I often walk to my apartment from Noryangjin station.
It's an older station and plans are in the works for a major upgrade. KTX (Korean High Speed Rail) whooshes through the station, but doesn't stop. I'm talking about the line 1 station above ground, but there's also a line 9 station under the road. From the street, the station looks like this,
The exit is on an upper level, so it just connects to a pedestrian bridge and goes over to the other side. This isn't the only bridge on the street.
For whatever reason, small shops have been set up between the sidewalk and the road, and the road is mostly crossed by bridge instead of crosswalks. There's very little relationship between the people and the road, so it feels like an uncrossable barrier. The only place that this is not the case is where there's a bus stop in the median.
The bridges are cramped, unneccesary, and visually unappealing. The crosswalks are very friendly and simple by comparison. The buses really bring the road together. They ply their own designated lanes along the center.
While the buses heal this street, it should be noted that they are better suited for the boulevard at Noryangjin than the highway to the north.
The biggest problem with living where I do is that I can't get to the riverfront easily despite it's proximity. There's no way to cross the highways from Noryangjin station.
Of the two bridges here, the one on the right is for trains and the one on the left is for cars, buses, and bicycles. There's a small access ramp by the bridge on the left by which I can get to the Han River Park and on to the multi-million-dollar riverfront development practically at my doorstep. It's very far from a direct path, but given a half-hour I can do it.
The bridge on the left is also more important to me as a non-driver because it's the bridge used by all the buses. The subway can only take me along it's route. From one of those bus stops along the medians of the boulevard, I can take dozens of buses.
I love these bus shelters so much I'd like to take them home with me to St. Louis, Missouri.
In the 'Moving Transit Forward' long range vision for Metro, St. Louis will be getting Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors on the interstates, including I-70.
If the system is done intellegently, all the bus lines will probably meet up in front of the Old Court House and at the Arch-Laclede's Landing MetroLink Station. Making a good transfer from the bus to the train and vice versa is critically important.
The sidewalks along Eads Bridge by the MetroLink station are identified in blue. This is not a place for humans to transfer to a bus. A lot of money would be needed for extra bus ramps, maybe elevators, and other silly additions that we can't afford to add to an interstate that's falling apart anyway.
The whole intersection is messed up. The Washington Avenue loft district can't continue to the Landing or the arch grounds the way it should.
The elevated section needs to be scraped and the intersection rebuilt as a walkable area with real BRT stops (not stations). Look what the group City to River has proposed.
They want to get rid of the interstate and convert the intersection into a walkable urban boulevard with crosswalks.
What nobody seems to be talking about is how easily this boulevard would bring together the proposed BRT routes.
Just a slight modification of City to River's proposal sees bus stops fitting easily into the Washington and Memorial intersection.
In a previous post, I put a Korean Caffe Pascucci from Busan into a City to River rendering.
The Caffe Pascucci at Noryangjin station isn't bad either if the bridge, kiosks, and fencing can be removed from the cluttered sidewalk in front of it. Placed virtually anywhere along Memorial Drive, the rooftop seating area would offer a fantastic view of the arch.
0 comments:
Post a Comment