Reno Park Update 090804B: Transit Fade

Ok, so for the second set of transportation analysis, I’ve compared transit accessibility to lot areas. Even without buildings, it’s possible to get a sense of the transit-accessible public space here. Areas that are lighter have more transit options. Again, Tenleytown is a hub of activity, where the blocks around the circle and the Metro stop are major transfer points that get a lot of street traffic.

property-transit

So, Chevy Chase isn’t really the most transit-accessible place in the world. Even if I had used a 1/4 mile radius for buses, there would have been a dark spot there. Also, note that the commercial strip between Fessenden and Ellicott streets is in the 1/2 mile radius overlap between Tenleytown and Friendship Heights, which may contribute to its success, in spite of being somewhat isolated by the hill to the south. Read on for a breakdown of plans.

prop-transit-rail

Here’s the as-the-bird-flies radii from each Metro station. The Tobago area is almost completely excluded from service, using a reasonable guideline that few people will walk more than 5 minutes to service, except to commute to the city center. Since I’m redesigning a park, commuting is not that important, except where people are walking through the park on their way to transportation. And here is the bus coverage:

prop-transit-bus

It’s a considerably different picture in some ways, except that Tenleytown and Van Ness still register as hubs of activity. The big difference between bus and rail is the M4. The Nebraska Avenue line links up a bunch of underserved areas, connecting a lot of residential neighborhoods. Together with the commercial zoning and road pattern, it’s why Tobago is more of a node than other developed areas along Connecticut. And perhaps most important for my project, this bus line substantially covers the usable sections of Fort Reno Park. The presence of transit makes that diagonal space an even more appealing target of architectural enhancement. Finally, here is a map with roads and alleys added to the mix:

prop-transit-roads

First, I think this is a really beautiful map… Anyway, Tenleytown has a long strip of public land with a lot of transit access. Direct transit access is occurs primarily along Chesapeake Street and Nebraska Avenue. This reinforces the perception I’ve had that the most developed section of the park, in terms of paths and resources, needs to be along Chesapeake Street. A less elaborate, but still developed area should face Nebraska Avenue. There are also a lot of marginally useful park-like spaces formed at diagonals of the avenues that could serve as gateways to the main park space if architecturally developed.

Of course, it is a community park, so the primary mode of access will be by foot. Many of those dark areas will be shown to be within the walkshed of the park, so do deserve treatment. More on that later.

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