Through strange circumstances yesterday I ended up driving around the new Firewheel Town Center three times. Once to put a little extra gas in Ellen's gas tank so she wouldn't run out - then we spent a little time in Barnes and Noble and after running another errand we came back for Ellen's car. All of these trips (but especially the mid-afternoon one) made me think back to my Site Analysis Class when we had to design parking lots.Now their parking lots are not a problem that I can see. The real problem is that when they designed the roads between the shops they neglected to design for large amounts of traffic. I think that since they were trying to "pull off" this special new design they had the incentive to do it right the first time. and I think that they failed---
That might sound a little harsh but consider this, in regular malls people don't have to worry about getting run over walking from one shop to the next. If this is supposed to be better than a real mall I don't see it.
Originally (and I suppose it still is) one of their big selling points was that you could drive up to the store you wanted to go to park, shop and then leave (kind of like a normal shopping center) but yesterday not only was that practically impossible but it was so congested they had hired people to direct traffic for at least one of the intersections. Now I have no problem with guys directing traffic, in fact I think that if the designers had made provision for traffic guys it would have been great and added to their design. As it is now there was no room in the road for them to stand so they were sqeezing between cars and standing in front of others.
In conclusion- I think that their concept, while it might sound nice, is flawed. If they have to hire "emergency" traffic directors on the first day it gets busy then something is wrong with the picture. Perhaps cars do not belong on the interior--
Signing Off...
posted by TppM at 8:19:00 AM
5 Comments:
I thought pretty much the same thing when I first went to that mall. Charming, I suppose, but highly impractical. And less and less charming the busier it gets. I'd rather shop inside, away from the traffic and the weather.
But of course, in general, I'd just rather not shop at all. Barnes and Noble being the notable exception. :)
true true, I guess it just took me a while to see it -- it does have a nice Barnes and Noble though with music and DVDs and everything.
Well, two comments come to mind...
1st: sqeezing sounds incredibly painful--I hope those noble souls directing traffic were well-paid.
2nd: Of course you get the point...that booklearning is at best theoretical. The ready man has had his eyes open all along so that when he gets the booklearning, he accepts it through the filter we call reality.
xo
i totally agree -- every time i've gone, i've parked way out in the lots because it's just too complicated to use the up-close spaces. it was charming though. a little bit like Christmas in California, with the music and lights and the 75 degree weather. i just hope far north Garland doesn't turn into another Mesquite. bleh.
Good grief, it almost sounds like the square in McDonough, Ga. The town square is always really congested, probably because the square is getting too small. Still, I feel sorry that the emergency traffic people had to be called out because someone messed up somewhere.
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