Wilmington transportation infrastructure gets a second look

The city of Wilmington has evolved over the past 10 years – as high rises stretch skyward, new storefronts are christened and downtown entertainment venues receive modern makeovers -- and planners expect significant changes to continue over the next decade.

As the city changes, so must its transportation infrastructure, said Dave Gula, a senior planner with the Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO).

To better understand problems with Wilmington’s current infrastructure and help plan for the future, WILMAPCO is conducting a downtown circulation study, the first major study conducted since 1997, he said.

When the last study was done, the city was playing host to a bevy of new businesses, drawing workers from the suburbs who needed more efficient routes to drive to work, said Gula.

Today, more residents are moving into the city – particularly in the newly constructed condominiums and apartments near the Riverfront – and they have different transportation needs, he said.

“When people move downtown, it’s not so they can drive four blocks to work,” he said.

More intercity transit routes and a more pedestrian-friendly downtown will need to be priorities as more residents flock to the city, he said.

Additional shopping and entertainment opportunities – offered by the Riverfront shops and revitalized businesses on Market Street – also create a need for more weekend and evening transit routes, he said.

And mass transit, particularly buses crowding Rodney Square, has been identified as a problem that needs to be addressed, said Jeff Riegner, vice president of the engineering firm Whitman, Requardt & Associates, which is working with WILMAPCO on the study.

The group has polled dozens of city stakeholders, including DuPont, the Wilmington Renaissance Corporation, ING Direct and the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau, to create a list of transit concerns.

Rodney Square tops the list, he said.

“Rodney Square, in the words of one commentator, has become a bus shelter,” Riegner said.

Buses tend to park two or three deep around the square, making it difficult for travelers to find the bus they are trying to catch, he said.

Solving the Rodney Square issue will not be an easy task, he said, and could involve relocating or spreading bus service to other areas around the city or even building a new transit hub.

More improvements that could be in store for Wilmington’s busy traffic routes include better signal timing and street direction changes, he said.

Parking

Parking has been a major concern of stakeholders, but Riegner said studies have shown there is enough parking downtown; drivers just need to look a little harder for it.

After gathering more information from stakeholders and residents, WILMAPCO will model current traffic patterns in the city to see what can be changed and how it could be improved, said Gula.

By next fall, the group will prepare a report it will use to help the city of Wilmington prioritize future traffic projects, he said.

Now that business and government stakeholders have shared their views, WILMAPCO is asking residents to weigh in.

The planning organization held the project's first public workshop on Dec. 2 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront, asking residents to prioritize their biggest traffic concerns.

Congestion is a serious problem in some areas of downtown Wilmington, particularly around the train station because there is only one road drivers can take there, said Wilmington resident Adele Meehan.

“You never really know if there’s going to be a space for you once you get there,” she said.

The train station is also dimly lit at night, she said, making it a serious safety concern that can discourage some people from taking mass transit.

Many people don’t use mass transit because it’s not convenient, added Marian Young of Delaware City.

“It’d be great to be able to jump on a light rail between Newark and Wilmington or zip around the city,” she said, yet there aren’t enough transit options, and what is available is not affordable for some who could use it everyday, she said.

Trolley Square resident Steve Dexter takes the bus to work downtown and said that although morning and evening rush hour bus service is good, “if you need to go home for lunch or something, that could be a problem,” he said.

More transit routes during the day are necessary, especially if the city wants to promote itself as a Mecca for shopping and entertainment, he said.

Wilmington’s growing suburbs will probably play a bigger role on the city’s transit problems than any downtown redevelopment, and the needs of those commuters must be a priority, said Glasgow resident June MacArtur.

“I don’t know if we will ever go back to the city as the center of the universe,” she said.