Joe Urban | Sam Newberg, Urbanist


We Need Transit and the Urbanism that Surrounds It

Dateline: 2:47 pm May 8, 2013 Filed under:

Kate Wolford’s Star Tribune commentary calling for more transit was spot on. Our peer cities (Denver, Portland, Charlotte, Salt Lake City, hell, even St. Louis!) are ahead of us in terms of built rail miles, lines and stations. We must do more than catch up to remain an attractive metro area for all. Rail miles, lines and stations are important, but equally if not more so is the fabric of the city once people step off the platform. That is where we must set ourselves apart, and that requires something much more robust than station area planning. All hands must be on deck to create a competitive transit system with excellent urbanism around it.

Ms. Wolford argues young people considering a move to a metropolitan area seek better connectivity and an urban lifestyle. Absolutely. Let’s pretend for a moment that we find the political will and funding to accelerate the build-out of our system; to get the “connectivity.” What about the “urban lifestyle” we seek? People aren’t moving here just for the train. The connectivity provided by new transit systems valuable, but we leave half the value on the table if we don’t create a truly walkable environment once riders step off the platform. We must not just connect dots on a map but weave a fine web of urbanism that everyone can share and enjoy.

What does that mean? Here’s an example: I just spent a few days with my family in the Eastern Market neighborhood in Washington D.C. From our rowhome, we could walk down leafy, wide sidewalks, across mostly narrow streets with boldly marked crosswalks (some of which were marked with signs reminding drivers it was a $250 fine for not stopping for a pedestrian), crosswalk signals with pedestrian-friendly countdowns, past storefronts with lots of windows and doors, not a single surface parking lot, narrow curb cuts where they existed,  It was easy to get not only to the Metro station but also throughout the entire neighborhood on foot. Sure, the Metro took us all over D.C., but we (my six- and two-year old) also were very comfortable in the city that lay outside the stations. Quite simply, it was walkable.

The Hiawatha Line continues to teach us lessons. Here we are approaching the ninth anniversary of service on the Hiawatha Line (Blue Line) and we’re just starting to address life beyond the platform. This year crosswalks on Hiawatha Avenue will be improved, a good first step, but ideally that occurs the day service begins. The private development market has certainly responded as expected, with plenty of residential and other development popping up near stations (and sometimes at the station itself), but ensuring a high-quality public realm has remained elusive. People stepping off the platform at Lake Street, for example, expect a better urban lifestyle, particularly a dozen years after approval of a plan by Peter Calthorpe. Moving forward, we must guarantee that when development happens the result will be to the high standards we should expect.

Granted, the federal funding process does not help. We have to do it all ourselves. We don’t even get trees. The City of St. Paul had to create a whole separate program for trees along the Central Corridor (Green Line). Who pays for these seemingly elemental things like trees, benches, enhanced sidewalks, crosswalks and better building facades? I think a large portion should come from property owners who benefit most from enhancements – those immediately adjacent to stations. In return, they can be allowed greater density to ensure profitability. Cities and the state should also ensure the right financing system is in place to pay for infrastructure and placemaking improvements even before private development occurs.

We are at an inflection point here in the Twin Cities. Not only must we build out transit system much faster, we must bring our urbanism “A-game” to the table.  Connecting the dots is half the solution. I encourage all stakeholders, including planners, residents, the FTA, traffic engineers, local and state elected officials and of course McKnight to come together and ensure that entire neighborhoods, not just train stations, are ready for people the day service begins. Only when we insist upon nothing but the best urbanism will we be able to provide that elusive “urban lifestyle” and literal value we need to be a successful and attractive metro area in the future.

2 Comments »

  1. Right on. I think one mistake often made is trying to build high quality transit where it is easy rather than where it is warranted. This means shifting our idea of transit to serve strong places rather than to attract development, and prioritizing quality incremental expansion rather than these megaprojects. If we did this, the urban alignments of Southwest and Bottineau would be quite different.

    Comment by Matt — May 8, 2013 @ 4:34 pm

  2. I will second the notion: Right on. I would argue that land-use is everything, transit comes well before the transit. We need a drastic shift in how we allow our places to be built. Our streets are too often roads. Our zoning prevents us from building things we use daily closer to each other. Our zoning also prevents us from improving our already relatively strong areas. Our property taxes discourage this development. Our parking minimums ensure a large portion of our land id dedicated to storing cars, which also helps ensure there are plenty of cars on the streets and not people (and when there are people, they are treated second class). Our building codes ensure our homes and businesses don’t interact with the street very well.

    We need to change these things, very soon. If we do these at the same time as we build out our transit network in existing strong areas (as Matt notes), we will have success. My personal take is we should stop focusing on building lines (LRT or BRT) to far-flung suburbs in EP, Lakeville, Woodbury, etc unless there is significant investment in better land-use there at the same time (not just a small 1/4 acre of TOD with a giant free parking structure closer to the transit stop). Let’s get some rapid deployment of aBRT routes within Minneapolis and St Paul and let LRT follow on the ones that are successful.

    Love the work you’re doing.

    Comment by Alex Cecchini — May 8, 2013 @ 7:35 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)