L-PLUG

Narrative

Most of the time a bus stop is a waiting space and portal for citizens or travelers to get to their destinations. As a result, people usually do not want to spend more time then needed at these spaces. The smart phone and internet do help people with killing time when they are waiting for a bus, so what the space could actually offer is ignored by most modern cities.

Take Chicago for example, its CTA bus stop has a more centralized and unidirectional interface between organizations and individuals.  The most typical bus stop in the city of Chicago is a semi-enclosed booth, which “protects" and isolates people from other street activities. For people waiting for a bus, the standard CTA booth is usually too big as personal space and too small for a gathering spot.  In spite of a simple design, it is not yet flexible to daily users, nor is it adaptable for different context.  

Prefabricated Structural Unit

Our module system is a prefabricated structural unit made of steel tube.  This structure system could offer different configurations for each bus stop depending on its site condition and usage frequency. We selected three different sites to demonstrate its flexibility and adaptability.  Each structural unit also provides an electrical circulation system for different electrical equipment such as Wi-Fi touch screen, streetlight, solar photovoltaic panel, wind turbine and energy gym system.  It is like an extension cord connected to the utility grid.       

Social Media Group Platform

Decentralization and personalization are becoming a mainstream movement to liberate information exchange. Typically, bus stop billboards are only utilized by large organizations or corporations. What if every community or neighborhood could have a space to help with promoting community culture and local industries?  What if personal ideas could be revealed not only in online social media platforms but also public spaces.  A space like a bus stop, where people "step by every day”, certainly could serve this function in a creative way.

We would like to give this public facility a new program, which is to become a social media “group” platform for local communities.  People could use their smartphone through a USB connection, wireless network or Bluetooth to connect with the touch screen of our bus stop for information sharing and posting.  This program certainly would work better for those bus stops with higher users while commercial advertisement could be for specific targeted locations. It would be like a Facebook group or Instagram page, which could collect local data to document the community history.  We believe this program could increase belonging for residents while exposing them to the local community culture.

Clean Energy Station

The other big trend happening globally is the usage of clean energy, which is a big item the U.S. government finally started to pay more attention to. In the perspective of the state government, you do not want to miss any opportunity to generate sustainable energy from a public infrastructure. Besides the subsidy for energy industries, educating citizens to pursue clean energy through their daily activities could be a more proactive approach.

Chicago is a city with a rich wind energy resource. As a result, our structural frame not only incorporates a solar photovoltaic glass roof but also a wind turbine trellis for clean energy generation.

We also introduce the idea of outdoor gyms, which transform human power and extra body fat to electricity. Our strategy is to incorporate the current city divvy bikes with the bike training rack device on our bus stop unit.

Site Selection

CTA bus ridership in Chicago has fallen since 2013. On the other hand, of all the CTA trips, buses still account for 52 percent of rides, but this proportion has dropped steadily compared to CTA rail ridership, despite railways reaching far fewer neighborhoods than the bus network.

Upon further research into “the highest ridership bus routes”, from CTA’s bus ridership annual report, Halsted’s bus route #8 ridership has declined dramatically. We believe that our new bus design modules can be the solution to help stop this reduction.

North & Clybourn/Halsted site is the transportation hub for the Chicago subway red line (the busiest subway line in Chicago), bus 8, and bus 72. A plaza is located between the subway station and the Apple store. Bus 8 goes from north to south along Halsted street. Bus 72 goes from east to west along North Avenue. Bus 8 goes through different neighborhoods in the city of Chicago and connects the north and south. At the North & Clybourn/Halsted site, which sits next to the Apple store, bus 8 stop is disconnected from the plaza with its pedestrians and is too small scale for that area. Our strategy is to make this bus stop a special feature of the plaza. We will achieve this by pushing the stop toward the plaza forming an edge and creating an urban gallery with appropriate porosity and transparency.

Halsted & Wrightwood bus stop is close to Lincoln Park within a residential area in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. There is only one bus route at this interaction. The current bus stop is free-standing signage without seating next to a divvy bike station. First, we keep this new modular bus stop small-scale with new seating, standing areas and information billboards. Then, we extend our modular system into the present divvy bike station with the concept of an outdoor gym which not only saves energy but also gathers people. With the new system, we create a new continuous corner that people can exercise, rest, wait, connect and socialize.

Halsted and 63rd Street is the transportation hub and service area of Englewood. Englewood is known for its crime poverty issue.  Greenline subway, bus 8, and bus 63 can be found at this site. The ridership for the subway is less than the North & Clybourn/Halsted site. Despite the scale of usage from people and location, the current bus stop is too small. The vacant lot next to the current bus stop has the potential to grow into a transportation area and community gathering place. The new bus stop creates a "L" shape corner facing the vacant lots. Seats are located on both sides of the bus stop, while waiting for their bus, riders can relax and view potential events at the vacant lots. Neighborhood news, safety tips, local art galleries information will be shown on the touch screen. With increasing seating and interactive touch screens, the bus stop provides a gathering space for the community.