A Grand Boulevard for Columbia: Assembly Street Improvements

[Spartan]

I'm not suggesting that Sumter be made a thoroughfare through the USC campus. I am suggesting that two roads on either side of the core CBD area can handle more traffic more efficiently than one wide road. Traffic going west on Gervias would have 4 well timed options to access Elmwood... Bull St, Sumter St, Assembly St, and Huger St. When I lived at Carolina I had a job at a business near the BofA Plaza. I often found that it was just as easy if not easier to take Marion or Sumter Street as opposed to the insanity of Bull St or Assembly St during peak rush hour traffic. The time difference was negligible. But then this was at the time when it was not physically possible to go more than 2 blocks without stopping unless you pull an Andre Bauer.

Point being, Columbia's grid is set up to where it could be better utilized to offer alternative routes to reach the same destinations, and I think that people will use them if the alternate routes are made more efficient. Perhaps 4 lanes on Assembly is asking a bit much, but I think a Gervais St set up where parking is allowed on the outside lane except during rush hour would be a good arrangement. Assembly is too much of a focus for cars. If Columbia is going to improve for the better it needs to be more pedestrian friendly. That means lane reductions. The street is effectively 9 lanes wide for a pedestrian in the heart of Columbia. This makes no sense regardless of volume.

Nothing in this city will change as long as it continues to design everything around what vehicles can and cannot do. How hard is it for a car to turn two blocks earlier? How hard is it for someone to sit in their steel cage a few minutes longer because they choose to live out in the far flung northeastern suburbs? My opinion is that its tough luck. Shoulda lived closer. On the plus side, maybe they will start to push for that commuter rail to get moving faster.

[johnpro318]

I personally like the parking in the median...it's different and helps not having to cross that whole street at one sitting.

That's the point. Imagine PEDESTRIANS trying to cross that whole street. The whole point of this thread is to think of ideas to solve this problem. Honestly, I think you just proved our point.

[Captain Worley]

I hate the center parking. Some SUV parkks behind you and you can't see enough to safely leave your parking place.

[CarolinaSouth]

I'm not suggesting that Sumter be made a thoroughfare through the USC campus. I am suggesting that two roads on either side of the core CBD area can handle more traffic more efficiently than one wide road. Traffic going west on Gervias would have 4 well timed options to access Elmwood... Bull St, Sumter St, Assembly St, and Huger St. When I lived at Carolina I had a job at a business near the BofA Plaza. I often found that it was just as easy if not easier to take Marion or Sumter Street as opposed to the insanity of Bull St or Assembly St during peak rush hour traffic. The time difference was negligible. But then this was at the time when it was not physically possible to go more than 2 blocks without stopping unless you pull an Andre Bauer.

Point being, Columbia's grid is set up to where it could be better utilized to offer alternative routes to reach the same destinations, and I think that people will use them if the alternate routes are made more efficient. Perhaps 4 lanes on Assembly is asking a bit much, but I think a Gervais St set up where parking is allowed on the outside lane except during rush hour would be a good arrangement. Assembly is too much of a focus for cars. If Columbia is going to improve for the better it needs to be more pedestrian friendly. That means lane reductions. The street is effectively 9 lanes wide for a pedestrian in the heart of Columbia. This makes no sense regardless of volume.

Nothing in this city will change as long as it continues to design everything around what vehicles can and cannot do. How hard is it for a car to turn two blocks earlier? How hard is it for someone to sit in their steel cage a few minutes longer because they choose to live out in the far flung northeastern suburbs? My opinion is that its tough luck. Shoulda lived closer. On the plus side, maybe they will start to push for that commuter rail to get moving faster.

That's the point. Imagine PEDESTRIANS trying to cross that whole street. The whole point of this thread is to think of ideas to solve this problem. Honestly, I think you just proved our point.

Oh trust me.... i do understand exactly what everyone is saying...but what i'm saying is..."I" actually like the median parking...that's all i was saying....Not everyone...just "ME".

I have more of an issue trying to get out of the diagonal spaces on Main St than i have from the median parking....

With that said...Call me weird, but i'm not for just a streamlined street with a nice floral-type of median. Maybe the Monument based idea would work for me[like someone mentioned before]...but not a pretty median that brings nothing to the table....crossing the street is psychological and floral arrangements won't change that....even a streamlined street won't....I'm weary everytime i'm in ATL trying to cross certain parts of Peachtree and for the most part Peachtree isn't anywhere as wide as Assembly and i feel safer crossing Assembly......

[Spartan]

^right, and that median is a major benefit. Infact, most pedestrian designs that encourage peds to cross major streets like that include islands that are actually built around the ped crossing.

[johnpro318]

haha Sorry, realize I sounded a little uptight the other day. No worries.

[digital_sandlapper]

With that said...Call me weird, but i'm not for just a streamlined street with a nice floral-type of median. Maybe the Monument based idea would work for me[like someone mentioned before]...but not a pretty median that brings nothing to the table....crossing the street is psychological and floral arrangements won't change that....even a streamlined street won't....I'm weary everytime i'm in ATL trying to cross certain parts of Peachtree and for the most part Peachtree isn't anywhere as wide as Assembly and i feel safer crossing Assembly......

Sure, it adds beauty to have a grand boulevard with heavily landscaped medians (and not just beds of annuals, but canopy trees, shrubs, turf, and perennial/annual flower beds). But it also adds other benefits as well, such as providing shade (after a few years' growth of the tree canopy) for pedestrians, motorists and bikers at intersections.

But perhaps the most important benefit of narrowing the streets and building wide medians, cross-walks, and so forth is one that you did not mention, CarolinaSouth. It changes a driver's behavior. When a driver senses that someone or something could dart out at in front of them at any time, they slow down and become more alert. That is the strongest argument of all for narrowing Assembly Street.

Currently, the speed limit on Assembly is grossly ignored (I have been guilty as well) because it is essentially a superspeedway/thoroughfare. We need to return it to its proper place as a gracious boulevard by narrowing it and building a WIDE median, WIDE sidewalks with tree lawns, WIDE cross-walks with benches, etc. If that would ruin it for a commuter traversing the city, then there are countless options on the grid for alternate routes, as others have pointed out. They do not HAVE to take Assembly to get where they're going. Plus, like Spartan said, if they curse the new and imporved boulevard, I'm sorry for them. They'll be alright.

The re-birth of Assembly will happen -- and the results will be awesome!

[sojay]

OK, who asked to think outside the box?

Here's one: ski-lifts at every intersection! The kind that are easy and safe and fast to get in and out of.

Just kidding... But hey, it would make postcard material if they have a unique cool design...

Here's another one:

Instead of diverting traffic FROM Assembly, how about attracting traffic TO it?

-Make a 4 or 6 lane completely buried tunnel from Elmwood to Blossom with no turns allowed (imagine the time saver if no traffic lights?)

-Keep 4 lanes above ground, but with numerous bulbs and other tricks for slowing down traffic.

-Remove all 4 parking lanes completely, replace them with really wide side walks and a median with 4 rows of shade trees.

-Between the middle two rows of trees (or to one side of the street), build an elevated monorail with 4-lane biking paths underneath (for bikes, rollerbladers, Segway users etc.

I don't think the plantings need to be that floral and high maintenance. As long as there's some serious shade, a minimalist ground cover with a few tropicalesque touches under the canopy (like fatsias and holley ferns like you see them a lot around the horseshoe) would do it for me.

Huger could get the same treatment, and the monorail could loop around in a figure 8 and continue to both stadiums, the water front park, the Vista, 5-points...

This way you DO park in a parking house and leave the car there for the day - so you eliminate the need for metered parking. You won't take the car to go have lunch or run short errands at the other side of the downtown area.

[Spartan]

Where would traffic reconnect to downtown? We can't have buried streets that dont go anywhere

[krazeeboi]

I like the monorail idea, although I think a fixed streetcar would be better.

[Spartan]

Yeah. The thing with monorail is that people love the idea of it, but its never been proven to been successful as a viable, long term form of mass transit. I've read that they will work best in places with a very linear type of development... so Myrtle Beach could be a better candidate since all the places that people want to go are more or less in one line.

[sojay]

Where would traffic reconnect to downtown? We can't have buried streets that dont go anywhere

At Blossom. Close enough to the heart of Innovista. People who need to go to places between Elmwood and Blossom would take the surface lanes. Possibly one halfway access point. Huger would get a lot less traffic as a result, which would help the developments towards the river connect to the Vista. Sure cost is a major factor, but lots of cities throughout the world have traffic diverted under ground. Why not Columbia?

I still think a suspended mass transport system like a monorail would be affordable over putting down tracks, the footprint would be small, and the coolness factor would make people want to use it.

[mr. chips]

-Make a 4 or 6 lane completely buried tunnel from Elmwood to Blossom with no turns allowed (imagine the time saver if no traffic lights?)

I am with you here - especially in the area near the campus! Burying Assembly from Pendleton to Blossom would create a seamless park-like campus above, and be a real gem for Columbia! let's start a movement...

[waccamatt]

Does anyone have any idea how much a project like that would cost? It would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. They estimated a cost of 95 million just to bury the power lines from Elmwood to Whaley and redo the median and sidewalks. We could build a monorail or light rail system with that same money.

[sojay]

As I see it, spending major bucks on improving Assembly is not just on a wish list, it's a real NECESSITY because of the many pedestrians who are getting hurt there already, and the many more who will get hurt once Innovista grows. Having an appealing and pedestrian downtown is a major asset (once we get it done) to draw companies, students, new hires etc. Would I want to send my kid to a campus that's cut in half by a highway that you are fooled into thinking is just a street?

Something has to be done ASAP. The problem is, IMO, that if we try to do a halfhearted attempt to just reduce the problem a little bit now,

without thinking long term, then it will be harder later to implement things like public transport.

We need:

a) more safety for pedestrians

b) more greenery (shade trees in particular)

c) to bury the power lines

d) to think of how future public transport can be incorporated

e) to manage the traffic flow

f) to encourage people to leave their cars parked all day out of sight or not use them at all.

g) to encourage people to take advantage of the downtown and possibly move there

Somebody in a previous post urged us to think outside the box, so I tried. You were talking about diverting traffic away from Assembly, but I think drawing the traffic to an underground artery that would be the main north-south artery would be better.

Anyhow, if you shoot for the sun, you are bound to get further than if you just shoot for the moon.... Aren't there federal funds available for projects like this? Think of the jobs it would create, both in terms of construction and jobs that would be created because the downtown would be desirable.

[Spartan]

Well, I can't fault you for not thinking outside the box

The problem is projects like that are impractical. You can get a bigger bang for your buck by just building transit with that money. Separating vehicles from the street has proven unsuccessful with the "pedestrian mall" concept in the 70s. What we need to do is embrace the "complete streets" concept (which Columbia City Council has done) and actually implement that.

[waccamatt]

What do you know, Mayor Coble must be reading UP.

Assembly Beautification

[dobboard]

It certainly is good news that this is on the collective minds of our City Council (or at least the Mayor). As stated in the article, it will be a long, long time before we see any progress on the Assembly Street streetscape front.

Man that street would look amazing with new trees, buried power lines, decorative lighting, side and crosswalks.... simply amazing.

[Spartan]

But the main project will be railroad relocation. It would consolidate the CSX and Norfolk Southern tracks on the elevated berm that crosses over Rosewood Drive and Whaley Street. The two lines would share an overpass on Assembly street at Whaley Street.

But the mayor stressed this will be a long-term, all-encompassing plan, perhaps taking more than a decade. Two other streetscaping projects

[scnative]

About time this area has received some attention. Trains are a vital part to our economy but how they crossover some of the most traveled areas in our city has IMO hurt growth. Even though it will be a long time before this is a reality, it is at least on the drawing board. How this will change that not so attractive area!

Columbia is surely on its way to becoming a more beautiful city.

[scnative]

I am a little concerned about the proposed RR relocation to the Whaley St area. That would put the train directly behind Whaley's Mill, and I'm certain that residents there would not be in favor of that.

Maybe I have read it wrong but it seems the tracks would actually be moved a little farther away from Whaley's Mill.

[sonofaque86]

The article said this will take over 10 years to complete. wow...

[Captain Worley]

^It IS a pretty ambitious project.

[krazeeboi]

This is one project that you've gotta make sure is done right the first time. Overhauling Assembly would literally change the face of downtown Columbia. I hope they keep other forms of transit in mind (bike lanes, potential street car/light rail, etc.).

[Spartan]

Maybe I have read it wrong but it seems the tracks would actually be moved a little farther away from Whaley's Mill.

I'm going by the map that they posted and the built environment in that area. The most logical connection is on or parallel to Whaley St.