[Vision2020] one injured in bop-a-student crossing

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Tuesday 23 September 2008 07:25:58 Bev Bafus wrote:
> Sorry for the flip name, but that is what my family calls this very
> dangerous pedestrian crossing.  I would like to see the City of Moscow, the
> University of Idaho and the Idaho State Transporation Department work
> together to solve this issue.  Ideally, this would involve construction of
> a pedestrian bridge over Highway 8 - or at a bare minimum, a stoplight.
>
> The City created this mess by allowing all the apartments on the north side
> of Highway 8.

I think there is sufficient "blame" to supply all interested parties with an 
adequate supply. Mall merchants insufficiently concerned about the safety of 
their customers, University officials only passingly mindful of daily student 
migrations, transportation planners oblivious to pedestrian needs concerning 
their multi-lane motorways, and, yes, city officials who fail to see the 
daily reality of thousands of pedestrians living on the south side of a 
highway with the region's major shopping center on the north side of the same 
highway. Should pedestrian concerns be noteworthy? Of course.

One never knows who the pedestrian might be, nor should that identity make a 
difference. That the victim in this case was a student, and that Moscow is 
well-supplied with students, should not make one's concern any less. Were the 
person crossing the highway internationally-known, multi-millionaire author 
Stephen King, who was several years ago struck by a Dodge vehicle, thrown 
into the air, and landed in a nearby ditch with serious injuries, the 
resulting attention to the Highway 8 crossing problem, not to mention the 
subsequent legal activities, would likely consume a fair amount of local 
attention. Local and state legislators would less likely leave the situation 
unresolved. So, for the sakes of the unpublished novelists, and other future 
notable achievers crossing Highway 8 regularly, this crossing problem needs a 
better solution.

Benefits from a covered pedestrian bridge arching over the highway will accrue 
not just to the pedestrians walking across it. Drivers, too, will benefit 
because they will more likely be able to maintain a steadier speed, even 
though that stretch of roadway is becoming one of the most actively used in 
the area. Motorists are less likely to suffer pedestrian-induced stress if 
they don't feel as if they are driving through the Gopher Gulch obstacle 
course, or a game named Bop-A-Ped, a horizontal perspective knock-off of 
Whac-A-Mole.

It is one thing to ask motorists to respect a pedestrian-preferred area on 
Sixth Street with dormitory residences on the north side, and campus 
buildings on the south side, of a two-lane, restricted-speed street. It is 
something else entirely to ask motorists traveling a five-lane interstate 
highway to be especially aware of pedestrians who may be quite distracted in 
their own mental worlds as they hike or bike between campus, canteen, and 
cottage.

Structural design considerations should include weather-proof covering, and 
enough width to accommodate internal, two-way traffic, including motorized 
wheel chairs, bicycles, joggers, and side-by-side pedestrians traveling in 
opposite directions.

How to pay for such a project is an interesting question. Whether or not it 
might be reimbursed by state funds later, one suggestion is to create a local 
improvement district attached to the properties adjacent and near to the 
project location, and fund the project from the LID levies. Depending upon 
the area of the LID, this might be a quite focused assessment, or it could be 
dispersed over nearby neighborhoods, too. Using an LID as a funding vehicle, 
local residents probably can get the project moving somewhat more readily 
than waiting for various other alternatives as primary funding sources.


Ken