Originally Posted by
Colbafone
EH, honestly, the intersection isn't that bad. I walk from North Penn Plaza around this ENTIRE area daily. I've crossed every direction at the intersection tons of times. No, it's not super friendly, but there is never an issue either. You just have to get out and do it. All of you saying its so difficult walking around Penn Square have just never done it, So far I've walked from North Penn Plaza to....the Belle Isle Library, the corner of 63rd and May, the Waterford area, Penn Square, the Belle Isle War Mart area, the McDonalds between Classen and Penn on Expressway, Olive Garden, 50 Penn Place, Lip Smackers, Target, and Charcoal Oven back when it was open.
We all want areas in this city to be more pedestrian friendly, but there rarely is any reason or incentive to alter anything. Most people never walk. We just need to get more active about it and do it. The only people I ever run into in this area who are also out walking are the occasional people who drop their cars off at Red Carpet then walk to the Mall, or homeless people. Thats it. More sidewalks would be nice. There are NO sidewalks along Expressway here. At all. Penn has them on both sides of the street at least. but to act like the Mall parking lot is impassable is silly. Granted, its long, so at any given point trying to walk to the Mall, you're about 100 yards from the Mall. But the walk from the Container store, UMB, or Cheesecake factory to the mall takes all of about 1 minute. And its not difficult in the slightest. Even crossing Expressway isn't difficult, though its is intimidating.
Anyway, the point of this, is that the Mall has zero incentive to be more pedestrian friendly. The bus stops around it are lightly (at best) used and there are so few pedestrians on a daily basis. What reason do they have to spend the money to make it more pedestrian friendly? As much as I would like them to do so, it would just be a huge waste of money for them or the city.
Hopefully, once OAK get built out and more people move into that area, we will see more pedestrians and more pedestrian safety and development, but that will only come about when more people actually start walking in the area.
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