A city divided
Ever since the section of Sprague Avenue near downtown was altered from four lanes to two, comments I’ve heard regarding it have been mostly negative. Per my informal survey, anecdotal evidence also suggests a similar attitude toward the proposed lane reduction north of Indiana on Monroe Street.
Recent reporting by Mike Prager right here in the Spokesman-Review suggests that certain business owners and customers are happy with the wider street parking, so it seems that Spokane residents are divided in their opinions on what Prager calls “road diets.”
I am still “on the fence” over the issue, and open-minded to consider supporting evidence concerning the changes. Prager even offered some of the scientific data that is partially at the root of the “diet” trend. Traffic statistics show a total of 44 accidents consisting of left-turn, rear-end, and side-swipe collisions allegedly attributable to the four-lane configuration of North Crestline Street over the last five years. I would not pass judgment, however, until I found how many similar accidents have occurred after a reduction to two lanes. Only reconfiguration of that corridor and five years of traffic data would definitively tell us that.
I ride bicycles, and I appreciate that lane reduction also gives cyclists more room. On the other hand, daily bicyclists on many of these roads may total merely a few, while tens of thousands of motor vehicles travel the same routes each day.
Another of my concerns stems from youthful memories I have of debates as to whether Interstate 405 from Tukwila to Bellevue should have two lanes or three lanes in each direction of travel. I remember then that prevailing attitudes reflected more roads as being a bad thing. I recall common comments akin to, “We don’t want a bunch of freeways like California.”
About the same time, southern California engineers must have been debating whether to have seven lanes or eight lanes heading in each direction. In the Pacific Northwest, it seemed that planners and residents must have felt that if they did not build freeways, the traffic would not come.
Well, the traffic came anyway. A resulting example of this disparity in planning is that Interstate 405, having gone with two lanes each way, now has miles of perpetual gridlock, where drivers on the eight-laners in San Diego seldom experience a slowdown. I think that travelers trying to make their way through the all-day-long stop-and-go traffic pattern from Olympia to Tacoma would appreciate a few more lanes.
There was also plenty of the “new roads are bad” sentiment during Spokane’s freeway planning. Though construction of Interstate 90 through the region was finally accomplished in the 1960s, history recorded mass opposition to it. Those protests caused delays and compromises which likely led to some of the inadequate on/off ramps we now dislike along the route through our city.
And doesn’t it now seem that we should have built a north/south multi-lane freeway a long time ago. I’ve been told that the project was renamed “corridor” rather than “freeway” due to the negative connotation the word “freeway” seems to have here
Within his article, I also noted that Prager quoted Spokane civil engineer Brandon Blankenagel, who stated, “Residents may be reluctant to accept the road diets, but the experience so far shows that going from four to two through lanes is not holding up traffic.” That might be statistically true, but the photo accompanying the article, showing about fifteen bumper-to-bumper vehicles going each direction, seems to be at odds with that statement. I guess the photo is meant to belie Blankenagel’s sentiment, as the caption below it read, in part, “Traffic backs up on East Sprague Avenue on Wednesday.”
It does seem consistent that each one of the proposed or completed road diet projects in our region has produced both proponents and opponents, so we definitely live in a city whose residents are divided on the topic.
Only time will tell if attempting to inhibit motor vehicle use by reducing roadway efficiency will have a positive effect. If it’s intended to increase bicycle and pedestrian use of these thoroughfares, however, I must respond, “Good luck!”
Readers may contact Bill Love via email at precisiondriving@spokesman.com.
