Category / Transit/Transportation

by Leo Suarez

Parking Decks and The Warehouse District

Citrix parking deck under construction

At the corner of Morgan and West Streets, the parking deck for the new Citrix offices has been rising for the past few months. The warehouse renovation into offices next door has pretty much taken shape, creating four floors for downtown’s newest, major tenant.

Any old parking deck that’s being built is usually not an interesting thing to most but this specific one has something here. It may be the elevation or the relative buildings around it but this deck just seems ominous and big.

There’s a small story here and I’m putting the pieces together each time I walk by the Citrix site. What happens when the next Citrix comes into town? Will more of these decks continue to be built?

If you look deeper behind this parking deck, you may get a glimpse into the future path that the warehouse district is on.

The Upcoming Citrix

Let’s start off by taking the focus off Citrix itself. In an interview with the N&O, Jesse Lipson, starter of ShareFile, now owned by Citrix, tells reporter Bruce Siceloff that they will have about 500 employees when they move into the building in 2014. What is not mentioned is that the parking deck will be built for about 400 cars, something you need to dive into the planning commission meetings to find out.

Citrix should be applauded for providing less car parking than employees. Their company culture encourages alternative transit and the downtown office should bump up the number of those types of commuters. They are also a web-based company and teleworking is a common practice. They are at or near the minimum number of spaces needed according to city code.

Less is More

While this behavior for our downtown sounds good, it could have been even better.

After the start of construction of its downtown site around January 2013, Citrix wanted to expand even more and made plans for an additional floor in the office component. This lead to a conversation during a certain May 28, 2013 planning commission meeting when Citrix applied for approval of that same expansion.

Citrix developers were applying for a 40,000 square foot expansion of office space, what was referred to as ‘Phase 2.’ In addition to approval, they also wanted an exemption to having to raise the number of new parking spaces that would have to go along with the new office space. More office space equals more needed parking, according to zoning.

Before the addition, Citrix was providing 341 spaces where city code required them to be at 325. With the office expansion, code would require them to raise that number to at least 400. Citrix wanted out of that and made an argument why in their presentation before the planning commission.

So to show the numbers clearly:

  • Citrix phase 1 – 341 parking spaces planned, minimum of 325 according to code.
  • Citrix phase 2 – 425 minimum needed according to code.

Here’s the 55-minute planning commission video of that presentation and followup discussion. Watch the first 24 minutes for an overview of the entire project and to get a peak at some of the amenities of the Citrix building.

Municipography – Dillon Supply Warehouse Redevelopment Phase 2 on Youtube

During the presentation, the Citrix reps state such things like:

  • Citrix runs three shifts so employees come and go 24/7, spreading the traffic out.
  • Citrix promotes alternative transit and biking with plans for a 100 space bike storage including showers.
  • 86% of employees are remote for one day of the week. This equates to about 70 people on any given day being off-site.
  • Kimley-Horn, a local engineering company, reviewed the proposal and supported Citrix’s request for a parking increase exemption. (jump to 31:35 in the video to hear their points)
  • Kimley-Horn also noted that downtown currently has a gross oversupply of parking and is facing a revenue problem.

Currently, 1 parking space per 500 square feet of office space is the code. However, a good point that the Citrix reps make is that the site will have gym and recreation spaces, a lobby, and a large auditorium. The parking count may not have to rise for these amenity spaces and if you subtract them, the actual amount of spaces needed including the new office expansion is now 329. (still below the 341 provided at this point)

This sounds like a great fit for an urban area as the parking needs are smaller than most. These are the types of places that would be great for a transitioning downtown. Employees here don’t punch a clock at 9am and 5pm, contributing to a typical morning and afternoon commute. Activity should be ongoing throughout the day and night around the Citrix offices, supporting that 24-hour downtown that supporters are trying to build.

After the presentation things started to turn.

Deferral

If you want to watch this part, jump to about 24:30 in the video.

A few commissioners expressed concern about the lack of detailed information on how many employees would be on site at a time. Without this detailed information, commissioners could not anticipate any potential problems that, if Citrix was wrong in its parking usage, would permeate out across the warehouse district in the future.

Commissioner Steve Schuster, who by the way is one of the leads at Clearscapes Design Firm and is probably an expert on the warehouse district because of their heavy involvement on Raleigh Union Station, stated, “We’re about to face a parking challenge in the warehouse district.”

Schuster’s thinking was most likely based on ongoing analysis of the entire warehouse district and how development could boom here in the near future. Schuster, with the backing of other commissioners, felt that allowing this parking reduction exemption would set a precedent for future developments here, further exacerbating the parking problem. (the upcoming challenge)

The conclusion to the meeting is that the commission motioned to defer the office expansion so that Citrix could bring back more details on employee counts. They approved the deferral. Remember, this application was for the office expansion but parking dominated the discussion instead.

Citrix reps then, right on the spot, made a move to drop the parking reduction exemption, raise the parking space count to 430 in an effort for construction to stay on schedule. This was approved and Citrix got their office expansion.

A missed Layup

While I tend to always challenge parking minimums and preach about the need to reform parking management, there is a real concern with too little parking. As city staff stated during the discussion, having too little means that cars start using spaces in nearby areas that weren’t intended to handle that kind of traffic.

If Citrix had too little parking, the thought, shared by the planning commissioners, is that nearby Boylan Heights and the rest of the warehouse district would pick up the load. The neighborhood isn’t zoned for that kind of activity so the result would be an inappropriate use of those streets.

The planning commission mentioned the precedent that could be set by allowing Citrix to be exempt from the minimum required parking. They were afraid that future developments in the warehouse districts would also want that exemption, resulting in an area that continues to struggle with the so-called “parking challenges.”

What bothers me here is the handling of the request from Citrix and how it fits into the future vision of the warehouse district and downtown as a whole. Aren’t we trying to become a little more urban? Aren’t we trying to create growth nodes, filled with density that support alternative transit? Haven’t we identified that the city has a parking oversupply and is spiraling into debt?

I felt like the commission had a perfect candidate, one that asked for a parking exemption and is compensating for it with the exact urban culture that downtown Raleigh needs. Instead, it was status quo and the future of the warehouse district is on a path for more parking decks.

I know we can’t magically turn urban in just a few years. The way to get there is to have small victories that transition us there. It takes small steps. I think more people need to realize that.

We didn’t take that step here with Citrix and the way I see it, the planning commission has now made it more costly to building in the warehouse district, threatening any preservation of the warehouses we have there, and continuing to support a car culture in a very walkable, human-scale area of downtown.

In the spirit of basketball going on now, the commission had an open lane for an easy layup but instead passed the ball for someone else to decide what to do.

by Leo Suarez

Ongoing Moore Square Transit Station Study Reveals Future Plans

Buses at the Moore Square Transit Station.

Last week at a public information session, plans for Raleigh Union Station and the Downtown Bus Facilities Master Plan were shown off and discussed. While Union Station gets all the press, see the updated renderings (via N&O), plans for the Moore Square Transit Station are now unfolding. With less pizzazz, and less progress, compared to Union Station the question of how downtown will handle the hub of Raleigh’s future bus system is very important.

The problem revolves around one question. How will the rail networks serving Raleigh Union Station compliment a future expanded bus network, and vice versa? Our current Moore Square Transit Station, the central hub of the Capital Area Transit system, is nearing capacity. If it were located near Union Station, there’s still not enough room to incorporate all the future routes and riders.

What planners are trying to figure out now is how to use bus terminals at both Union Station and Moore Square so that they compliment each other effectively. During the meeting last week, I took some photos of the current thoughts on how the Moore Square Station may evolve over time.

Click on this image below to see a possible solution for the current, near future, and long-term traffic flow of Moore Square Station. Excuse the blurry cam.

Possible future plans for the Moore Square Transit Station.

The first image shows the current layout and bus flow through the station. Buses turn in to the station on Martin Street and depending on the route, they either leave on Blount or Hargett Streets.

As the system grows and Union Station is worked on, Moore Square will have to accommodate more buses and routes before Union Station can alleviate some pressure. The second image shows how that could work. The inner lane can be expanded and converted to two-way. After removing some planters and parking, there actually is room to make that expansion work. I had to go and see that for myself and sure enough…

Moore Square Transit Station

With another lane for buses, capacity is increased. At the same time, the station is pretty much maxed out.

The third image shows what the future of Moore Square Station could be once Union Station is up and running with bus routes circulating here and there. The one-way street and connection from the station to Blount can be removed, leaving only the two-way lane for buses.

There is still lots of work to do with planning routes, which stations they will serve, and how to effectively connect both Union Station and Moore Square Station. This just shows that Union Station could be one piece of a major transit network overhaul in Raleigh’s future.

by Leo Suarez

Confusing Parking Signs in Downtown Raleigh

Parking signs in downtown Raleigh.

Examples of parking signs. Hourly on the left, metered on the right.

I get asked for help all the time while walking the sidewalks in downtown Raleigh. People ask me for directions most of the time but sometimes for an ATM location or for a nearby place to eat. This happens either because I walk so often or I just have a friendly face. My bet is on the first theory.

Another question I get asked about a lot are parking related questions. You may have seen this exact scenario yourself. A person banging the buttons on the parking meter like it was an arcade machine. That person looks like they are losing. They are losing because it’s the weekend and it hasn’t hit them that parking is free.

The frustrated parker is a common occurrence in downtown Raleigh and the plethora of signs on each block are responsible for informing a visitor of the rules. I’m going to say it straight up that there is a lot of room for improvement in signage around downtown, not just for parking but we’ll stick to just one topic for this post.

This is why a project by Nikki Sylianteng caught my eye. Highlighted in The Atlantic Cities, the New York City designer is attempting to make the parking signs more informative there. Nikki built a prototype and put it out on the street with a comment box for real-world feedback.

Here are some photos of Nikki’s work, borrowed with permission.

New parking sign design by Nikki Sylianteng

Current city signs on the left and Nikki’s design on the right.

New parking sign design by Nikki Sylianteng

On her project page, Nikki writes:

My strategy was to visualize the blocks of time when parking is allowed and not allowed. I kept everything else the same – the colors and the form factor – as my intention with this redesign is to show how big a difference a thoughtful, though conservative and low budget, approach can make in terms of time and stress saved for the driver. I tried to stay mindful of the constraints that a large organization like the Department of Transportation must face for a seemingly small change such as this.

*Parking Sign Redesign via nikkisylianteng.com

I’ve always thought that the main problem with parking signs is that they do not tell the whole story. For example, the Raleigh signs indicate the hours of enforcement, those being from 8am-5pm, Monday to Friday. They do not indicate what to do outside of those hours. A more ideal sign leaves no doubt during any time of the day, any day of the week.

The Raleigh signs also emphasize the wrong information. “2 Hour Meter Parking” is in the largest font on the sign with the hours being smaller. To the eyes of a driver, the “2 Hour Meter Parking” is most likely all they can read while cruising down the street. With more distractions in downtown compared to the suburbs, drivers have only so long to look at small signs. This portrays that parking enforcement occurs always and the sign is not clearly informing drivers.

What Nikki’s designs show is a 7 day week, 24-hour picture indicating to a parker whether they should be there or not. While the sign is still difficult to read from the driver’s point of view, it more accurately helps someone after they have parked.

During hours of free parking in downtown, I’ve always felt that nervous parkers feel better if they are reassured in some way that what they did was legal. No one wants a parking ticket and this keeps new visitors on the alert because there’s the possibility of a ticket when parking in downtown. Signs must instill confidence in people that they know how the system works and they can avoid the big bad parking ticket.

So there’s clearly room for a design overhaul here. An alternative would be to rethink the parking enforcement system entirely or perhaps throw more technology at it, a suggestion one of our city councilors has brought up.

by Leo Suarez

Federal Grant Funding Miles of Bicycle Facilities In Downtown Raleigh

Salisbury Street

Salisbury Street in the government district

As part of a federal grant, the City of Raleigh is receiving funds to apply marked bicycle facilities around the city. From the city’s website to the blog:

The City of Raleigh received a $1.1 million dollar grant from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program to construct at least 27 miles of marked, on-road bicycle facilities. A proposed list of twenty-two bicycle projects have been selected in order of adopted bicycle plan priority and previously adopted CIP projects. The design of these projects is currently underway and the lead consultant is Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. joined by Alta Planning + Greenways, Inc. and Kittelson & Associates, Inc.

*Bicycle Pavement Marking Design Project

We’ll have to wait for the designs to see what kind of “marked, on-road bicycle facilities” will be created but $1.1 million dollars spread across 27 miles doesn’t sound like much. I expect a mix of bike lanes and sharrows.

Here are the streets being looked at within downtown.

  • Wilmington Street from Saunders Street to Peace Street
  • Salisbury Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Lane Street
  • Martin Street from West Street to Tarboro Street
  • Hillsborough Street from Morgan Street to Salisbury Street
  • E. Cabarrus Street from Wilmington Street to Chavis Way
  • W. Cabarrus Street from Western Boulevard to Salisbury Street

See the link to the city’s website for more information.

by Leo Suarez

Greyhound Relocating Outside of Downtown Raleigh

Greyhound Terminal on West Jones Street in downtown Raleigh

Greyhound Terminal on West Jones Street in downtown Raleigh

The Jones Street Greyhound Terminal is moving soon to a new location outside of downtown Raleigh. Located here since 1969, Greyhound will move their operations up north to 2210 Capital Boulevard. They have signed a 10 year lease for the new location.

I wonder about the decision behind this and the plans for future integration of Greyhound into Union Station’s overall plan. Ideally, the currently planned Union Station, Raleigh’s much larger and upgraded train station in downtown’s warehouse district, will house a variety of transit options, including Greyhound, to offer users options and transfers between services.

The Union Station integration sounds like the most ideal end-goal but the move to Capital Boulevard adds an extra obstacle for travelers arriving in Raleigh that need to get to Greyhound. While not a significant amount of travelers, Greyhound is an option for those arriving at RDU and need a lower cost option to head to points in eastern North Carolina. Rental cars and taxi’s are too costly so public transit and Greyhound are the most cost effective way to get around.

Another part of the story here is that the property was sold in March 2013 to Real Estate investor Ted Reynolds. Long time readers may recognize that name as the same one involved with a tower planned for 301 Hillsborough Street, called The Hillsborough, back in 2007. Along with a few other projects, The Hillsborough met the same fate as the 2009 market crash scrapped it.

Perhaps the Reynolds have plans for the old Greyhound site at 314 West Jones Street.

by Leo Suarez

Union Station June 2013 Public Workshop, Preliminary Renderings Shown

Raleigh Union Station rendering June 2013

Email readers: This blog post has image galleries. Read the post on the blog to see all the images.

Last night at the Contemporary Art Museum, the good folks at Clearscapes presented the next round of updates to the Raleigh Union Station design. In addition to reviewing the ongoing comments and showing the most up-to-date floorplans, the crew had some very preliminary renderings of what Raleigh’s next train station could look like.

There’s still over a year of design work to do, we’re six months into an almost 20 month process, so keep that in mind as you review these shots from the public lecture. The team is certainly doing their homework. They’ve looked at how other cities have reused warehouses and are trying to keep that railroad heritage ingrained into the new design.

One thing we can’t get around is the strong support for parking. Let me reiterate that while the current designs show an inadequate amount of parking, everyone on the design and planning team are aware of this and there is plenty of time to address that issue. The city is starting a comprehensive parking study of the entire Raleigh warehouse district and out of this a solution will most likely come to address Union Station.

Below is a gallery of renderings, photos taken while at the lecture on June 26, for you to see what ideas are on the table. Click to see larger versions.

Raleigh Union Station rendering June 2013

by Leo Suarez

Field Research, Riding Around on the San Antonio B-cycle

San Antonio B Cycle Hub

Last week, I was in San Antonio for a few days and had an opportunity to check out the city for the first time. As well as seeing the town, strolling on the much talked about Riverwalk, and eating breakfast tacos I made a point to try out B-cycle, the bike share service with programs in multiple cities around the country. With over 40 stations in and out of downtown, I was determined to plan some sightseeing while on two wheels.

For some background, I recommend you watch the Raleigh Urban Design Center’s education forum about bike share in other cities which includes the B-cycle service.

I was staying near the convention center and did not rent a car for my trip. Using cabs to get everywhere would have cost me much more than I was willing to spend. Plus, the bus and trolley network had pretty good coverage and frequency to get around. Renting a bike however seemed like a great way to move at my own pace and stop when I wanted too.

San Antonio had temperatures in the mid-90s on the particular weekday that I tried out B-cycle and very little cloud cover. Still determined to try it, I got started in the morning and avoided the much hotter afternoon.

Getting Started

I walked from my hotel to the B-cycle hub located at the corner of Alamo Street and Cesar Chavez Boulevard. This little building seemed like the heart of the bike share program and anyone could go there for information, bike gear rental and sales, etc. Unfortunately, I arrived before they opened (9am-5pm on weekdays) and couldn’t go inside.

I needed to open an account with B-cycle before getting a bike so I sat outside and filled out the form on my smartphone. It wasn’t mobile friendly but a customer service rep that I later emailed with said they are working on that.

Here were my membership options:

  • 24-hour – $10
  • 7-days – $24
  • Annual – $60

One day seemed perfect for my situation so I selected the $10 option and gave up the credit card info. I learned that the account is activated, and the clock starts, when the first bike is rented, not when you sign up. This is good to know so that you can get this part of the process out of the way ahead of time.

Renting a bike

Now that my account was set up, renting a bicycle was easy. Each station has a solar-powered touchscreen that guides you through the process. It’s about five taps and a credit card swipe from start to finish. You then pull your selected bike out of the station and you’re good to go.

The bike is a 3-speed cruiser with a basket on the front. There is also a bike lock provided and the seat adjusts pretty easily.

I next started my ride into San Antonio’s King William neighborhood followed by the Mission trail to my final destination, Mission San Jose. The ride was about 6 miles on street and a greenway along the San Antonio river. The map below shows my approximate ride.


View Leo’s San Antonion B-cycle ride in a larger map

B-Cycling Away

At this point, if you have ridden a bicycle before, it was pretty much the same thing.

Along my ride, I spotted many of the other B-cycle stations. The route I chose was mainly on side streets and mostly had bike lanes so riding was easy. San Antonio is also pretty flat so I wasn’t struggling up any hills which I sometimes encounter here in Raleigh.

(For the record, I’m in decent bike shape but not an all-star by any means)

I felt that the cycling experience was now in the hands of the city. The route I chose went through a few parks and I stopped twice to get water from public water fountains. The presence of bike lanes was very welcomed and I felt comfortable on the streets. This could have been different on someone else’s route however.

Returning the bike

I finally made it to Mission San Jose and the visitor center had a station right in front. Returning the bike is dead simple. You find an empty slot and glide the bike right into it. The station beeps and turns green when the bike has been set in properly.

That’s it.

One thing I had to look up out of curiosity would be what to do if the station was full and there were no empty slots to return the bike. B-cycle’s official answer to this is:

If you have a bike checked out and wish to return it, but there are no available docks at a station, you can use a web browser (www.sanantonio.bcycle.com) or iPhone app to locate available bikes at nearby stations. Also, if you approach the kiosk at a full station, the kiosk will provide information about nearby stations with available docks, and you can also get 15 free minutes added to your ride so you can take the bike to an open station without incurring additional usage fees.

There is a system map located at each station.

They don’t mention it in this FAQ excerpt but there is an Android app as well which is what I used to find nearby stations.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned earlier, I encourage everyone to jump to the Urban Design Center video about bike share in other cities with some nice discussion following it.

Before this trip, I was on the fence about bike share in Raleigh. I felt that we should continue spending more time and money on bicycle infrastructure with bike share coming later. I am a little more convinced about it though after trying it but still feel that Raleigh needs to plan, retrofit, and build more bicycle friendly streets before stations are put in.

First, it would be advantageous to plan for bike share now. We could identify possible station and hub locations, create design guidelines for sidewalks and streets around them, get neighborhoods thinking about where stations could be placed along their streets, those kinds of things. With these in place, when we’re ready for bike share, we’ll be prepared.

With this kind of preparation done, I also feel that a sizable network should be rolled out instead of a small system just to ‘test the waters.’ The success of the bike share system, in my opinion, is based on how comfortable riders feel their options are in station locations. If the city decides to implement bike share with only 5-10 stations then adoption will be much slower and it hurts any case for expansion.

Seeing several B-cycle stations around San Antonio was comforting and gave me confidence in the system. The same should go for any city that wants to do the same.

San Antonio B Cycle Station

One thing that doesn’t quite make sense to me is the placement of these bike share stations. All of the stations that I’ve seen, across multiple cities, have been on the sidewalk. I feel they should be right on the street, similar to how a bike corral is placed on the street.

Just like the Hargett Street bike corral occupies some space on the street (not the sidewalk) a bike share station should occupy space along a street. Bicycles, after all, are treated like vehicles on the road and should therefore park like them as well.

On a later ride on B-cycle, I was riding down Market Street, looking for the station in front of the convention center. I didn’t see the station because it was partially hidden behind parked cars along the street. Better signage (just like cars get with larger street signs, parking signs, etc.) should be placed for bicycle riders who need to know that a B-cycle station is coming up and whether it is on the approaching left or the right.

Bringing it to Raleigh

I haven’t looked at them all but a few bike share systems that I have seen have been backed by private funds. This helps implementation happen much faster so until a private company around Raleigh is willing to put up funds for this, we’ll have to wait until it’s a sound public investment.

While other programs exist, B-cycle has a ‘Who wants it more?’ page where you can vote to bring B-cycle here. Right now, we’re ranked #67 with 489 votes. Vote here.

Don’t put too much stock into that though as Charlotte, who has a B-cycle system, ranks #67 (464 votes) while Asheville ranks #7 (31,344 votes) and does not.

Just keep pedaling, Raleigh.