I sent an email over the people from the Shops at Wasted Space (Sunset Place) to find out what would occupying the space once the Bodies exhibit concludes. I also decided to inquire if the mall was actively persuing any ideas to better connect it with metrorail by means of a pedestrian overpass. Here is the reply I received:
Mr. Lopez-BernalThere is a tenant planned for the space that Bodies currently occupies, but that tenant’s name has not been announced. I have not been advised by Metrorail of any plans for a pedestrian overpass, but it does sound like a great idea.
Thank you for your inquiry.
Great initiative. Yes, let’s wait for the helpful folks over at MDT to come up with a plan to better link metrorail with its surroundings, maybe something will get done by 2050, we’ll see…
Technorati Tags: Miami, Metrorail, Transit, Traffic, Transportation, Pedestrian, Urban Planning, Urban Growth, Sunset Place, Malls
A while ago I came accross this as part of the Transportation Improvement Program. Its states there is a pedestrian overpass planned for 57th Ave & US-1 (which by the way would be pretty far from the metrorail and bring people to the closed off end of Sunset Place…nicely planned as usual).
http://gisims2.co.miami-dade.fl.us/MyNeighborhood/MPOProjDesc/ProjDesc/TA0000036/index.html
An integrated pedestrian overpass would be phenomenal.
If they wanted to, they could put a turnstile somewhere on the bridge itself so that you wouldn’t have to climb so many stairs/escalators to get between Metrorail and the crossing.
I was impressed by the Washington DC Metro’s yellow and blue lines, which stop directly underneath Pentagon City, a major shopping mall in Arlington, Virginia. An escalator and a short walk take you right into the mall without ever stepping outside.
A pedestrian overpass @ South Miami isn’t happening anytime soon. The University of Miami has been lobbying FDOT to build one at University Station for at least 15-20 years, during which time AT LEAST 3 students have DIED crossing US-1. Probably more. And there’s still no overpass. If UM, lobbying hard, amidst actual deaths, can’t get one built, Sunset Place has ZERO chances of making it happen without divine intervention.
Personally, it pisses me off to no end. If someone would just cast 3 rectangular columns, drop some hollowcore planks on top with a crane and bolt them in place, and finish it off with pressure-treated wood railing and a stairway on each end… it would cost maybe a hundred thousand dollars, max. But no, they have to turn it into a $25+ million extravaganza built to withstand a 100kt nuclear detonation 10 miles away, with elevator on both sides, and wait 40 years for someone to fund it. Sigh.
Oh, right. The handicapped. OK, fine. Put a ruggedized videophone (cost: ~$10-20k max) at each end that connects to a call center in India. When someone who can’t climb stairs wants to cross, they press the button, show the person in India that they’re really in a wheelchair, and the person in India turns the light red until they’re finished crossing (watching the person cross with a camera pointed at the crossing). For one such overpass, the call center would be expensive… but for 10 or 20 such overpasses built around Dade County, it would be WAY cheaper than the elevator maintenance costs ALONE. And handles the 3 or 4 people per day in wheelchairs who ACTUALLY CROSS just as nicely as a pair of elevators.
A friend of mine got hit by a bus on that intersection - luckily he survived though…