What We Can Learn from Chicago

I spent a weekend in Chicago recently, and in many ways East Rockville could learn a lot from the way the city is planned.

• The city is built on a grid, which creates a very positive environment for walking and transit.
• Large swaths of the city, though they have fairly low population density, are able to support thriving business districts and scattered apartment buildings which blend into the fabric of smaller, dense homes quite well, even as they are demolished and rebuilt periodically.

  

  These newer condominium buildings (foreground), coupled with older apartments (background), provide a nice mix of housing stock in the West Ridge area.

  
  

  

  Less than a block away, turn of the century single-family homes sit next to 1930s Chicago-style bungalows.

  
  

  

  And, about one block further, the Western Avenue business district provides residents with restaurants, convenience stores, florists, and even a hardware store.

• This is something many East Rockvillians fear (I assume that this is due to a thought that this will result in the entire neighborhood's housing stock becoming dense multifamily), but, with strict development guidelines as are present in Chicago, a more dense East Rockville which still prioritizes the neighborhood's single family character is possible.
• Each neighborhood has a very distinct identity, which is created through neighborhood banners, murals, signs, and other place making elements. To get people to identify their residence as "East Rockville" and feel an even stronger sense of connection with the neighborhood, something similar could be useful.

  

  The Uptown neighborhood's Argyle Street is home to a large number of Southeast Asian businesses and residents, and uses murals and signs to help exhibit its unique identity to visitors. (image credits: Landscape Architecture Magazine)

• Additionally, neighborhoods are unafraid to sway from the status quo, and try something new to confront a problem the area faces. For example, the above-mentioned Argyle Street in Uptown, due to its large number of pedestrians and relatively narrow sidewalks, has recently implemented a "shared street" project, raising the street level to that of the surrounding sidewalks and installing planters in a way that slows down car traffic.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  When I visited on a fairly busy Saturday night, everything seemed to be functioning smoothly and cars were moving fairly slowly. A street design like this could be useful for a redesigned North Stonestreet Avenue, or for Park Road.

• Finally, the city's use of alleys is something that East Rockville should strive to emulate. Our neighborhood has some now, and the city owns the right-of-way for many more which could be resurrected. In Chicago, these alleys serve to divert extremely local traffic off of local streets, contain many garages and other car-dependent uses, and are a place for trash to be put out on collection days. If strictly enforced in East Rockville, streets with alleys could become much more pedestrian friendly and aesthetically pleasing quite quickly.

  

  The alley here serves as an informal parking lot for neighborhood cars, as well as a place to put out trash for residents of West Ridge on Chicago's Far North Side.

East Rockville Surveys

Suzan Pitman, President of ERCA, has created two surveys to gauge citizen opinion about the future of housing and transportation in East Rockville, and I encourage those who live and work in the neighborhood to take them! Additionally, tonight's meeting is cancelled on account of the snow. The housing survey can be found here, and the transportation one here.

Baltimore Road Bus Stop "Improvements"

Recently, Ride On installed new signs for their bus stops on Baltimore Road. While it is nice to see that they are trying to improve signage and wayfinding, I'm not too keen on a lot of aspects of the new signage. My biggest issue is that for many of the signs, the information is either incomplete, or incorrect. This should not happen! If Montgomery County is going to spend money on new signs, the information should be correct! This is a major issue which must be resolved immediately, and something needs to be done to prevent future issues like this, as this is not the first time that something made by Ride On has had some embarrassingly obvious examples of information. For example, the 26 to Glenmont has had a headsign that has read "26 GLENNONT" for awhile now. The biggest issue involves the eastbound signs at Grandin Avenue, Horners Lane, and Taylor Avenue. The signs say "49 WHEATON," while in reality the 49 goes to Glenmont! 

The sign at Baltimore Road and Horners Lane, eastbound. The 49 goes to Wheaton? Ummm...

This is a major mistake, and cannot be left in its current state. Too many people in Montgomery County, thanks to car culture, do not even think of transit when considering their options when traveling. Incorrect information will only further stigmatize public transit as a mode of travel that "isn't for them." For riders who do not own cars, these signs are like a slap in the face. Montgomery County cares about you, but not enough to have correct information at your bus stops or crosswalks to get from one side of the busy suburban arterials throughout the county to the other, let alone to create roads that actually encourage pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. Westbound signs at the stops mentioned above have incomplete information. While they list the 45 to Fallsgrove on their signs, they do not mention the 49 or 52, both of which end at Rockville. Now, even putting all this aside, the stops are still filled with problems! 

The sign at Baltimore Road and Horners Lane, westbound. Note how routes 49 and 52 are not even mentioned.

Information-wise, the signs could be much more detailed. If I'm a new rider interested in trying to take the bus and I walk up to the stop, what does it tell me (apart from incorrect information)? Okay, the 45 goes to Twinbrook. With what frequency? Does the 45 go to Twinbrook every day? What do I do with that Stop ID in the corner? How much do I need to pay, and is there some sort of pass I can use? The stop doesn't tell you any of this, which it really should, or at least make an effort to. In addition, in terms of design, the stops are ugly! The blue used on the sign is much too bright and artificial looking, the signs are very large and almost childish looking, half the sign is taken up by a ridiculous cartoon bus driving down a road through a city, and the font used has serifs. While that last point might not seem very important, sans serif fonts, such as the font this post is written in (Helvetica), are a lot easier to read from far away and in bad weather conditions. In addition, fonts do have a certain psychological effect, and transit systems generally use Helvetica, or Helvetica-like fonts, as they look calm and orderly. It isn't even hard to create signs which show this information! I sketched a rough idea of what I think the signs should look like:

Lastly, the stops suffer from environment issues. There are no schedules affixed to the poles which hold the signs, and no pedestrian improvements were made when the stops were installed! While the eastbound Taylor Avenue stop does have a bench, the bench is not sheltered, and really should be. Not a fancy shelter, a bare bones roof over the bench would do, but nonetheless a shelter is needed, especially because most people at that stop are elderly, carrying groceries, or have small children, and are taking the bus a short distance into Rockville Town Center. These are people who are in greatest need of a shelter, and there is certainly ridership to justify one. In addition, the stop at First Street on the 45  in both directions could use a bench or shelter, and the eastbound stop could also use a sidewalk connecting it to Denham Road and to First Street. The eastbound Taylor Avenue stop, which also has lots of riders, could use a bench or shelter as well. There, I understand space is an issue, as there is a (rather oddly placed, it isn't quite on any street) home sitting on a sharp hill above the stop, which means that there is a wall which confines the sidewalk there to a rather tight spot. However, a bus bulb could be put in, and a bench and shelter put there to allow for a better waiting area. This would also prevent people from parking in front of the bus stop, and would keep buses from having to weave out of traffic to pick up and drop off passengers. The only problem is that concrete, sidewalk-level bus bulbs are expensive! So, instead, I would advocate putting in plastic flexposts, like those that form a barrier for protected bike lanes, around the bus stop to create a car-free area that extends out to the traffic lanes, which could be painted a different color. If there was extra money, maybe some sturdy planters could be put in between the flexposts. For disabled passengers, a ramp could be put in between the sidewalk and the bus bulb. The shelter could then go in this space, and buses, instead of wasting time pulling up to the curb, could just stop to allow for boarding and alighting. Additionally, crosswalks are needed at all the bus stops, especially Taylor Avenue due to the amount of people that use the stop. Many people cross Baltimore at Taylor despite the lack of a crosswalk, and so adding one would increase pedestrian visibility and safety. A crosswalk at Croydon Avenue would also be nice, as would some traffic calming measures on Stonestreet, as that part of the road is overbuilt, with four lanes for what really should be a two lane road, which means that a lot of fast-moving traffic blows past. With Ride On, the only way to get something done is to complain about it, and often! Email Ride On, call them, talk to your local Rockville councilmembers. Taking transit is hard enough in Montgomery County, there should at least be accurate information for riders at bus stops.

The locations of the bus stops featuring new signage.