» Transit Lifestyle

In the last couple of weeks, we have highlighted John and the Falks: Riders who have shared their stories with us so that we can tell people what transit means to them and St. Louis.  Now meet Alison, a physics librarian at Washington University.  Alison commutes from her home in Chesterfield to the University’s Danforth Campus every day to work.  She owns a car, but started riding transit to save money, help the environment, and spend some quiet time reading.  What she did not anticipate was the strong sense of community among her fellow passengers.

Alison’s story is not unique – there is a sense of familiarity and togetherness among transit riders.  While walking in my neighborhood last weekend, one of the regular riders on the #73 Cardondelet yelled from across the street, “HEY METRO LADY!” with an enthusiastic wave hello. I know her from community meetings and riding the #73 together. It’s one of the things I personally love about riding transit.  Watch Alison’s story:

Metro Means Community – Wash U Employee Alison from St. Louis Metro Transit on Vimeo.

Did you know that Metro is carrying on a Bus Stop Enhancement program? Last year, 65 bus stops – mainly in St. Louis County – were upgraded to ADA compliance, thanks to a Freedom Grant  that Metro received from the FTA for this very purpose. This year, 115 additional stops have been flagged for upgrades.

Bus stops in St. Louis area that have already received ADA upgrades

Working list of bus stops to receive ADA-compliance upgrades in 2010

A little background: The Americans With Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990 to provide protection against discrimination for individuals with disabilities. Part of that mission includes ensuring that public facilities, like courthouses and bus stops, are accessible to all. It’s particularly important for transit to be accessible, because people who are dependent on transit due to disability absolutely must be able to access our facilities! Our old bus stops were “grandfathered in” but any new stops we build have to be ADA-compliant. What to do about those old stops, though? We want to upgrade these stops to make our system as accessible as possible, even though the law says we don’t have to. That’s where the Freedom Grant comes in – it supplies the funds necessary to bring the old stops into compliance and provide much-needed mobility to our transit-dependent customers. I recently sat down with Dave Sander in Metro’s Engineering Department and with Lance Peterson and Linda Baker in Metro’s Planning Department to discuss Metro’s Bus Stop Enhancement program. Here’s what I learned:

• Metro planners surveyed each one of our 9,100+ (at the time) bus stops to determine which were ADA-compliant and which were not.
• Metro planners developed criteria to help prioritize which stops needed help first; factors included: Number of customers using the stop, whether the stop was a transfer point (a place where you can get off one bus and catch another), whether ADA-compliance was technically possible at a stop, who the stop serves, the condition of adjacent sidewalks, and more.
• Metro partnered with Paraquad for input and reviewed customer complaints, along with the above criteria, to decide which stops would be addressed first.

Bad sidewalk at St. Louis Ave. & Newstead

“Enhancements” are different depending on the location of each stop, but include:

- creating the concrete “landing pad” for boarding the bus
- adding a concrete pad for a bench
- correcting the slope of adjacent sidewalks
- adding missing accessible curb ramps,

and even in some cases fixing sidewalks that were, as the planners put it, in “deplorable” condition – even if those sidewalks don’t technically belong to Metro. In some cases, fixing the sidewalks was the only way to get the slope down to ADA compliance. The planners then share that information with St. Louis County, the City, and the municipal streets departments to alert them when sidewalk conditions are bad. At the same time, Metro is using the information gained from this project to evaluate each bus route, stop by stop, to eliminate unnecessary stops and improve operating speeds and efficiency. And the planners are adding a unique stop number to each stop, so if customers have a question about schedules or routes, they can give their stop number to Customer Service when they call. The contractor is getting permits and, weather permitting, construction can start any time.

Do you have any bus stops to nominate for this program? If you do, let us know here at the blog and we’ll check with Planning to see whether your stop is on the list.

Hey St. Louis, guess what!  It’s winter!  (OK, maybe not yet technically, but according to my internal thermometer, it’s cold.) If you take transit, that means dealing with the elements.  Here are my tips to to best deal with the elements while using public transit:

1. Wear layers. I know, typical cold weather routine.  But layers help keep the wind out, body heat locked in, and can be shed if you get too warm once you are on the train or bus.

2. Gloves, hat, scarves. If you’ve ever waited on a train platform in the cold, I bet you can pick out the parts of your body that notice the wind and cold first: your head, hands, face.  Even if the weather seems fine when you first step out the door, it might not feel so warm after a 10-minute wait for the bus.  Warm people look cool.  Cold people look cold.

Good winter commuting gear.

Bad winter commuting gear.

3.  Have pass or fare ready. If there is a line of people waiting to board the bus, no one wants to have you digging in your backpack or purse.  And you don’t want to miss a train because you needed to purchase a pass.  Buy in tickets in bulk and validate before each trip, or use one of the day, week, or month passes.

4.  Eat just before your trip. After you eat, your body temperature rises. Take advantage of your internal metabolic space heater and fill up before you head out.  While please no eating or drinking in the vehicles, digestion is quite welcome.

Stocking up for the wintery transit rides ahead.

5.  Plan your trip ahead of time. Minimize your waiting time by planning out your trip ahead of time.  Use Google Transit or TripFinder from your computer.  Google Maps also has a public transit application for smartphone – use your phone’s GPS system to plot your transit trip from your exact location.

6.  Customer service. If you are out but don’t have a smartphone, you can call Customer Service at 314-231-2345 in MO or 618-271-2345 in IL from 7:30am – 4:30pm to find out schedule info.  Schedule it into your contacts.  We are currently working on getting a text-based service that will send schedule info to your phone via text, so any phone can receive schedule info. (BONUS: My colleague in Vancouver said they found just knowing when your bus will arrive cuts your perceived waiting time in half, even if real time waiting has not changed.)

7.  Pace. Think I’m joking?  No, this is one of my best tips for keeping warm while waiting for a train or bus.  Sounds unpleasant, but it’s not.  Walk back and forth, get into a smooth rhythm, spend some time thinking.  Keeps the chill off, and lets me unwind from a long day.

This guy knows what I'm talking about.

8.  Watch your step. Buses, trains, station platforms and parking areas can get icy, slushy from all the foot traffic.  Step carefully and deliberately to avoid slipping and wearing five pounds of wet slush on your coat.

9. Wear tights under skirts. Ladies: tights are not just for American Apparel models and the female cast of Gossip Girl:

Excellent use of transit-savy legwear, ladies. (Photo via seattlepi.com)

Tights keep the wind out and warm in.  They make it easier to combine skirted business casual wear with transit use.

10.  Take advantage of the MetroLink station heaters. Station heaters are at Forest Park-DeBaliviere and all Illinois MetroLink stations.  You have to turn them on yourself (buttons located in the center of the station), and they run on timers.  Thanks to a grant, we will be installing heaters in approximately six of the most popularly-used MO MetroLink stations this winter.  Trust me, they are a godsend on a blustery winter’s night.

Stay warm, transit riders.  I’ll be out there too, under the heaters, full stomach, with my leggings on.  If you have more ingenious tips for staying warm while using Metro, please let us know.

UPDATE: Metro Customer Services hours are from 7:30am – 4:30pm.

Transportation for America has released a report called “Dangerous by Design” that looks at pedestrian deaths vs. spending on pedestrian amenities and ranks cities across the U.S. Following the report’s release, T4A met with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who promises that “the DOT Safety Council is going to look at this report and work with advocacy groups to ensure our streets are as safe as possible.”

Before we see how St. Louis fared, what does T4A think is causing problems?

Over the last several decades, most of the business of daily life has shifted from Main Streets to state highways that have grown wider and wider over time…the pressure to move as many cars through these areas as quickly as possible has led transportation departments to squeeze in as many lanes as they can, while designing out sidewalks, crosswalks and crossing signals, on-street parking, and even street trees in order to remove impediments to speeding traffic.

As a result, more than half of fatal vehicle crashes occurred on these wide, high capacity and high-speed thoroughfares. Though dangerous, these arterials are all but unavoidable because they are the trunk lines carrying most local traffic and supporting nearly all the commercial activity essential to daily life.

(emphasis mine). Pedestrian safety is a transit issue as well – for many people the transit experience can become uncomfortable, inconvenient, and even dangerous if the pedestrian access in their area is not sufficient and safe. Details after the jump.

So how does St. Louis fare? Based on 72 pedestrian fatalities between 2007-2008, and a 1.7% percentage of workers walking to work, St. Louis is number 21 (just behind Kansas City) for pedestrian danger. Take a look at T4A’s Missouri Fact Sheet for more details (opens a .pdf file!).

The federal government is already working to improve pedestrian safety near transit stops: I found a proposed FTA rule change on Regulations.gov that would essentially enlarge the area around transit stations that would qualify for federal funding for bike- and pedestrian-related improvements (the “catchment” area). You can check it out on Regulations.gov and submit a comment either for or against the proposed change.

What’s your walking experience around the St. Louis region?

The last week was a very busy week in transit! Here at NextStop, we had a lively discussion about bike commuting and possible solutions to crowding bikes onto crowded trains, learned about two important safety measures Metro takes to protect our passengers – lightning arrestors and light rail door technology – and discussed Metro’s briefing of the St. Louis County Council.

Meanwhile, here’s some news and thoughts from elsewhere that you might have missed:

• LA Metro has started a new transit blog, The Source. Check it out.
• The Post-Dispatch has published an article about the plans for revising St. Louis Centre in a way that will benefit the surrounding neighborhood.
• The Urbanophile reported on 2009 RailVolution conference.
• The proposed Cincinnati streetcar has cleared one hurdle.
• The Oregonian ponders retractable speed bumps that reward law-abiding drivers.

Here are some interesting tidbits from around the internet to help you kick off your Halloween weekend.

• Metro President & CEO Bob Baer sat down with the Post-Dispatch’s “Along for the Ride” crew and discussed his recent decision to stay on permanently at Metro, as well as the agency’s fiscal future.
• Is it out with the hybrid, and in with the…nothing?
• The East-West Gateway Council of Governments has started a blog, Renewing the Region.
• Bike-share Vending Machines – a good idea/ Would it work here? Would you use them from time to time?
• MoDOT tv: Watch “The Life Cycle of a Highway“
• Enjoy some photos from last week’s Metrolink prom, here and here.

MetroLink Prom Queen, courtesy of Miss MetroLink

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Claire Nowak-Boyd, one of the organizers of the MetroLink Prom, to discuss the event with her. But first, the details:

Who: You, and all of your dancing, fun friends.

When: This Friday, October 23, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Meeting at the Forest Park MetroLink Station; traveling westbound to the Clayton Station on the 7:57 p.m. train, where the Prom King and Queen will be elected and dancing will occur; then traveling eastbound at 8:30 p.m. to Laclede’s Landing for an evening of dancing at the Morgan Street Brewery.

What you need: Cash for train fare (and Morgan Street), dancing shoes, formal wear from any decade, a sense of fun.

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Here are some interesting transit or St. Louis-related links from around the internet to help kick off your week.

• The bus painting last weekend at the Green Homes Festival went very well. Check out this report on Provacative Nation and Green Homes Festival’s Flickr feed for some great images from the event, including the one below – Mother Nature approves of the bus!
• According to the mid-year Housing Report (warning: opens .pdf file!), downtown St. Louis gained 400 new residents in the first half of 2009, despite the economic downturn; and occupancy rates were stabilized by the conversion of some loft units into apartments. (Thanks to Brian for the info.)
• Justine Petersen is hosting the Aspen Institute Scale Academy (warning: opens a Word document!) from Sept. 28 – October 2 here in St. Louis. Justine Petersen is a friend of Metro’s, and operates justBiz (a business resource and WiFi center) in the commercial building at the Emerson Park MetroLink station. (Look for a future post concerning their activities and the ways they are bringing economic opportunities to the St. Louis region – I’ve been meaning to get over there and talk to them for a while now.)
• STL Rising ponders questions of leadership and how to retain creative people.

Rainbow bus, courtesy of Green Homes Festival

As our readers are aware, Metro has been making many changes over the past two years under the leadership of our current President & CEO, Bob Baer. This blog has been one such change.

Now here comes a big change: Under Mr. Baer’s leadership and that of our new Chief of Planning and System Development, Jessica Mefford-Miller, and in cooperation with the region’s planning body, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, Metro is now working on the development of a long-range transit plan for the St. Louis metro region. The plan will consist of three parts:

• 5-year short-range plan;
• 10-year mid-range plan;
• And a 30-year long-range.

When completed, each stage of the plan will be prioritized and will detail funding levels not only to build but to operate  and maintain any enhancements and expansions to the current transit system. This planning process will be unlike anything that Metro has done before.  Over the past two months our market research team has been identifying an initial baseline “pulse” of what the region thinks about transit, the current transit system, and hopes for transit in the future. Now we’re moving into the community engagement phase of the plan development, and the crucial factor in this process is you. Read more about the planning process below the jump. (more…)

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Green Homes Festival is this Saturday, and don’t forget that, in addition to all the eco-friendly fun they have planned, you can drop by and help paint the bus! (Space is limited, but fun is a sure thing!)

In the meantime, check out this video that the Hoover Boys & Girls Club put up regarding their bus painting event a few weeks ago:

(Click here if you don’t see the video embedded in this post.)