The Plan the Keystone Team is working this week at the Middletown station workshop being held at the Penn State Harrisburg campus. We will be here through Thursday evening. More information about the workshop can be found here.
Tuesday night was the opening presentation for the workshop. About 35 people came, and they were a mix of Middletown Borough citizens, local business owners, elected officials, and Penn State Harrisburg staff.
Our team gave an overview presentation of the study to date, the four locations under consideration, and what we will be doing this week.
Our main goal for Tuesday evening was to get as many ideas as possible from the public. First, we asked everyone to participate in a Post-it Note exercise to identify their top values/priorities for a Middletown train station. Each person was allowed three answers. Here are the responses we received:
- Free and ample parking (27 people)
- Access and mobility options (18 people)
- Safety and security (15 people)
- Access for Penn State Harrisburg students (11 people)
- Ease of access (10 people)
- Economic development (5 people)
- Good design (5 people)
- Handicap access (2 people)
- Wayfinding (1 person)
- “Green” (1 person)
For our second exercise, the participants worked in small groups to develop a “wish list” of uses and features they would like at the station and in the surrounding area. Here are some of the items mentioned:
- Post office
- Restaurant/bar/coffee shop
- Restroom
- Advertising/business directories/bus and taxi information
- ADA compliance
- Transportation links: HIA, downtown, Penn State
- Lighting and safety
- Multi-purpose facility (offices, meeting space, performance facility)
- Bakery
- Lottery machine
- Dry cleaners
- Free parking
- Lighted/visible/accessible emergency call boxes
- Multimodal connections: bus, taxis/ bicycle routes, sidewalks
- Covered bicycle parking
- Posted train schedule and directions for using the train
- Real time schedule clock
- Context-sensitive and history-sensitive station design
- Ticket kiosk
- Overflow parking
- Bike lockers
- Minimize carbon footprint
While some of these features could be at the station itself, others would be in the blocks surrounding the station. The Plan the Keystone Team will continue working at the Penn State campus through Thursday. We will use this feedback to develop design concepts for each of the four stations and the surrounding areas.
What do you think? Do you have additional ideas or opinions on what is important for the train station and the surrounding area?
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