<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1505" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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!</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=the_ivies3@yahoo.com href="mailto:the_ivies3@yahoo.com">Tom Ivie</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, August 20, 2005 4:44
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] re: Third Street
Bridge</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The City is in the planning<BR>stages of a proposal that will be going
before City<BR>Council for approval in the near future. A proposal<BR>to
bridge Third Street so that it will connect to<BR>Mountain View Rd. has
already passed through the<BR>Transportation Commission and is now in Public
Works<BR>Finance (tentively Sept. 12th). This proposal includes removing the
on-street<BR>parking that currently exists on Third St. from Hayes<BR>to the
other side of Blaine St. heading east. <BR>Connecting 3rd St. to Mountain View
Rd. would<BR>significantly increase traffic on the street and<BR>create the
portion between Hayes and Mountain View as<BR>a main arterial. It would prove
to function as a main<BR>connection to downtown and straight on to
Pullman.<BR><BR>The idea of a thoroughfare is to control through<BR>traffic in
residential areas and promote public safety<BR>by designating an arterial
network to help channel<BR>extraneous traffic around neighborhoods.
Connecting! <BR>3rd St. to Mountain View does just the opposite of<BR>this
because the area East of Hayes Street was not<BR>designed to handle
congestion. The street narrows<BR>before Blaine, going west, and remains
narrow until<BR>Hayes. This creates a bottle neck which
is<BR>exacerbated by the fact that there is on-street<BR>parking on the south
side of the street between Blaine<BR>and Hayes. However, the on-street
parking is<BR>essential because of the density of housing in the<BR>area and
the proximity to East City Park and Lena<BR>Whitmore elementary school.
The single family houses<BR>that are east of Hayes sit closer to the street
than<BR>those west of Hayes. Also, the apartments that are<BR>between
Cleveland and Hayes sit close to the street<BR>(the apartments west of Blaine
are extremely close to<BR>the street) and do not appear to present
the<BR>opportunity to widen the street (The current front<BR>yard requirement
for R3 and R4 is 20ft).<BR><BR>The quality of! life in residential
neighborhoods can<BR>be significantly affected by traffic issues.
Any<BR>significant increase in traffic would degrade the<BR>environment for
pedestrians, bicyclists, and nearby<BR>residents.<BR><BR>Traffic issues affect
Lena Whitmore Elementary School<BR>children. Not only between 8:00 and
8:30 am and 2:50<BR>to 3:30 pm is there plenty of traffic on Blaine
which<BR>slows traffic on 3rd St., but children often cross<BR>Third Street
later in the day and on the weekends as<BR>Lena Whitmore is also used and
maintained as a park. <BR>Increased traffic will only create more
unsafe<BR>conditions for walking children or those riding their<BR>bikes,
scooters, skates, and skateboards. There is a<BR>general lack of crosswalks
because this is an<BR>residential area. There is also a limited amount
of<BR>sidewalks because this is an older neighborhood. Not<BR>usually a
problem in low traffic areas, but with a<BR>significant increase in traffic,
it would be a<BR>tremendous problem. Crosswalks join sidewalks
at<BR>corners. What does the child (or family) do that<BR>lives on the
block without a sidewalk? Take their<BR>chance crossing the street to
get to the side with the<BR>sidewalk? A national study released in
October 2000<BR>shows that two-thirds of drivers speed through
school<BR>zones, despite safety measures such as crosswalks,<BR>flashing signs
and crossing guards. In addition to<BR>Lena Whitmore, the Jr. High is
also affected. Many<BR>students cross Third Street at Cleveland on their
way<BR>to and from school.<BR><BR>Sixth Street and D Street are already
designated as<BR>arterials. Whereas, Third Street is
currently<BR>designated as a collector. It is bad
engineering<BR>practice to try to designate an arterial two streets<BR>away
from one arterial (E/W) 6th street and four-five<BR>streets away from another
(D Street). Streets should<BR>be for people, not just car fun! nels to
outer<BR>destinations. <BR><BR>The book titled Planning for Street
Connectivity which<BR>was published in 2003 by the American
Planning<BR>Association states, it's really not necessary to<BR>force open
every subdivision in order to improve<BR>community-wide connectivity. It would
be<BR>counter-productive (not to say, poor planning) to<BR>insist on a rigid
connectivity principle applicable to<BR>every block. The key is to create
strategically<BR>located links that benefit broad cross-sections of
the<BR>community....<BR><BR>The firm of Robert Peccia & Associates did a
report<BR>for the Helena Transportation Coordinating Committee<BR>in
2004. This Civil Engineering firm does projects<BR>all over the United
States. The report stated that a<BR>collector street differs from an
arterial in that<BR>collector roadways may traverse
residential<BR>neighborhoods. The city of Helena defines
collector<BR>routes as carrying between 2,000 and 5,000 vehicles<BR>per d!
ay. Whereas, they define an arterial as<BR>typically carrying more than
15,000 vehicles per day. <BR>They go on to state that "Long, continuous
collectors<BR>will encourage through traffic, essentially turning<BR>them into
arterials. This, in turn, results in the<BR>undesirable interface of
local streets with arterials,<BR>causing safety problems and increased costs
of<BR>construction and maintenance.<BR><BR>Moscows Comprehensive Plan
Section 10<BR>(Transportation) talks about the extension of 3rd<BR>Street to
Mountain View. However, by its adoption of<BR>the Comprehensive Plan,
the Council is aware that<BR>Its desirability as a traffic corridor is
limited
by<BR>narrow widths in the section east of Hayes Street
and<BR>by a
lack of parking for a two-block portion. The<BR>Plan goes on to state
that 3rd Street is not ideal for<BR>heavy traffic. Section 10
(Transportation), as it<BR>relates to 3rd St., appears to be in conflict
with<BR>Section 4 (Centr! al Business District). The flow of<BR>traffic
through the downtown area between eastern<BR>residential areas and the
university and other<BR>destinations on the west side of town creates
a<BR>problem of access to the central business district. <BR>Third and Sixth
Streets carry a majority of the<BR>east-west traffic in the city, in addition
to<BR>providing major access to the central business<BR>district.
Distribution of a portion of Third and<BR>Sixth Streets traffic to other
streets is needed to<BR>eliminate congestion on these streets and
to<BR>facilitate access to the central business district. <BR><BR>Many in
Moscow feel that this proposal will hurt the<BR>accessibility of programs in
East City Park. Events<BR>that occur at East City Park draw many who
find it<BR>convenient to park their vehicles along Third Street. <BR>For many
events, we have personally seen vehicles<BR>parked clear down to the Cleveland
intersection of<BR>East Third. As the Ci! ty would experience
an<BR>overwhelming increase of traffic on Third St. would<BR>they choose to
eliminate more parking West of Hayes? <BR>What would that do to further the
parking problem<BR>during East City Park events? <BR><BR>Moscow is fortunate
to have preserved many of its<BR>historic resources and to have documentation
for them.<BR>As you are aware, Moscow has 17 individual structures<BR>and 1
district of 116 structures on the National<BR>Register of Historic
Places. One of these structures<BR>is the Mason Cornwall Residence at
308 S. Hayes, a<BR>corner property that is also situated on Third
Street.<BR><BR>Furthermore, the increased traffic on Third Street<BR>between
Hayes and Mountain View will unnecessarily<BR>burden the adjacent property
owners and residents,<BR>creating a traffic funnel that will simply degrade
the<BR>adjacent neighborhood. <BR><BR>Unlike the intersections of Mountain
View to Sixth and<BR>D Streets, the Third Street intersection has houses
on<BR>it! . These houses, especially the ones closest to<BR>Mountain
View, will experience great difficulty in<BR>exiting their driveways.
Furthermore, the two houses<BR>that sit across Paradise Creek on the corner of
Third<BR>and S. Roosevelt Streets have driveways that are on<BR>the creek side
of the property. These two houses will<BR>also experience difficulties
exiting their driveways<BR>with a bridge next to them. <BR><BR>The honest
truth of the matter is that it does not<BR>take long to get anywhere in
Moscow, 5 to 10 minutes<BR>tops. That does not constitute a traffic
problem. <BR>Some may argue that we need more east/west<BR>connectivity.
Welcome to D, 6th and State 8. And<BR>welcome to proper planning for arterials
in new<BR>subdivisions (actually, White Avenue in the Salisbury<BR>Subdivision
is a good example of this). You may also<BR>hear about winter and how
3rd street is the only<BR>reasonable way east when it snows. Try again...
3rd<BR>street funct! ions just fine as a neighborhood collector<BR>and serves
this function to Hayes Street, right at<BR>Hayes, left at 6th and Mountain
View here we come<BR>DURING THE WINTER, on bad days, when 6th street
is<BR>impassable, etc. People can easily use State 8 to get<BR>to
Mountain View if east of Mountain View is the<BR>destination... a
straight-line path is not required! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Anyway, I am new to this list and am done with my rant. Thanks for
listening. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>-Tom Ivie<BR></DIV>
<P>__________________________________________________<BR>Do You
Yahoo!?<BR>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
<BR>http://mail.yahoo.com
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_____________________________________________________<BR> List
services made available by First Step Internet, <BR> serving the
communities of the Palouse since 1994.
<BR>
http://www.fsr.net
<BR>
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>