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Crosswalk Leads Directly Into Curb & Light Standard, Missing Ramps

January 8, 2008 Accessibility, Downtown, Planning & Design, Transportation 11 Comments

Getting around the city is a challenge for those using mobility devices (wheelchairs, mobility scooters), pushing strollers or pulling luggage. Sure, everywhere you look you do see ramps. So what is the problem, you ask?

Well, ramp placement plays a role in their ultimate usability and sadly placement has been given little thought throughout the city. Of course, it is worse out in the suburbs where sidewalks are a luxury.

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Above is looking East across 18th Street at the signalized entry to Union Station (behind me) and across to another parking lot — I like how they managed to center the crosswalk lines with the curb on the other side — perfectly centered between two ramps! Pedestrians headed West from the new multi-modal center (Greyhound & Amtrak services) are directed up a new ramp which takes them out to the above intersection. Those heading South along 18th (toward Ameren/Lafayette Sq) must cross this crosswalk as the viaduct only has sidewalks on the West edge. Those coming and going from Union Station also cross this intersection.

Interesting, the ramp for the corner where I am standing aligns perfectly with the center of the painted stripes yet on the opposite side it runs into a curb and signal post. Brilliant!

When I took the above image a couple of weeks ago the signals here and at the new ramp just a few hundred feet to the South had been placed on yellow flash for 18th and red flash if you were leaving on of the parking lots. For pedestrians, this means no pedestrian signal to indicate when it is OK to attempt to cross the street.

And, as you might expect, the ramps on the other side are a mess of wrong slopes and cross angles. Controlling a wheelchair to keep from having the right ramp spill you out in the street would be a challenge. This situation should not be acceptable given that pedestrians from this new facility are headed this direction.

UPDATE 1/9/08 @ 9am – The new multi-modal center is expected to open in late April.

 

Currently there are "11 comments" on this Article:

  1. dude says:

    pics like that bring to life the cliche, a picture is worth a thousand words. Every time I feel like I do a half ass poorly done job that may be I should feel guilty taking a paycheck for, I can look at a pic like that I know my employer is getting a better deal then the city of St. Lous. Steve makes a great campaign for the A’s with D’s and at least some efforts usually are made to accomidate them but there’s limit to what you can do. Obvious comment I’ll admit but back when we got our 7 inches? of snow in December, after snow plows finsihed clearing driveways, what was left were sidewalks that were a little tricky for someone like me to negotiate . I’m athletic and nimble so I could get around the snow mounds but for someone with a bad knee or ankle or forbid a wheel chair would have been SOL. I guess the point is you can try to accomidate everyone all the time but that’s not very likely.

     
  2. Brady Dorman says:

    You start to wonder if the city workers who actually paint these crossing stripes even realize what they are doing. It’s unfortunate that these flaws in our cities continue to exist and mistakes being made when they would be the most simplest to fix.

     
  3. scooter says:

    Do you think the location of paint is going to prevent from steering my scooter to the ramp? Scooters can go anywhere a bike or car can go. I cross streets without crosswalks too you know.

    [SLP — Depends upon the type of mobility device.  Some need a more direct alignment with the ramp to keep all the wheels on the pavement.  The wrong angle can also tip the occupant.  Furthermore, the stop line for Northbound 18th is terribly close to the ramp on the right — a situation just waiting for  an “accident” where someone gets seriously hurt.  Those of us that can simply walk across the street often show complete disregard for those that do not have that luxury.]

     
  4. Jim Zavist says:

    Classic “it’s not my job” (non) thinking. Probably the stripes were there first, before the ramps were added (and it would take more work to move them than to just repaint them). Still, the good news is that we do have sidewalks and ramps are being added. As you point out, many suburban areas have neither.
    .
    BTW, Denver ran into a situation where they were adding curb ramps to their parkways, where there were no sidewalks, just ramps up to the grass . . .

     
  5. Jason says:

    Hey- those curb ramps to grass are really nice when you are pulling a bike trailer.

    Jason

     
  6. john says:

    Not good but at least a pedestrian can still get across the street. If MoDOT or Metro controlled the intersection, a barrier preventing all foot traffic would be constructed.

     
  7. GMichaud says:

    Maybe they are figuring all wheelchair users are training for the wheelchair olympics. You know the jump the curb event. You get degree of difficulty points if you miss the light pole.

     
  8. Ed Reggi says:

    Steve, I should take a picture of the entrance to highway 55 off Lafayette Ave directly off Truman Parkway to report the problem. Every time if I am stopped at the light turning left to get onto 55; and if there is a few cars ahead of me who are totally lost (or new to the area) they always turn a harder left directly onto the EXIT RAMP of 55 not what they think is the entrance. I have literally honked my horn, screamed out my window to indicate to them that they are NOT ENTERING 55 but actually going the wrong way. I don’t understand exactly why this entrance is confusing, but it has to do with the arrows; dashed lines and/or poorly designed entrance. Thanks for the crosswalk blog picture – it was so right on!

     
  9. St. Louis is so hoosier I can’t stop laughing in disgust.

     
  10. Dennis says:

    Hey Brady, NO, the city workers DON’T know what they are doing. They just get a work order of some kind I guess and just go through a series of motions and the end result is what we see in the picture. I think the real problem is like so many companies, oraganazations, or whatever, in this case, the city, is that it’s top heavy at the upper management level. So nobody is held accountable for screw-ups like this. They just pass the blame around from one dept. to another.

     
  11. stannate says:

    Side note inspired by Ed Reggi:
    .
    The on-ramp to I-64 West off of Broadway has a sidewalk crossing in front of it, which is heavily used during Cardinals games. There is a ramp cutout on either side of the on-ramp, but this intersection of sidewalk and interstate ramp is a (drunken) accident waiting to happen.

     

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