Comments on: REBOOT: College Hill Transit Sub-Hub Part 2

By: Reader Submission: Thayer Street Station Rendering — Greater City: Providence

Reader Submission: Thayer Street Station Rendering — Greater City: Providence — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:50:25 +0000

[...] Read more thoughts about a future College Hill Sub-Hub here and here. [...]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:35:25 +0000

Compared to the loop, the streetcars will operate faster and interfere less with other traffic if the line runs through Fones Alley to Hope St. There the tracks can jog to and from Waterman and Angell streets when the route extends to Wayland Sq.

Pedestrianizing Thayer does not seem necessary to me. I say divert thru traffic away from Thayer so that only drivers whose destination is Thayer would be driving there. Add market-rate metered parking and bulbouts. It will be much nicer for people walking or hanging around or riding the #42 without the routine traffic jam.

Comment #3: The only “struggling” I ever noticed in connection with Thayer St. are the struggles any reasonably successful business will have when its rent gets doubled or worse.

By: mental757

mental757 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:47:00 +0000

I like the loop a lot. It is proactive in that is makes future expansion easy to implement, doesn’t require eminant domain which is costly and often controversial, and seems simple, which is usually the best approach for anything in RI that has a chance of actually happening. I think RIPTA should save money and hire us to do the basic strategy and design!!! Nice work Peter.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:52:19 +0000

That looks good. Not sure the if there is a good place for the hub. I think a taking of the shopping center land along with the loop might create a nice outdoor space. Eliminate the parking from Fones to Waterman and a nice plaza could be made of out of the block. As previously stated there may be some benefit to restricting thru traffic and move toward a more pedestrian friendly space. You still may be able to provide for parking between Angell and Fones. It looks like there are about 12-15 street spaces between Angell and Waterman.

By: Jef Nickerson

Jef Nickerson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:22:12 +0000

Peter sent me a new drawing of the Loop option. I’ve added it to the bottom of the original post above as Option 5.

By: Jef Nickerson

Jef Nickerson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:47:33 +0000

Yes, I agree, especially if we ever run streetcars as two attached vehicles. I don’t think we want the streetcars stopping on an incline.

By: Peter Brassard

Peter Brassard — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:43:07 +0000

Looking more closely at the photo of the bus exiting the tunnel, it might be uncomfortably tight to install platforms within the tunnel approach, unless the retaining walls are shifted away.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:54:42 +0000

It would be nice if a future expansion would loop thru Wayland Square out to Blackstone Blvd and back up along Hope to Thayer. A line like that could just about eliminate the need for buses on that part of the East Side.

By: Peter Brassard

Peter Brassard — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:16:09 +0000

Sometimes the simplest solution is the easiest to miss from the start. The loop makes the most sense both from and expense and implementation standpoint. The loop could also extend to Hope or a “T” intersection could bring streetcars from both Thayer and Angell to the tunnel platforms.

By: Jef Nickerson

Jef Nickerson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:24:11 +0000

Yes, taking Option 1, where the stop is in the tunnel portal, then looping the rails around the block would be a viable option, and would be the preferred loop option in my opinion. I think the most likely, and best future extension is to Wayland Square (I'll write more about that in Part 3), so a loop to the north would not be preferred in my opinion. The streetcars will need someplace along the loop to layover as that is one of the goals of the sub-hubs, allowing drivers to rest at the end of the line, clean cars, change drivers, catch up to the schedule, etc. A siding of some sort will have to allow the streetcars to get out of the way while they are laying over. Brown could possibly free up some land along Waterman behind the SciLi for this.
View Larger Map Brown would need to maintain access to their loading docks here, but that could be accomplished while still allowing room for streetcars to layover.