I am designing a Mobility Hub for MARC in Gardner, KS as a part of a group of Mobility Hubs strategically chosen in Kansas City’s metropolitan area.  Gardner is expecting new companies and jobs in manufacturing and warehousing and more residents moving in. The city has a population of 21,110 (source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016) and is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 2.9% in the next 20 years, “which equals approximately 800 people per year or 280 households”  (source: Gardner Main Street Corridor Plan).

Historically, Gardner was the junction of three trails – Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail and California Trail. Furthermore, Gardner is connected to different transportation options – Rail, Air and Interstate 35. Today, Gardner receives thousands of visitors during the summer visiting the Johnson County Fair Grounds.

Gardner has potential to continue growing with future job opportunities, the quantity of undeveloped land available and the entertainment and tourism the Fair Grounds attracts.

What appears as just a Walmart and Lowes surrounded by a vast array of parking spots could be the next mobility hub of Kansas City, Missouri.

Within a 1/4 mile radii exists four bus stops that route to nearly every part of the city.

The completion of the Rock Island Corridor will connect this site to a bicycle network that crosses state lines.

Parking share methods could allows for increased  development around this hub.

This site was created using TIF funding that is nearing the end of its terms; yet, if it wasn’t for the Walmart the existing transportation network here would exist (according to a source at KCATA)

The question arises how can this site be improved in the next 20 years that maintains partnerships that support public transit ( aka Walmart) and increases the density of housing and retail to support more comprehensive mobility amenities.

A few ideas:

Maintain the Walmart partnership- they are working in other cities to downsize their stores and increase the quality if their buildings.

Create a cohesive sidewalk network- every mode user is a pedestrian at some point in their day

Re-open the street network- such a large site begs for big box stores with large parking requirements. Reintegrating a street grid with moderate sized blocks creates parcel that are easier to develop and a more pleasant pedestrian environment

Consolidate the bus stops- four bus stops within a 1/4 mile radii  disperses people, funding, and possible amenities. Consolidated provides one spot for mode switch that can be greatly enhanced

On Friday March 16, the Junior Planning Students along with representatives from MARC held a charrette and presentation on Mobility Hubs associated with the Smart Moves 3.0 Plan. As a student in this class, my fellow students and I presented the information and data we have gathered on each of the mobility hubs.  Among the attendees were various public officials associated with the mobility hubs that we randomly chose for our final project along with representatives from MARC and KCATA.

After the presentation, we invited attendees to participate in an information-gathering activity we dubbed “word salad.” The activity involved asking the participants to write down what Mobility Hubs and the future of autonomous vehicles meant to them. We then asked them to switch papers with another attendee and then highlight the words that stood out the most to them.

Next, we asked participants to follow a series of posters each representing different forms of transportation. On each poster, they were to mark which image of provided amenities was most important to enhance the individual transportation experience. This was done using a series of colored dots. Some participants even took the time to write additional amenities on the poster that weren’t available as a choice on the poster.

Finally, we invited our guests to move to the tables associated with each individual mobility hub assigned that represented the city or organization they were affiliated with. We gathered valuable input for development opportunities at our hubs as well as gain insight on the current ideas for the individual areas. Ideas and notes were represented and drawn using colorless development maps and and a box of crayons.

The information we gathered along with the experience itself were both invaluable to us as students learning about the profession. Some of the responses given for the various modes of transportation were surprising, and we discovered that both bike and bus-related amenities really matter to those involved. Unsurprisingly, as our group of attendees were all in the profession, not much emphasis was put on amenities for automobiles. Our guests also indicated  a desire for making the pedestrian experience as aesthetically pleasing as possible through plantings, trees, lighting and street art. Finally, the activities showed us that the most important amenities to include in and around mobility hubs were those that involved eating, drinking and spending money, as the amenities most selected were cafes, grocery stores, bars and small retail.

The public realm is made up of a diversity of elements. Signs are an element that communicates to the public, direct and attract people through landmarks. As we meander or travel through the city, signs assist us in wayfinding.

Signs for food and a diversity of businesses

For people to follow wayfinding signs, the signs must be easy to find and understand, match the human-scale and be attractive. There are plenty of signs that are too big or too small which a pedestrian might miss. Some signs are simply confusing to understand or even exclude people from public places.

Public Property Warning Sign

In the mission to find signs in the public realm, I realized they are everywhere and that signs can serve different functions.  They Direct and serve as Landmarks. It’s important for there to be Signs that Direct people toward the places they want to arrive to. As people commute and transfer from one mode of transportation to the next, they need signs to know when and how trips happen. People need to know whether to turn left or right to move toward their destination. Signs that Direct serve an important role in tourism, for tourists to identify where they are and easily find important places.

Overland Park Downtown Directory

Landmarks are vital to wayfinding. Landmarks have social significance and remain in our minds as a reference of a place in relation to the area. Landmarks are meeting places and can be places that are heavily traveled. Some examples of Signs as Landmarks in Kansas City are Public Art, Murals, and business and theater signs.

I am designing a mobility hub for Gardner, KS. Creating a Lynch Diagram and a Land Use map of Gardner, KS, I realized that the blocks with a diversity in Land Use are higher in density and have a greater number of landmarks and signs. These areas with a diversity in Land Use and higher density attract activity and social interactions.

(Photos are my own)

Cities are on the brink of a design overhaul and best practices in look and feel of streets and transportation networks is still undecided. The future is autonomous, and as there is no real set of comprehensive precedents to follow, urban designers and planners are tasked with attempting to imagine design priorities. As we look back in time and observe lighting elements that have been put in place in the past, one can’t help but notice the lack of attention to the human scale. Lighting elements were largely considered a way to provide broad nighttime visibility for automobiles or a method for enhanced security as people walked to and from their parked car and their ultimate destination.

Newly implemented development and urban design seems to be gearing up for increased pedestrian traffic and more human-scaled design. Lighting is not only smaller in scale and generally more aesthetically pleasing, but much more thought is being put toward pedestrians and safety while traveling on foot.  Downward facing sidewalk and street lights along with pathway lighting enhance the visual walking experience as well as provide a sense of safety for pedestrians. Additionally, it seems as though all new design is ADA-compliant, giving new urban design an even deeper commitment to the human scale.

As for the future of urban lighting, it is easy to assume that the pedestrian will take precedence. As autonomous vehicles begin to dominate the roads, there won’t be a need for as much street lighting as the automobiles’ ability to see will be based on sensors, not eyes. The world will continue to become more urbanized, and a rich mix of urban lighting will be needed to cover the varying forms of transportation.

I had the opportunity to study street furniture as my element of the public realm. I came to find that street furniture is typically used in two ways: utilitarian and aesthetic.

 (Utilitarian)

Both of these functions are important yet do not reach the full potential of street furniture to create outdoors rooms. These rooms can be used to enhance the pedestrian environment and experience. Street furniture can be used to encourage people to stay in what might otherwise be move-through spaces.  How different street furniture elements relate to one another is also of importance. Seating elements should be situated to encourage random or intentional interaction among individuals and provide a balance of sun and shade to accommodate weather patterns.

Furniture elements such as fountains can be used near seating in higher traffic areas to drown out automobile noise.

 (Aesthetic)

Trash cans should be placed in areas convenient to use and be aesthetically pleasing. The relationships of these elements to one another ought not to be random, but intentionally placed to consider the experience of the user.

KCMO: 39^th Street and Main Street

Waiting at the SW 39^th and Main Street Bus stop carries a feeling of wanting to get home and do something to pass the time. Smoking, and drinking are desirable while waiting especially for people who don’t drink coffee or tea. There are no public restrooms or protection from the wind at the bus stops on 39^th street heading East to West and vice versa. The intersection is bustling with automobile traffic. There are shops on the Northwest corner offering Jamaican cuisine and pizza at another with a smoke shop, and a metro mobile store. CVS sets at the Southwest corner, and a radio station on the Southeast. The Northeast corner is under some construction blocking the right but has an operational bus stop. The building on the corner has a HR Block tax prep service and a church of scientology upstairs. Most people waiting for the bus on the SW corner with traffic flowing east, sit near each other on benches and on a three foot wall running along between the CVS parking lot and the sidewalk.  Without any covering shielding from the weather. They are passing the time with intermitted conversation and people watching.

KCMO: Troost Ave & 39^th Street

Troost and 39^th Street have a YMCA child care center for the HEAD START program. The corner only offers seating and only protection from the weather when a police officer is standing duty at the Metro Center. The SE corner provides a convenience store and mobile devices. On the SW corner is a parking lot with fencing separating it from the street. There is a church and a thrift store that shares the parking lot. The lot is not clearly marked as a park and ride. It also has an art statue or monument that reminds me of the Eiffel Tower. There is street lighting at a height of 20ft, trash cans, bus schedules, and outside seating are on both NE & SW corners. On the NW corner is a dry cleaning company and so far no food service amenities available.  Most people while they are waiting sit or stand looking at phones or have headphones in watching for the bus. Heading southbound on Troost Ave there are pedestrian lights at a height of 10 feet and seem to be marking where residential lots begin on main past the node of 39^th and Troost Ave.

Roeland Park: Roe Lane & 47^th Street & 48^th Street

There two bus stops on 48^th street near the entrance of Roe Parkway leading to a business park, a quarry like landscape on the left and a crumbling parking lot on the right. Which seems to be suggested as a park and ride. Art sculptures can be seen from the park and ride inside the 20 to 30 ft wide median on Roe Lane. The bus stops have no seating and zero protection from the wind. There are designated signal pedestrian cross walks that are a comfortable walking distance like crossing Rockhill Rd from Katz Hall to the Miller Nichols Library. Traffic is heavy for between 4pm and 6pm. 47^th street is a bikeshare road and leads into a uphill curve connector with multifamily housing on both sides till the intersection of County Line Rd and 47^th street.

Anything West of 48^th and Roe Lane leads to suburban shopping malls with plenty of fast food, a few grocery stores, home depot, game stop, quick trip, city hall, banks, some food service but must access it by crossing a desert of parking lots. The sidewalks are well taking care with trees planted along the main corridor of traffic leading to I35 and into Shawnee mission Parkway further down.

The quarry like area on 48^th and Roe Parkway used to be a swimming pool. Now somewhat graded but mostly is soft wet soil with rock and long grass covering the area. Its large enough to a be connector for the multiple mobility hubs. I would say 20 buses could fit well and move to where the need to go for the region.

Photo: Frostbite45

This is what we call a pest of the public realm. It’s one example of vegetation in the wrong location. It is a bit of an eyesore. One positive aspect of the location is that it is hiding the utility boxes from the public view.  Please keep in mind that this photo was taken during  winter.