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Transportation

Metro to Make $400M Debt Payment, Expansion Arguments Set to Begin Again

Published on Thursday, 23 May 2013 10:20

Written by Alex Ihnen

Metro plans to make a lump sum payment of $400M to pay down its outstanding debt, according to KMOX. The remaining $100M debt will be refinanced. The payment is made possible by the April 2010 passage of Prop A in St. Louis County, which levied a 0.5% sales tax to support Metro. Its passage also meant that a 0.25% sales tax approved by City voters years prior finally went into effect. Prop A passage promised to put Metro on stable financial footing in a state that provides virtually no transit funding.

The agency found itself deep in debt following construction of the $676M Blue Line, which opened in 2006. Overall system service was drastically cut following the failure of St. Louis County voters to pass Prop M, a 0.5% transit sales tax. Prop A restored much of that service and Metro once again looked toward expansion. Then Metro initiated the Moving Transit Forward initiative to gather public feedback regarding future MetroLink and MetroBus service.

Delmar Road Diet is Key to Vibrant East Loop

Published on Monday, 18 March 2013 10:59

Written by Richard Bose

{Delmar in the East Loop envisioned with two traffic lanes and median streetcar}

The idea is being floated to give Delmar Blvd from Des Peres to DeBaliviere a diet. In order to maintain four lanes of traffic along with the trolley several stretches of street parking would be sacrificed. Reducing Delmar to two lanes like it is to the west would keep the street parking. As it is this part of Delmar most of the time has little traffic and motorists often drive too fast. Neither promotes the pedestrian experience that the community would like to extend from the west.

During rush hour westbound traffic backs up due to the reduction of lanes at Des Peres. With the already planned reduction of DeBaliviere fears are mounting. With population declines and good mass transit coverage how can this be? One only need look at a map to see why congestion increases quickly. So many streets have been closed or one-wayed that cars that otherwise wouldn’t be on the major streets must spend more time on them. This funneling overwhelms our bigger streets, and they cannot cope. Take a look at historicaerials.com to see how the street grid was complete back in 1958.

The St. Louis Streetcar and MetroLink: Compatibility Issues to Address Before Expansion

Published on Friday, 15 March 2013 11:01

Written by Herbie Markwort

Streetcars are on the minds of many in St. Louis. The Loop Trolley finally got through the University City city council and will soon begin construction. Meanwhile, the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis unveiled their own streetcar proposal. Matt Fernandez has provided a nice write-up on nextSTL. In summary, the Partnership has proposed a system composed of 2 lines spanning 7 miles: one going from the Gateway Mall at 7th St to the Central West End via Olive, Lindell, and Taylor and a second line going from Civic Center to Old North St. Louis via 14th St and North Florissant.

The proposed north-south streetcar line would duplicate portions of the Northside MetroLink line that was studied back in 2008. Given the general shorter range of streetcars, there has been some concern that the route duplication could impede the future expansion of MetroLink into north city and beyond. These concerns are not unfounded.

7-mile Streetcar Envisioned to Connect Old North, Downtown, Midtown and Central West End

Published on Tuesday, 26 February 2013 20:51

Written by Matt Fernandez

What started simply as an idea to increase connectivity of the Central Core of St. Louis has now culminated in the impending release of the first phase of a study for a seven mile streetcar line. In June of 2012, The partnership for Downtown St. Louis lined up private funding for a $200,000 streetcar study and issued a Request for Qualifications. Out of the responses to the RFQ, URS Corp was selected to carry out the feasibility study. The study was meant to take a broad look at the feasibility of a hypothetical streetcar line- determine the best location, make preliminary estimates of construction costs, estimate potential ridership, determine the ability to spur new development, and calculate the competitiveness of the proposal for Federal and local funding. All images here are from that feasibility study. The study and details of a public open house scheduled for March 7 can be found below.

Streetcars have become the next big thing in mass transportation for cities. Currently, cities such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and even Tucson, AZ are considering streetcar lines. Closer to home, Kansas City, MO has approved a two mile line, and is studying a second phase. There is much competition for Federal Funding, at both the Small Starts and New Starts level. URS and The Partnership appear to have developed a solid plan with overall numbers that look realistic, but are still competitive for funding. Let’s dig in and take a closer look at the St. Louis Streetcar Plan.

The Simple, Serious, Affordable Way to Address Parking in Downtown St. Louis

Published on Tuesday, 04 December 2012 07:50

Written by Alex Ihnen

No more parking studies or sustainability plans. No more BRT Band-Aids or streetcar fantasies. No more consultants paid to tell the city and select business owners what they want to hear. We know what needs to be done downtown, all that remains is to convince ourselves that we can change. We can reset the table downtown for a more vibrant future in three simple, affordable steps:

1) return all downtown streets to two-way
2) place on-street parking on all blocks 24/7
3) implement smart parking technology

Parking is a vexing problem for cities, right? St. Louisans love to drive, right? We simply won't go somewhere if there isn't easy parking, right? Maybe, maybe not. Many don't want this to be true, including myself. As a couple hundred people heard this past week at the John Norquist presentation on the value of flexible street design, congestion isn't just traffic, but also with money. Our most congested streets (not highways) are often our most prosperous (think Chicago's Michigan Avenue, Delmar in The Loop, the CWE's Euclid and Washington Avenue downtown).