Category / Transit/Transportation

by Leo Suarez

North Hills Smartphone App Will Include Parking Directions, Rumored World Peace

It’s never a bad time to talk about everyone’s favorite topic: Parking. I typically don’t fly the blog outside of downtown Raleigh but North Hills has something that’s very unique. I’m excited to announce that the Parking App Team that won last year’s DataPalooza, with roots in downtown Raleigh, has launched in North Hills.

Delivered as part of an all-encompassing app, the team has put together something that acts as the center of all North Hills information including events, shops, movies, and parking. North Hills saw value in what our team put together and has now delivered it for public consumption.

The team consists of Jim Belt, King White, Eric Majewicz, and myself, all members of the Raleigh Downtown Living Advocates. For over a year now, the team has been talking about a high-tech solution in order to address growing concerns about parking in downtown. We quickly found out, through the North Hills experience, that our solution had an application elsewhere.

It is our hope to use the experience to bring the same high-tech solution to downtown Raleigh in the near future.

The North Hills app is available for download in the Google Play Store and Apple Store.

Read more about it on the official page on the DLA site.

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by Leo Suarez

Leading Pedestrian Intervals on Fayetteville Street

Video link – Leading Pedestrian Interval in downtown Raleigh via YouTube.

Some may be noticing a slight change when walking along Fayetteville Street. Last week, I saw that some of the pedestrian walk signals were signaling the ‘Walk’ sign a few seconds before the vehicle traffic signal turned green. It’s not a lag in the system. It’s called Leading Pedestrian Interval (LPI) and it helps increase pedestrian awareness to nearby vehicles.

The quick video above shows one cycle at the intersection of Hargett and Fayetteville Streets. More are running up and down Fayetteville last I checked. There are plenty of intersections that could use this, especially along the busy McDowell and Dawson streets.

For a more in-depth look at LPI, here’s a video from Streetfilms showing them in operation in New York.

Leading Pedestrian Intervals (or LPIs) are a traffic signalization strategy that assigns pedestrians an exclusive 3 to 5 second signal (in some cases much longer) to begin crossing the street before cars get a green light. Consequently, they are also known by their sassier nickname, Pedestrian Head Start. But in my view the best variation on what LPI stands for comes from Christine Berthet of the Hells Kitchen Neighborhood Association who proposes: “Life Preserving Interval”. That’s what it is.

*LPI – Leading Pedestrian Interval

LPI – Leading Pedestrian Interval from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

Video link – LPI – Leading Pedestrian Interval via Vimeo

by Leo Suarez

It’s The [Bicycle] Network

Bike lane on Hillsborough Street.

In April 2014, Raleigh’s premier bicycle festival, Oaks and Spokes, took place. The week long event combined community rides, cycling education, and a public forum that all focused around the idea of spreading the love of cycling culture in the city. Between the fun events and public information that took place that week, I had a thought about where we are heading with regards to bicycle infrastructure.

Are we spreading ourselves too thin with mediocre (at best) bike infrastructure here in Raleigh? Are bike lanes and sharrows really spreading the cycling culture throughout our city?

In my opinion, it almost feels like the efforts we’ve made are a bit timid while a lot of other cities are really cranking up the bicycle lanes, making them protected, scenic, and comfortable to use.

I’ll pick on one of the city’s currently ongoing bicycle projects. Through a $1.1 million grant, the city will install “27 miles of marked, on-road bicycle facilities.” This project has been mentioned on the blog before and the post lists several streets in and around downtown Raleigh that will get these bicycle facilities. The rest of the city is getting some bicycle love as well so it’s important to note that this is a city-wide effort.

The project page on the city’s website has now been updated with draft plans for each street. Take a look and get your feedback to the city before May 9.

2014 Bicycle Pavement Marking Project

Click for larger

For downtown, the proposed bike facilities include bike lanes on Wilmington and Salisbury between Peace Street and MLK Boulevard. Also, sharrows will be added to Hillsborough and Cabarrus Streets under the current draft. This is just a small piece of the larger network that is being built across the city.

Dedicated lanes and sharrows might be just paint on the road but it is a step towards creating that bicycle-friendly city. Certainly there is room for improvement on what’s being installed but $1.1 million can only do so much.

Is this a quantity (coverage) versus quality (safety) situation?

Certainly more miles of “marked, on-road bicycle facilities” sounds better than less but let’s discuss an alternative approach. If you think about other forms of transit, rail lines connect major areas to each other and then over time, new lines link up to that and form a network. Highways connect cities and over time have formed their own quality network. Just like them, one mega-bicycle project could be a success in Raleigh, sacrificing total coverage but being of a much higher quality.

Instead of 27 miles of paint for bike lanes and sharrows, what if we could get 5 miles of cycle tracks and/or protected lanes? A 5 mile direct route like this could really connect places, for example:

  • It is about 5 miles along Hillsborough Street from the State Capitol to The Fairgrounds
  • In the other direction, it is less than 5 miles from the Capitol to WakeMed along New Bern Avenue
  • Glenwood South and North Hills could be connected using St. Mary’s and Lassiter Mill Road

Granted, these are highly simplistic ideas making a lot of assumptions and not taking into account a mountain of factors. However, if major connections are made between these centers of activity with high-quality bicycle facilities there may be more chances of cycle adoption, increased bicycle use in the city, and possibly giving more political backing for future projects just like it.

The Network
Mega-projects don’t just happen though. Our bicycle network, at least up until a few years ago, has been implemented from almost nothing in the city budget and some creative thinking from city planners. This includes adding bike lanes or sharrows when a road is due to be repaved, taking advantage of the need to re-stripe the street anyway.

What the city is doing to deliver our bicycle network is subtle and can be described as a slow boil. Just like the greenway network, which started being built in the 1970s, the bicycle network is being put together in any way that it can be, piece by piece.

When you look at the greenways, it is only recently that the they have really been making major connections to form that comprehensive network across the city.

Raleigh Greenway map section

So while huge projects can be fun and exciting, working towards that day when the bicycle network all comes together could be even more magical. That is one way to make Raleigh, from downtown to the outskirts, a complete bicycle friendly city.

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.