Today Is Rosa Parks Day

Today marks an important day in history:

Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere. (source)

I was born less than a dozen years later, my oldest brother was 5.  I can’t imagine  the kind of trouble I’d have gotten into trying to fight racial segregation.  Or would I have thought it was the way the world worked?

— Steve Patterson

More Thoughts on Bike Parking

Tuesday’s post was  about a bike locked to a lamp post while two empty bike were further from the building entry, see: Locate Bike Racks Near Building Entrances. Today is a similar post about trying to find a place to secure your bike.

Transportation cyclists are resourceful types for sure and the above is a perfect example. While this makes an interesting visual I’d much rather see our streets lined with bare-bones inverted-U bike racks located on the outer edge of the sidewalks, near the entrances to active spaces.

Unfortunately too often things like bike parking are on a green checklist and they get checked off as being covered even though functionally few cyclists will ever use the supplied racks, much less 22 at once, opting instead for a sign or lamp post near their destination.  This space should’ve been planted to catch water runoff.

— Steve Patterson

Rethinking Our Streets: The Value of Flexible Street Design with John Norquist

Tonight should be an interesting event:

The event will be held on Thursday, November 29, 2012 starting with a 6 PM reception followed by a 6:30 PM lecture and discussion. Event will be held at Steinberg Hall Auditorium at Washington University at Forsyth Blvd and N Skinker Blvd, St. Louis, MO. The nearest Metrolink Station is Skinker.

 Space is limited. Please click here to RSVP.

Streets can be our greatest asset for building and connecting community. On Thursday, November 29, 2012, John Norquist will discuss how flexible street design can build economic value and enhance quality of life. Norquist will talk about the value of designing streets for people and the implications in the case of I-70 and the proposed South County Connector. He will also discuss CNU and ITE’s Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares manual and how to apply sustainable transportation policies in St. Louis. (CNU)

Other mentions of the event said it wasn’t necessary to RSVP. This CNU event is locally supported by City to River and Trailnet.

I first heard John Norquist speak in 2006, he’d only recently completed four terms as the mayor of Milwaukee (1988-2004) at that point. I was fortunate enough to sit next to him on a bus trip to New Town that day. I heard him again later that year at the 2006 Rail-Volution conference in Chicago, there he argued with architect Jan Gehl about pedestrian malls in North America.

— Steve Patterson

Locate Bike Racks Near Building Entrances

Public bike racks, if existent at all,  often end up in the worst locations.

Maybe the engineers/designers of the streetscape thought someone would bike downtown to sit on a bench and face another bench? Several of these bike racks in adjacent blocks have been removed because their placement interfered with cafe seating and pedestrian flow.

Bike parking needs to be obvious as to use, visible to others, and near building entrances.

— Steve Patterson

ULI’s ‘Bold Idea’ At The Grand MetroLink Station

A week ago today the Urban Land Institute (ULI) presentation by their Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) regarding transit-oriented development (TOD) at the Grand MetroLink light rail station. The real estate experts from the ULI were asked by Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT) to consider short and long-term solutions.

The long-term section included three bold ideas that would evoke an “audible gasp”. First, look again at the Chouteau Greenway concept linking downtown to Forest Park. Second was a high speed rail station at Grand since plenty of room exists.

The final bold idea generated was to move from focusing on the station which sits below grade to building above the station – a platform development at street level. Some of the merits of this type of develoopment included:

• Place parking on first 2-3 stories, easily fitting below bridge
• Place commercial, retail and/or residential on top of parking, level with the bridge platform
• Embraces light rail and bus connectivity
• Builds connection between SLU campuses
• Enhances travel along Grand and encourages pedestrian use

Sounds familiar, oh yeah I proposed this in January 2006 when it was announced the old viaduct would be replaced: Grand Bridge Should Follow Columbus Ohio Example.

Here are a few points from nearly 7 years ago:

• In addition to building structured parking the area could have office and condo uses to compliment the street-level retail. The office space could include high-tech bio-med facilities as part of the CORTEX plan.
• This bridge turned retail street could serve as a needed campus hangout area for both SLU campuses. It could include a coffee house (or two) as well as a copy center like a Kinko’s.
• With plenty of structured parking, on-street parking, bus routes and MetroLink this could be a happening spot! With land on each side of the tracks and highway we’d be building not bridges but buildings that happen to have a floor that aligns with the bridge sidewalks.
• Before all the naysayers try to explain why we cannot be urban let me try to address a few points. The area has already been blighted and is going to be redeveloped. Building new buildings up to the existing bridge is feasible, perhaps more so than the plan to add width and medians to the current structure. Also, we can be urban and what better place to create an urban street than at a location with a MetroLink light rail stop and between two major university campuses.

If only the viaduct/bridge had been designed to facilitate development at the edges, simply by removing sections of railing. Still, as ULI’s experts how shown, it is still a viable bold idea worth considering.

— Steve Patterson