[Vision2020] re: Third Street Bridge

[Pat Kraut]

I'd like to know what the city thought they were going to do with all those houses across Mt View and few roads there?? Did they honestly not plan for better and more roads to get everyone out there?? Are they going to expect us to just keep the heavy traffic on just the few streets that go to Mt View now?? There must be a better way!
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom Ivie 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 4:44 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] re: Third Street Bridge


  The City is in the planning
  stages of a proposal that will be going before City
  Council for approval in the near future.  A proposal
  to bridge Third Street so that it will connect to
  Mountain View Rd. has already passed through the
  Transportation Commission and is now in Public Works
  Finance (tentively Sept. 12th). This proposal includes removing the on-street
  parking that currently exists on Third St. from Hayes
  to the other side of Blaine St. heading east. 
  Connecting 3rd St. to Mountain View Rd. would
  significantly increase traffic on the street and
  create the portion between Hayes and Mountain View as
  a main arterial. It would prove to function as a main
  connection to downtown and straight on to Pullman.

  The idea of a thoroughfare is to control through
  traffic in residential areas and promote public safety
  by designating an arterial network to help channel
  extraneous traffic around neighborhoods. Connecting! 
  3rd St. to Mountain View does just the opposite of
  this because the area East of Hayes Street was not
  designed to handle congestion. The street narrows
  before Blaine, going west, and remains narrow until
  Hayes.  This creates a bottle neck which is
  exacerbated by the fact that there is on-street
  parking on the south side of the street between Blaine
  and Hayes.  However, the on-street parking is
  essential because of the density of housing in the
  area and the proximity to East City Park and Lena
  Whitmore elementary school.  The single family houses
  that are east of Hayes sit closer to the street than
  those west of Hayes.  Also, the apartments that are
  between Cleveland and Hayes sit close to the street
  (the apartments west of Blaine are extremely close to
  the street) and do not appear to present the
  opportunity to widen the street (The current front
  yard requirement for R3 and R4 is 20ft).

  The quality of! life in residential neighborhoods can
  be significantly affected by traffic issues. Any
  significant increase in traffic would degrade the
  environment for pedestrians, bicyclists, and nearby
  residents.

  Traffic issues affect Lena Whitmore Elementary School
  children.  Not only between 8:00 and 8:30 am and 2:50
  to 3:30 pm is there plenty of traffic on Blaine which
  slows traffic on 3rd St., but children often cross
  Third Street later in the day and on the weekends as
  Lena Whitmore is also used and maintained as a park. 
  Increased traffic will only create more unsafe
  conditions for walking children or those riding their
  bikes, scooters, skates, and skateboards. There is a
  general lack of crosswalks because this is an
  residential area.  There is also a limited amount of
  sidewalks because this is an older neighborhood.  Not
  usually a problem in low traffic areas, but with a
  significant increase in traffic, it would be a
  tremendous problem.  Crosswalks join sidewalks at
  corners.  What does the child (or family) do that
  lives on the block without a sidewalk?  Take their
  chance crossing the street to get to the side with the
  sidewalk?  A national study released in October 2000
  shows that two-thirds of drivers speed through school
  zones, despite safety measures such as crosswalks,
  flashing signs and crossing guards.  In addition to
  Lena Whitmore, the Jr. High is also affected.  Many
  students cross Third Street at Cleveland on their way
  to and from school.

  Sixth Street and D Street are already designated as
  arterials.  Whereas, Third Street is currently
  designated as a collector.  It is bad engineering
  practice to try to designate an arterial two streets
  away from one arterial (E/W) 6th street and four-five
  streets away from another (D Street).  Streets should
  be for people, not just car fun! nels to outer
  destinations. 

  The book titled Planning for Street Connectivity which
  was published in 2003 by the American Planning
  Association states, "it's really not necessary to
  force open every subdivision in order to improve
  community-wide connectivity. It would be
  counter-productive (not to say, poor planning) to
  insist on a rigid connectivity principle applicable to
  every block. The key is to create strategically
  located links that benefit broad cross-sections of the
  community...."

  The firm of Robert Peccia & Associates did a report
  for the Helena Transportation Coordinating Committee
  in 2004.  This Civil Engineering firm does projects
  all over the United States.  The report stated that a
  collector street differs from an arterial in that
  collector roadways may traverse residential
  neighborhoods.  The city of Helena defines collector
  routes as carrying between 2,000 and 5,000 vehicles
  per d! ay.  Whereas, they define an arterial as
  typically carrying more than 15,000 vehicles per day. 
  They go on to state that "Long, continuous collectors
  will encourage through traffic, essentially turning
  them into arterials.  This, in turn, results in the
  undesirable interface of local streets with arterials,
  causing safety problems and increased costs of
  construction and maintenance.

  Moscow's Comprehensive Plan - Section 10
  (Transportation) talks about the extension of 3rd
  Street to Mountain View.  However, by its adoption of
  the Comprehensive Plan, the Council is aware that
  "It's desirability as a traffic corridor is limited.by
  narrow widths in the section east of Hayes Street.and
  by a lack of parking for a two-block portion."  The
  Plan goes on to state that 3rd Street is not ideal for
  heavy traffic.  Section 10 (Transportation), as it
  relates to 3rd St., appears to be in conflict with
  Section 4 (Centr! al Business District).  "The flow of
  traffic through the downtown area between eastern
  residential areas and the university and other
  destinations on the west side of town creates a
  problem of access to the central business district. 
  Third and Sixth Streets carry a majority of the
  east-west traffic in the city, in addition to
  providing major access to the central business
  district.  Distribution of a portion of Third and
  Sixth Streets' traffic to other streets is needed to
  eliminate congestion on these streets and to
  facilitate access to the central business district." 

  Many in Moscow feel that this proposal will hurt the
  accessibility of programs in East City Park.  Events
  that occur at East City Park draw many who find it
  convenient to park their vehicles along Third Street. 
  For many events, we have personally seen vehicles
  parked clear down to the Cleveland intersection of
  East Third.  As the Ci! ty would experience an
  overwhelming increase of traffic on Third St. would
  they choose to eliminate more parking West of Hayes? 
  What would that do to further the parking problem
  during East City Park events? 

  Moscow is fortunate to have preserved many of its
  historic resources and to have documentation for them.
  As you are aware, Moscow has 17 individual structures
  and 1 district of 116 structures on the National
  Register of Historic Places.  One of these structures
  is the Mason Cornwall Residence at 308 S. Hayes, a
  corner property that is also situated on Third Street.

  Furthermore, the increased traffic on Third Street
  between Hayes and Mountain View will unnecessarily
  burden the adjacent property owners and residents,
  creating a traffic funnel that will simply degrade the
  adjacent neighborhood. 

  Unlike the intersections of Mountain View to Sixth and
  D Streets, the Third Street intersection has houses on
  it! .  These houses, especially the ones closest to
  Mountain View, will experience great difficulty in
  exiting their driveways.  Furthermore, the two houses
  that sit across Paradise Creek on the corner of Third
  and S. Roosevelt Streets have driveways that are on
  the creek side of the property.  These two houses will
  also experience difficulties exiting their driveways
  with a bridge next to them. 

  The honest truth of the matter is that it does not
  take long to get anywhere in Moscow, 5 to 10 minutes
  tops.  That does not constitute a traffic problem. 
  Some may argue that we need more east/west
  connectivity. Welcome to D, 6th and State 8. And
  welcome to proper planning for arterials in new
  subdivisions (actually, White Avenue in the Salisbury
  Subdivision is a good example of this).  You may also
  hear about winter and how 3rd street is the only
  reasonable way east when it snows. Try again... 3rd
  street funct! ions just fine as a neighborhood collector
  and serves this function to Hayes Street, right at
  Hayes, left at 6th and Mountain View here we come
  DURING THE WINTER, on bad days, when 6th street is
  impassable, etc.  People can easily use State 8 to get
  to Mountain View if east of Mountain View is the
  destination... a straight-line path is not required! 

  If you are against the Third Street extension, I invite you to not just talk about it here.  Get involved writing letters to the City Council members and the Mayor.  Perhaps even the school board and superintendent.  They need to hear from the citizenry that this is a bad idea.  Don't wait until it is already a done deal and then choose to complain about it.  Do something about it now.  Don't wait for the city to let us all know about what is going on.  They have proven to us time and time again that they do not value what the citizens want.  They rarely ask for our input and don't get me started about their communication.  They only communicate to the extent of what is minimally required by law.  Did you know that that a regularly scheduled public meeting only has to have the agenda posted for it 48 hrs in advance at the site of the meeting?  They are not required to post the! agendas on the City web site.

  Anyway, I am new to this list and am done with my rant.  Thanks for listening. 

  -Tom Ivie

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