DESTINATION: Building a Foundation for Mass Transit

Abstract

DESTINATION: Building a Foundation for Mass Transit Every building we design today is designed to incorporate the automobile in some way. Parking must be considered and proportional to the building occupancy. The footprint of the parking lot is sometimes larger than the footprint of the building itself. We talk about sprawl and wanting to curb its growth but there is no plan other than saying, “Stop contributing to sprawl.” We have become trapped in our own independence. This thesis will seek to increase the awareness of other forms of transportation and encourage the use of those means of transportation. A goal of this thesis is to design a building that thinks of the pedestrian, bicycle, and automobile together at the beginning of design and not at the end. If we do not provide alternative means of transportation then the thing we have grown so accustomed to doing will continue to take priority. Businesses choose their location and design their buildings with the idea that people will drive there. In some places there are no sidewalks that go to the front door. People think they can build anywhere because our means of transportation (the personal automobile) is so flexible. But that means of transportation is in itself becoming the thing that hinders us. It is the automobile that has allowed for the stores to become separated from the city. It has become so prominent that it gives us no other choice but to adapt to it and compensate for it leaving us with vast fields of asphalt where nothing grows. These problems affect every city in the United States but only the larger cities seem to have the resources necessary to begin to address them. This thesis will work within the fabric of a smaller city to help lay a foundation for mass transit. By strengthening the support system that would lie underneath that transit system and helping people realize and utilize other modes of transportation. This thesis will look to provide destinations as key locations for mass transit that will attract and encourage the use of mass transit.