesn’t love Mardi Gras?
• Clementine’s, oldest gay bar in St. Louis
• Soulard Market – great produce & people watching
• Soulard Coffee Garden – great food, patio and sidewalk seating
• McGurk’s Patio is one of the best in the city

Lafayette Square
• The park is stunning – what an urban park should be.
• Great commercial street along Park
• Excellent diversity of housing – apartments over stores, townhomes and large residences
• Benton Place is the ideal private street – perfect scale and decidedly urban
• Eleven-Eleven Mississippi – the restaurant & patio fit nicely with the lofts and neighborhood

Lemp Brewery complex
• I’ve never once been inside the complex but it is visually stunning
• You can feel the life of the brewery even when mostly empty.
• Like much of St. Louis, this will once again be a thriving area

Anheuser-Busch Brewery
• Not the beer or politics but the buildings and their relationship to the street
• Bicycling through the complex when the Christmas lights are up is a moving experience
• Shows industry need not be in an industrial “park”

City of St. Louis Park system
• Forest Park is the obvious choice – the definition of urban park
• Tower Grove Park is a lasting legacy from Henry Shaw
• Carondelet Park on the South side & O’Fallon Park on the North side were built to appease citizens that felt Forest Park only served those in the center.
• Fairgrounds Park at Natural Bridge & Grand is on the scale of Tower Grove Park
• Hyde Park was the site of a Civil War battle!
• Fountain Place – a small residential urban park/street just off Kingshighway
• And so many other great parks scattered throughout the neighborhoods

The Delmar Loop
• Once known as the U-City Loop, it is now stretching East into St. Louis
• The best urban street in the region – period.
• Diversity of everything – people, shops, experiences
• We need much more of this kind of exciting street life

Streetcar suburb downtowns
• Webster Groves is very charming and well used by area residents
• Kirkwood has a great feel and is a big draw for people to the area
• Ferguson is less lively than Webster or Kirkwood but the feeling is there.

Clayton-De Mun
• Tucked away between Skinker and Fontbonne Collge is this wonderful enclave
• Kaldi’s coffee is always a pleasant experience
• One of the best scaled examples of how to mix commercial in a residential area

A few restaurants that are urban at heart
• Tap Room – I love dining on their courtyard
• City Diner – I cannot eat there without running into folks I know
• Chimichanga’s on South Grand – the patio brings life to the area and is the place to be in warm weather

That felt good – to shake off the negative energy of past postings and view St. Louis from the positive. I’m sure you’ve got ideas for urban places you are thankful we have in St. Louis – use the comments section below to share. Happy Thanksgiving!

Placemakers of note

A friend sent me a link to the Project for Public Spaes website – specifically a section which gives background on twelve individuals that “have captured our imagination about the need to create great places in every community.” These include William H. Whyte, Jane Jacobs and James Howard Kunstler:

Project for Public Spaces: Placemakers Profiles