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| Re: WMATA Observations (1345134) | |||
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Re: WMATA Observations |
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Posted by Andy on Tue Mar 24 20:18:39 2015, in response to WMATA Observations, posted by italianstallion on Tue Mar 24 17:37:43 2015. To answer to of your questions:6. The concrete barrel-vaulted stations are very boring and ugly. The lighting is shadowy. There is no particular need for such a high vault except to leave space for the mezzanines at each end, but they could be accommodated in other ways. The barrel vaults are a WMATA icon. Remember that the stations were originally designed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That was a period of severe urban crime problems, including issues on the NYC subway. Washington, at the same time, had significant street crime problems. The WMATA designers took a page from New York's experiences and designed big, open station areas to eliminate pillars, posts, and low-lying supports where criminals could hide and lurk. A big open area is easier to monitor with cameras and is more inviting to riders. 7. Many stations seem to be extremely deep-bore. Is there that much infrastructure under DC's streets that necessitated such deep stations? Again, when WMATA's tunnels were built, Washington was a mature city with the usual spaghetti of infrastructure below the street surface - telephone, water, gas, electric, and steam conduits. So it was easier to go deep where less surface and utility disruption would occur. When New York, Boston, and Philadelphia subways were being built close to the street level using cut and cover, there was less infrastructure to relocate, and less attention was paid to the disruption to surface street traffic, both pedestrian and trolley. |
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