The intersection of Forest Park and Euclid is one of the busiest pedestrian crossings of any major intersection in St. Louis outside of downtown. With the high density of residential and commercial to the north and the hospital and MetroLink station to the south, there is a constant stream of pedestrians crossing Forest Park Ave.
But at seven lanes wide, Forest Park Ave is not the easiest street to cross. Fortunately, a few locations offer respite for pedestrians crossing the street: overpasses for Kingshighway and Grand Ave offer very wide medians while pedestrian refuge islands are available at Taylor and Euclid… except on the west side of Euclid.
For several years, now, portions of the sidewalk on the west side of Euclid north of Forest Park Ave have been closed for new construction projects: first it was the Park East Tower, then it was the Nine North condominium and garage project, now it is a new building for BJC. These construction projects have kept the number of pedestrians crossing Forest Park on the west side of Euclid to a minimum. But with the sidewalk and the new BJC building poised to open in the coming weeks and months, the number of pedestrians crossing Forest Park without the added safety of a pedestrian refuge will soon increase dramatically.
Given the volume of pedestrians crossing Forest Park at Euclid, it would be great to see the City of St. Louis or BJC mirror the east side of the intersection and add a pedestrian refuge on the west side of the intersection. A little added safety could go a long way.
As for pedestrians wishing to cross Kingshighway…
