RTA is requesting community feedback on their conceptual mobility hub plan for Vine Street.
Mobility hubs consist of major transit stations and the surrounding area. They serve a critical function in the regional transportation system as the origin, destination, or transfer point for a significant portion of trips. They are places of connectivity where different modes of transportation – from walking to biking to riding transit – come together seamlessly and where there is an intensive concentration of working, living, shopping and/or playing.
One idea has been to link the hub and the Eastside Lincoln Park Neighborhood directly to downtown with a linear bike and pedestrian parkway over the 91 freeway. Not unlike the Highline in New York.
As it stands right now, air quality impacts from the mobility hub traffic will affect their neighborhood the most. Any increase in density as a multi-use destination will also be felt. There must certainly be some creative ways we can use this new mobility hub as a catalyst to actually improve the neighborhood for the neighbors.
We should be looking at separating the pedestrians, bikes, boards, and scooters from the University Avenue traffic at the 215/60 ramps. Long approach ramps emanating from the now stalled, on-campus mobility hub, made from structural steel would be a safe, inexpensive, immediate solution.
With some integrated lighting and artwork, it could become the start of a workable, alternative transportation corridor all the way to downtown.
Now that CARB is nearing completion and Iowa Ave is scheduled to become four lanes from University to Martin Luther King Drive, maybe it’s worth considering. We’re sure making it easier for cars to get around. How about everyone else?
What would it be like if we could bike and/or hike along the entire route?
Most critically, it includes the parcels necessary to build a tunnel and a bridge for safe trail access.
That’s the only safe option that thousands of residents and students have to regain their access to our neighborhoods’ best natural resource: Our trails.
The Friends commissioned a Master Trails Plan for the Box Springs Mountain Preserve, including a trail head at Islander Park.
The trail plan ringed the mountains at the base and at the top connecting dozens of Riverside and Moreno Valley neighborhoods with a variety of trail loop options.
The plan needs updating, but could be used to leverage transportation grant funding to develop alternative transportation networks. That’s taking mobility to a whole new level.
The Northside has been clear and vocal about preserving and restoring their Springbrook Wash trail.
That’s a key trail link to Fairmont Park and the Santa Ana River Trail.
Aren’t we already feeling the impacts of increasing density? More traffic, longer delays, degrading roadways, boring vistas are all part of the daily commute we’re being forced to live with.
We’ve sold our soul and best natural assets to warehousing and we didn’t even have a designated truck route planned for the city. Go figure.
What would it be like if getting around was fun, easy, exciting … and promoted good health?
What would it be like if we had a coordinated transportation agency response that leveraged resources for immediate community equity?
