Your Vision of a Perfect Transit Station

[Visualizer]

With the Red line finally up and running and the Southwest LRT on the horizon, can you see suburban transit stations playing a greater role in social and economic activity?
What sort of amenities would such a station have?
Would it include a bike locker? Or, perhaps, a cafe or convenience shop?
Do you see them becoming places for public gatherings?

[mattaudio]

I'd say the perfect transit station is the one that connects a walkable node with a high-frequency/amenity transit line to other walkable nodes.

[talindsay]

I'd say the perfect transit station is the one that connects a walkable node with a high-frequency/amenity transit line to other walkable nodes.

Right on. Especially in the suburbs, amenities aren't even the issue. Producing an end point that doesn't necessitate having a car at it would be the biggest thing.

Now, in the world of *urban* transit, I'd like to see retail in the light rail stations. Nothing big, just a newspaper/magazine/coffee place would be great. Actually, even vending machines would help. I see there is a vending machine in Lake St. / Midtown now, that's a start.

[Matt]

I agree that it'd be great to see some of the small scale retail like convenience shops. It is really common to see these at subway stations in major cities, so it would be perfectly reasonable and logical to see them at light rail stations or major transit centers around here.

[FISHMANPET]

I had to visit the Southwest Transit center for a transit planning class I took, and I was pretty impressed by the amenities there. There were only a couple shops on site, but they were all geared toward serving the commuter. It being Southwest Transit station, it meant they were really only busy in the morning before work and in the evening after work, and also was still fairly car oriented, but I liked the idea.

[Andrew_F]

Now, in the world of *urban* transit, I'd like to see retail in the light rail stations. Nothing big, just a newspaper/magazine/coffee place would be great. Actually, even vending machines would help. I see there is a vending machine in Lake St. / Midtown now, that's a start.

This is particularly nice at stations with a high percentage of passengers transferring to/from rail/express bus to/from local buses. Not too much use at stations where the vast majority of passengers walk to the station.

[talindsay]

Now, in the world of *urban* transit, I'd like to see retail in the light rail stations. Nothing big, just a newspaper/magazine/coffee place would be great. Actually, even vending machines would help. I see there is a vending machine in Lake St. / Midtown now, that's a start.

This is particularly nice at stations with a high percentage of passengers transferring to/from rail/express bus to/from local buses. Not too much use at stations where the vast majority of passengers walk to the station.

From personal experience I would disagree, in part - in Paris at least, a fair number of people get their coffee and a newspaper at the train station, and usually people don't time their walk to perfectly align with the train's arrival. Still, obviously the sheer volume of people at a transfer station makes it a more likely place to start than a single-line station. Midtown/Lake is an obvious place for this type of amenity, while 38th Street probably isn't, for example.

[Andrew_F]

I guess the type of shop I'm thinking of are the ones in Chicago, which are outside the turnstyles. Most of the people I see stopping to buy a coffee or paper at, say, Roosevelt or Halsted (Orange), are people who have just gotten off the train and are going to wait for a bus. It's practical to stand around in line for a minute or two when you can see the bus stop right outside the windows 60 feet away, but not so much when the rail platform is a turnstyle and an escalator (or two) away.