This Saturday: what should Richmond look like?
It’s not enough to put a rail line in the right street; it has to be done right, too. That involves a lot of “little” decisions that add up to a big deal: station designs, crosswalk locations, left turn lanes, sidewalk widths, street trees. If you do that right, you end up with a street that works well for drivers, transit riders, pedestrians, bicyclists, businesses, and residents:
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If you don’t, you have to live with the results for a long time:
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That’s the idea behind the Richmond Avenue Workshop, organized by Richmondrail.org and co-sponsored by Neartown Association, Museum District Business Alliance, The Menil Collection, The University of St. Thomas, Friends of Mandell Park, and the Gulf Coast Institute as well as CTC. It’s a chance for you to learn about those decisions, to learn which agencies are making those decisions (it’s not just METRO) and to learn how to have input in those decisions.
At the streetscape table David Crossley can tell you the difference between walking on a 3 foot sidewalk and a 5 foot sidewalk, at the traffic table Joe Webb will be able to explain how left turn lanes can work with the tracks, and at the trains and stations table I’ll explain why you might want a staggered side platform station instead of a split center platform station. Then, when you walk into the city’s University Line Urban Corridor Planning Workshop at the end of this month (pdf), or a METRO open house later this year, you’ll know what to ask, and what to ask for.
I hope to see you there.
- This Saturday, January 19, 2008, 10am to noon
- University of St. Thomas
- Crooker Building
- http://www.richmondrail.org/workshop/
