Code,999078 Subject,Mike Schipper Date,10/16/08 Interviewer,Erin Bell Abstract,"Mike Schipper, project director for the Euclid Corridor Project, discusses the aesthetic design of the Euclid Corridor Project, technology to help increase traffic flow, and working with local artists to develop the Integrated Art Program. Schipper also discusses the work being done for the Historic markers, work done with Cleveland State University, and the overall impact the Euclid Corridor Project is expected to have, both economically and aesthetically. " Tags,"RTA, Euclid Corridor Project, Traffic flow, Technology" Special Notes, Minutes: ,48:26:00 0,"Been with RTA over seven years. Project director from the executive staff for Euclid Corridor Project. Responsible for all the planning, designing, and construction for RTA, Euclid Corridor Project was the largest component." 1,"Design process started in ""environmental preliminary engineering"" by deciding to go with bus rapid transit. From there looked at right of way, space between buildings, how corridor looked. Broke design into different neighborhoods and districts. Worked with urban design team to change look of corridor every 20-30 blocks." 2,"Downtown utilized higher end finishes, granite curbs out to 17th street, brick pavers in sidewalk. Urban design team developed 5 foot multiple pattern, bricks in 5 foot strips, tree 25 feet apart, light poles 75 feet apart, creates a sense of rhythm. " 3,"Spent time balancing with property owners about sidewalk width, pocket parking, bus station locations. Revised design to develop wider sidewalks for restaurants, pocket parking and valet services for hotels, and parking for delivery vehicles. " 4,"Early on some of urban design was ""over the top"" for affordability. Scaled down to looking at other great streets in the country, like Michigan Ave, wanted to incorporate some features but needed to determine where it was appropriate. Looked at other streets in London and New York for other elements to incorporate. Wanted to keep Euclid unique. Euclid Ave at one time was named most beautiful street in country, wanted it to stand as Euclid Ave." 5,"Wanted to give street a more modern look and move away from the historical. Modern plays well with architecture of the old building. ""Silverline"" name made them move to steel, aluminum, silver paint instead of more historic bronze. Wanted to brighten up the improvement which would play off with historical architecture." 6,"Worked hard on Silverline branding, but going to Healthline is an improvement. Wants to look forward (hence modern design) when looking forward the medical community are some of the bright spots." 7,"Health connotation works well. Euclid has longest stretch of dedicated bike lanes in the city more pedestrian friendly city, hybrid buses are green. Fortunate that the institutions wanted to sponsor the corridor, allows for dedicated funds to maintain the flower beds and aesthetic." 8,"Silver theme still works well as a design element, but the health line plays into things done for design and where the industry is going. Design team took matrix of all the elements (from other cities) and began to design." 9,"Decided to make sure there are good trees on corridor. Things copied: Dallas, all trees are planted in concrete tree trenches with special soil and irrigation, also have aluminum cover and bricks which opens up sidewalk. Good for downtown, people won't be tripping over flowerbeds." 10,"Design team used elements from previous project at Gateway. Farther in the corridor, where there was more room, had tree planter beds. Did a lot to ensure trees have a better chance of survival. While they borrowed, tried to make it their own design. One of the unique things is having stations in the middle of the street." 11,"Median Stations is not unique in light rail, but is for bus rapid transit. By having dedicated transit lanes in the middle of the street no longer have to dodge parked cars, slow down for cars looking for parking. Also allowed for station to have a strong design element, more room to work with." 12,"12 foot wide platform, a little over 100 feet long, and allows for planters at the ends of islands to transition back into roadway. Expected to have a 12 minute time saving, might exceed that time saving because median dedicated transit lane is working well. " 13,Majority of the saving is from Public Square to Case. When you reach University Circle and East Cleveland you get back into a more traditional bus lane with mixed traffic. Taking steps to clean up some intersections and signal timing to save minutes. 14,"Last center median stations are at 105th, from their transition into the curb. Phase jump allows for bus to get a head start into curb lane. Reconfigured the street but will help with flow." 15,"Traffic signal system is tied into city's signal network and city of Cleveland will operate system. Unique features that will give transit priority, all vehicles have GPS and camera unit which are tied together, if there is a green light and detects GPS light will stay green longer. Most stations are on far side of the intersections, green light extension allows for bus to pick up passengers and keep going, not be stuck at a light." 16,"Other feature: if bus is stopped, has the ability to ""phase jump."" Some intersections have as many as 8 phases, if vehicle is running late and stopped the light will recognize that and allow bus to go through out of order." 17,Third thing: Traffic symbol uses rail head instead of traditional traffic light. Prevents confusion for drivers in left turn lanes. 18,"Rail head was used in Salt Lake City where light rail runs in middle of the street. Great application for Bus Rapid Transit. While not fully open, some parts are operational and there was only one incident of a car that turned into vehicle. " 19,People in the cars are starting to figure rail head out. Everything RTA is doing is in traffic signal system is already out there. 20,"Nothing developed specifically, but tailored for the project and not really done in Cleveland before. Worked hard with city traffic commissioner who has been proponent for what they were doing and open to try new ideas. Guinea pigs and if working well could be incorporated into other streets." 21,"Having a city traffic engineer that is open to project is important. Other places in the country have issued with traffic commissioner, focusing too much on cars. In Cleveland focusing on getting RTV and other vehicles through without screwing up traffic flow." 22,"Other aspect of project is downtown transit zone which focuses on St. Clair and Superior. First project constructed for Euclid Corridor Program. Did rehabilitation of streets in 2005, purpose was to relocate bus stops and to create a 24/7 bus only lane on Superior. " 23,"St Clair has peak hour bus only lanes during rush hour. This allows majority of buses going through downtown to traverse faster, consolidated stops mean more efficiency." 24,"Unique thing about RTA, all west side and east side routes go through downtown and an overlap of all routes. Transit zone improvements allow for more efficiency for bus deployment at peak hours. Improvements were very important in funding of project, little piece of work that allowed for travel efficiency and helped qualify for funding to complete Euclid aspect. " 25,Euclid Corridor Project was needed to benefit the whole network. All vehicles have GPS unit and automated vehicle location system which is tied into bus schedules. Each vehicles travels in block which are monitored at all times. Allows them to know if the buses are on schedule. 26,Displays in stations are tied into system. Ability to take that feed and put them into into stations. Installed 48 pair fiber optic duct bank the whole length of project. 27,"Fiber optic allows transmission of data, looping information into Tower City, Rail Yard and will be able to use this for a long time. Have the capability of doing a wireless cloud on Euclid, tested it at Case and know it works. " 28,"At some point they will implement it, not sure about details, this is a future amenity. " 29,"(question about ""central park"") One idea being floated by developers. RTA owns three parcel of land in midtown that they want to sell, on one parcel two or three concept floated by developers. One is central park, one is redevelopment of buildings, no one has signed yet." 30,One of the benefits of project is redevelopment of midtown. As property owner RTA has stake and are marketing land for development. One stipulation is that ideas go into implementation. 31,RTA hired 5 artists for integrated art program. Two artists developed idea for graphical representations of the neighborhoods. 32,"Paired artist up with historian who had idea of bringing the history of street out. History of Cleveland has ""a lot of unique things going on."" While they wanted a modern look, felt it was important to bring some of the history out. Artist came up with themes for 6 different districts and East Cleveland and came up with symbology and color for each. " 33,"RTA's contribution was helping to properly show history on the map, historian came up with a lot of research. RTA worked with CSU to contribute with oral history, wanted to give history of the street in a graphical form." 34,"History marker has same form as district markers. District markers show where the history markers are located, this grew out of the integrated art programs. " 35,"Still have ongoing debate where Garrett Morgan's traffic light was located. Cleveland was a bustling center of innovation, especially concerning traffic lights. " 36,"Found info about Women's suffrage movement, buildings that no longer exist, events that happened on the street, info about terminal tower and public square but also have stories that no one knew about. Have 80-90 markers in the project, hoping for community involvement. " 37,"This project is a true investment in the urban core infrastructure, catalyst for revitalization of the corridor, true test is midtown. Tracked over three billion dollars of reinvestment, Plain dealer tracked 4.3 billion." 38," 2/3 of all building permit value was within a quarter mile of corridor. For $200,000,000 investment (majority federal funding) getting a lot of ""bang for the buck."" Some investment would have happened without them, but not as fast. " 39,"If they could not relocate they would put in new features. New gas line, electrical connections, things you can't do piecemeal. Other aspect of project is visual impact, took out all overhead power lines. Visual impact is huge for making the street look modern." 40,Street looks the way it does in the rendering. Happy with the way it looks and the property adjacent to it. Hoping to close gap and see lots redeveloped. 41,One of the artists came up with the concept for benches. 42,"Benches were a word play of thing and change, words are in the benches and morph together. Grasped the concept of what they are wanted with project. Could be things change which is restrictive, or change things which is proactive. Design team is trying to change things, trying to make positive change and more forward from that." 43,Trying to make change from the positive side. 44,"One bench located by BP building, one will by CSU but was delayed for new student center. " 45,CSU development rearranged orientation of design to play off of Euclid instead of Chester. Tied in perfectly to new aesthetic. 46,Law schools new entrance shows that CSU is reorienting to work with design and reorient doors to Euclid. 47,Clinic has also refocused their master plan for redevelopment. UH also has made improvement to accommodate one another. These institution help with overall development. 48,Audio ends 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67