[Vision2020] Third Street & sprawl

[keely emerinemix]

As I've mentioned elsewhere, my husband and I own property at Third and 
Cleveland.  So, while I am obviously concerned about the safety of children 
walking to school, especially in an area in my trustee zone, I'm unable to 
address this -- for those of you who have asked me to -- because of the 
conflicting roles I've assumed of both property owner and trustee.

That said, I appreciate Jack's comments and the concerns of those involved, 
and this seemed to be the best forum for explaining my silence on the 
subject -- again, for those who've asked.

keely emerine mix

From: Jack Porter <jporter at moscow.com>
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Third Street & sprawl
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:00:10 -0700

Not only would the bridge be bad for the neighborhood, it's based on a 
flawed concept of building our way out of traffic problems.  This is 
addressed in the second half of my guest column from Friday's Daily News 
under the caption "Another unintended consequence of sprawl," which I'm 
pasting below:


Friends of neighborhood schools and walkable communities now have another 
cause for concern.  The Moscow Transportation Commission has voted to 
recommend a bridge over Paradise Creek to connect East Third Street to 
Mountain View Road.  I hope other citizens will join me in opposing this 
misguided plan.

Like other roads to hell, this one is paved with good intentions.  Moscow's 
east-west arterials are narrow and crowded.  Connecting Third to Mountain 
View would open up another route.  The street already dead-ends on both 
sides of the creek, so a bridge might make this the cheapest arterial money 
can buy.  All those current and future residents east of Mountain View would 
have a new straight shot to downtown and on to the Palouse Mall, Wal-Mart, 
and WSU.

Unfortunately, the traffic planners' fixation on moving cars from Point A to 
Point B has caused them to undervalue the neighborhood between those points. 
  The quality of life in that area includes the ability to walk safely and 
conveniently to Lena Whitmore Elementary School, East City Park, Moscow High 
School, the City Library, the 1912 Center, and Russell Elementary School.  
Third Street is also a key bike route from downtown for older commuters like 
me.

A major increase in traffic on Third would degrade this wonderful 
residential area and put children at risk.  Why should we harm an 
established neighborhood for the convenience of drivers who choose to live 
elsewhere?

Even from a traffic standpoint, it seems problematic to channel more cars to 
the corner of Third and Washington, which is already one of Moscow's most 
dysfunctional intersections.

As Moscow citizens begin the "New Cities" exercise in thinking about our 
future, it would be good to recognize how much of our past planning has been 
based on the assumption of cheap and convenient car travel.  That assumption 
will grow less tenable as fossil fuels become more scarce and costly, both 
in dollars and in pollution, global warming, and dependence on foreign 
supplies.

But there has been another fundamental flaw in our transportation planning.  
It turns out that building more and wider highways doesn't really cure 
traffic congestion.  Better highways promote more highway use.  If we build 
them, people will drive on them.

A lot of our driving is really discretionary.  Highway improvements 
encourage people to shop and recreate farther away from home and to live 
farther away from work.  Then, as shopping malls, schools, and homes get 
built farther from the city center, more driving becomes (or comes to seem) 
necessary.  It is futile to imagine that we can build our way out of traffic 
congestion, because people will increase their highway use until the new 
highways are again congested.

Moscow should be working to make foot and bicycle travel more safe and 
attractive, and to make public transportation more available and convenient. 
  Almost every dollar spent on "improving" car travel is likely to run 
counter to those goals, and it's unlikely to produce lasting improvements 
for car travel either.

The neighborhood surrounding East Third Street is the kind of place 
enlightened planners around the country are trying to re-create, after 
learning the unintended consequences of suburban sprawl.  It would be crazy 
for us to go the opposite direction by punching an arterial through the 
middle of this wonderful, walkable neighborhood.

For further reading I suggest Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth 
Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, The Geography of Nowhere and other works by 
James Howard Kunstler, and the website of the Congress for the New Urbanism, 
<newurbanism.org>.

Jack R. Porter


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