drydem
2008-05-31 17:36:46 UTC
From a driver's perspective:
Last night I went to the Lowe's Hardware Store in Kentlands
( Gaithersburg, Maryland) which uses a new Urbanism design (late
1990s) when compared to old Euclidean method (early 1980s) as
demostrated by an older Home Depot's Hardware Store in Aspen Hill,
Marylannd. The newer Lowe's store had a smaller loading dock and did
not have any explicit front store pickup parking lane. The Lowe's
front driveway was divided by a double yellow line indicating two
lanes - one lane for each direction. However, since there were cars
parked infront of the store - presumely for pickuping up items or
passengers - vehicles moving in the lane adjacent to the store has to
slowly weave around the parked vehicles over the yellow line -
essentially treating the two-way driveway as a one-way driveway with
an adjacent parking lane at the store front. Because the Lowe's
roadways are very narrow - driving very fast would be dangerous as
well as difficult. The wider roadways along the older Home Depot
allowed for faster vehicle speed but vehicle speed along the front
service roads aren't very fast. The service road in front of the Aspen
Hill Home Depot is about 50% to 100% wider than the Lowes but it
doesn't have any service road markings at all but it does have plenty
of space for both temporary pickup parking at the store front while
allowing for two way traffic. Both Lowe's and Home Depot had a crowded
store front (e.g. propane tank stand, gardening plants, store carts
were out in front) during business hours. Both stores were very
crowded. However, I noticed that the Home Depot at Aspen Hill appears
to draw more construction business/contractor vehicles in the parking
lot.
The Aspen Hill Home Depot has less landscaping around the parking lot
than the Kentland Lowe's store - however, more often than not the
landscaping at the kentland lowe's made it difficult to drive because
it blocked the driver's view. The Kentland landscaping also made it
difficult to see and identify store signage - especially from a
driver's perspective.
Last night I went to the Lowe's Hardware Store in Kentlands
( Gaithersburg, Maryland) which uses a new Urbanism design (late
1990s) when compared to old Euclidean method (early 1980s) as
demostrated by an older Home Depot's Hardware Store in Aspen Hill,
Marylannd. The newer Lowe's store had a smaller loading dock and did
not have any explicit front store pickup parking lane. The Lowe's
front driveway was divided by a double yellow line indicating two
lanes - one lane for each direction. However, since there were cars
parked infront of the store - presumely for pickuping up items or
passengers - vehicles moving in the lane adjacent to the store has to
slowly weave around the parked vehicles over the yellow line -
essentially treating the two-way driveway as a one-way driveway with
an adjacent parking lane at the store front. Because the Lowe's
roadways are very narrow - driving very fast would be dangerous as
well as difficult. The wider roadways along the older Home Depot
allowed for faster vehicle speed but vehicle speed along the front
service roads aren't very fast. The service road in front of the Aspen
Hill Home Depot is about 50% to 100% wider than the Lowes but it
doesn't have any service road markings at all but it does have plenty
of space for both temporary pickup parking at the store front while
allowing for two way traffic. Both Lowe's and Home Depot had a crowded
store front (e.g. propane tank stand, gardening plants, store carts
were out in front) during business hours. Both stores were very
crowded. However, I noticed that the Home Depot at Aspen Hill appears
to draw more construction business/contractor vehicles in the parking
lot.
The Aspen Hill Home Depot has less landscaping around the parking lot
than the Kentland Lowe's store - however, more often than not the
landscaping at the kentland lowe's made it difficult to drive because
it blocked the driver's view. The Kentland landscaping also made it
difficult to see and identify store signage - especially from a
driver's perspective.