Newest Traffic Count Shows Drivers Starting To Use Division Again

New traffic counts in the city of Spokane indicate an improved Division Street is absorbing more vehicles, but drivers are still detouring onto other North Side streets to get around trouble spots.

The Division-Ruby couplet is now carrying more traffic than Division Street alone carried three years ago. Northbound Ruby Street now carries about 22,500 vehicles a day and southbound Division 21,500 a day.

The old Division Street carried 33,400 cars per day in 1991 and 1992, when traffic counts were taken last.

The latest counts were taken in 1994 and 1995 and for a new traffic flow map published by the city transportation department.

City Traffic Engineer Bruce Steele said the numbers show that drivers are slowly coming back to the wider, improved arterials.

But one arterial still feeling the crunch of both growth and construction is the Hamilton/Nevada corridor, where traffic has increased by one-third just south of Francis.

The number of vehicles on Nevada between Wellesley and Rowan jumped from 20,000 to 27,200 and on Nevada between Rowan and Francis from 18,600 to 25,300.

Steele said the last stretch of Division Street construction around NorthTown is clearly sending more cars onto Nevada. He expects these numbers to decrease as improvements to Division finish up this summer.

Traffic counts per day at Hamilton south of Sharp went from 35,400 to 38,000; at Hamilton south of North Foothills Drive from 29,300 to 36,200.

Other areas that saw big jumps were Francis Avenue at Nine Mile Road, where the daily count went from 14,500 to 17,200, and Indian Trail Road and Francis, where the daily count went from 24,900 to 28,900.

The updated counts show the number of cars per day crossing the Division Street Bridge jumped 27 percent from 32,600 to 41,600 between 1992 and 1995.

During the same time period, Maple Street Bridge crossings jumped from 38,900 to 42,500, and the T.J. Meenach Bridge saw an increase from 14,300 to 17,500.

The Washington Street, Post Street and Greene Street bridges all saw traffic decreases.

The Keefe Bridge at Hamilton Street saw no change.

, DataTimes