2023 Freetown DAT Report - Flipbook - Page 17
Freetown DAT
Clock Tower Station District
Located on the Annie Walsh School grounds adjacent
to the “Eastern police clock tower” junction and its
intensive commercial market, the clock tower cable car
midstation lands in one of the busiest activity hubs of
Freetown. A crossroads of culture, commerce, education
and transportation, this district would be a primary
destination.
Space for the longer requirements of a midstation
building is possible through joint development with the
school on lands currently used for surface parking. While
the parking may be a valuable local amenity, the loss of
a few dozen parking spaces compared to the value of
thousands of potential riders taken off of the district’s
congested streets is obvious. Nonetheless, the station
will still have a compact footprint with boarding and
alighting on the top level, giving the school room for
academic programming within the building, in addition
to needed ticketing and queuing space. The historic
perimeter wall of the school—which is mostly hidden
from passerby view by dense retail activity—can be
integrated into the building with openings to several new
retail spaces adjacent to the station entries, widening
the congested sidewalk in the process.
The surrounding 10-minute walkshed of the clock tower
station is likely one of the densest and most mixeduse parts of Freetown. With commercial buildings to
the west at the edge of downtown, extensive retail
markets running east-west through the district, light
manufacturing towards the water, and a rich diversity
of residences in every direction, this district is ideal for
attracting cable car riders as well as reducing overall
vehicle trip-making in Freetown. With relatively flat
terrain in most directions and extensive congestion
associated with the market activity, walking trips
are already predominant. Further focus on walking
improvements in this district will only greaten potential
ridership, and efforts to advance bus priority along Kissy
and Sanni Abacha Streets will pay big economic and
congestion dividends—transit-only street segments are
Two-way Wiberforce Street can serve as the outbound half of a downtown transit loop, directly connecting to the retail markets along Sanni Abacha Street to the east.
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