4
Alternative Circulator Concepts Considering the goals and the identified market groups, a small set of alternative circulator concepts have been developed. These include proposals developed in previous studies and new alternatives. Previous Concepts Figure 3 identifies two prior proposals for a circulator. One was proposed in the 1995 study for EWGCC and entailed construction of a single-track trolley line between the Forest Park MetroLink station and the Zoo, with a possible extension to the new MetroLink station(2) in the Oakland Avenue corridor. The trolley would directly access the History Museum, Muny, and the Zoo. Along with the trolley, bus shuttle service would provided to achieve a broad area of transit coverage in the park.
The bus shuttle service would be operated in two routes. One route would be located at the edge of Forest Park along Skinker, Oakland, and Euclid Avenues. It would link the Washington University Campus, the Arena site, the Science center, the medical center and the Central West district. The second route would be more of an intra-park shuttle connecting all park institutions. The shuttle bus routes would be
immediate improvements. The trolley, as a more capital intensive, would a longer range project. Figure 3
(not available at this time) The other proposal was developed in the 1997 study for the Missouri Historic Society (See Figure 4). This plan featured rubber-tired vintage trolleys. The route plan would have the shape of a figure 8. One loop would link the
MetroLink at Forest Park, Washingon University/History Museum Library, History Museum, Art Museum, Zoo, and Muny. The other loop would link Muny, Zoo, Science Center, CWE MetroLink station, and the Central West End. The common point would be Government Drive between the Muny and the Zoo. As shown in Figure 4, this would be a single route on which riders could access all destinations without changing vehicles. Each of these previous concepts (1995
and 1997 plans) would be included as alternatives to be examined in this project. Figure 4
(not available at this time) New Alternative Concepts From a broad conceptual perspective, alternatives
could consider a single-route or a multiple-route circulator. The latter could be viewed as a means to serve the different markets during the normal day (i.e., multiple routes operating simultaneously) or to serve different markets at different times of the day or week (i.e., routes change from daytime to evening periods but do not maintain simultaneous operation). With the above choices in mind, the possible alternative concepts could be as follows:
- Single route with maximum direct access to all major institutions (Figure 5)
- Single route as a comprehensive tour of the park with institution access (Figure 6)
- Multiple route system as an internal loop and external loop (Figure 7)
- Multiple route system as an internal
north-south corridor route and east-west corridor route intersecting at a transit visitor center (Figure 8)
- Multiple route system as a daytime internal loop route to all institutions, but with a different evening route for event and external land use access (Figure 9)
For each basic route configuration, service could be extended to include the St. Louis Cathedral the Missouri
Botanical Gardens, and, possibly, the Loop in University City. The extension to the Cathedral could simply be an extension of the routes for new alternatives 1, 2 and 4. This extension is already shown for new alternatives 3 and 5. Access to the Missouri Botanical Garden is currently provided by Bi-State via Route #14, Garden Express. This service operates with 20 minute headways seven days per week (9:30 A.M. to 7:30 P.M., weekdays and 7:30 A.M.
to 5:00 P.M. on weekends). This route loops through the medical center via Euclid Avenue, Forest Park Boulevard, and Kingshighway and connects to the Missouri Botanical Garden via Clayton Avenue, Taylor Avenue, Chouteau Avenue and Tower Grove Avenue. The route extends to the east along Tower Grove Park via Magnolia Avenue to Thurman Avenue. Overall travel time from Botanical Garden to the CWE MetroLink station is 10 minutes. The presence of the
existing service would suggest that the Circulator routes should not be extended to the Botanical Garden. There should be facilities to provide excellent mode transfer in the CWE, probably at the MetroLink station. This could also include coordination of operating schedules. Access to the Loop would entail a route extension north along Skinker Boulevard to Delmar Boulevard. This route could be linked to a vintage trolley on Delmar Boulevard, as
envisioned by the loop trolley study(3). Bi-State bus route #62 is located on Skinker Boulevard from Forsyth to Delmar (and beyond). This could duplicate circulator service. Thus, each of these extensions to areas outside of Forest Park may entail duplication with service provided or being planned by BSDA. For the Botannical Garden, the Garden Express service would be a specific
case. It is possible, however, that the Forest Park circulator concepts would focus on different markets (or customers) and/or provide service at different times. Such comparisons would be made in the design development tasks to make sure that service duplication would not occur. Design Concepts In all
concepts, the circulator would operate at grade. No elevated or below-ground alignments are anticipated. The alignments, discussed above, are all located on public streets or public drives within Forest Park or areas adjacent to the park. Within Forest Park, the circulator could be designed to operate in mixed-traffic (shared use of roadways) or could operate in reserved or separate lanes. Because of the current width of most park drives, and the
need to maintain on-street parking, it is likely that mixed traffic operation would prevail. There may be some drives that will be closed to general vehicle traffic (per the Master Plan). The circulator could still be permitted in some of these locations. Further, for major events, the circulator could have preferential use of some drives to maintain efficient travel time in the presence of high event-generated traffic. At stop locations, the
circulator would have reserved curbside facilities or even stop access designed as special access drives or off-street stopping berths. The exception to the above design/operating concepts would be the location of a vintage trolley. The tracks would be separated from other traffic. The track location would generally follow the path of existing drives, but with tracks set just outside the pavement. For
alternative circulator routes outside of Forest Park, the circulator would operate generally in a mixed traffic mode. This would primarily affect Skinker Boulevard, Oakland Avenue, Clayton Avenue, Euclid Avenue, McPherson Avenue, and Lindell Boulevard. Along these streets, curb space would be reserved for shuttle bus stops. Figures 4 through 8 (pages 18 through 22)
(not available at this time) |
