Division Street Safety, Access Collide Along U.S. Highway 95 In Hayden
A proposal to cut off some intersections on U.S. Highway 95 would cleave Hayden in two, some officials here fear.
“Man, oh man, you talk about raising havoc,” said Bob Croffoot, city administrator. “You’d divide the city.”
City officials say the proposal would cause chaos with the city’s transportation system, businesses, police, fire and ambulance.
“This thoroughfare’s really become a commercial corridor,” said Croffoot, pointing at the stores that are beginning to crop up along U.S. 95 north of Hayden.
“And everyone’s relying on it now,” he said. “It’s almost like (Coeur d’Alene’s) Sherman Avenue.”
In September, Idaho Transportation Board member John W. McHugh sent the city a “trial balloon,” suggesting that Hayden add no more stoplights on U.S. 95. Also, he proposed, the state should allow no access onto U.S. 95 except at stoplights.
That would end crossings at Aqua, Honeysuckle, Orchard, Dakota, Miles, Lacey and Wyoming avenues. Hayden and Prairie avenues, which now have stoplights, would remain open. McHugh proposed similar closures on U.S. 95 in Coeur d’Alene.
U.S. 95 traffic through Hayden increased by more than 3,000 cars per day, to 16,560 last year. State highway records show there were 179 auto crashes on Hayden’s stretch of U.S. 95 from 1988 through 1994.
McHugh said Thursday he was motivated by a U.S. 95 crash last summer that killed an entire family. And the congestion, with 12 stoplights between state Highway 53 and the Spokane River, is forcing travelers to avoid the area, he said.
There are 21 additional U.S. 95 cross streets that one day could get stoplights, he said.
“I don’t suppose there is a magic number of signal-lighted intersections for the future,” McHugh wrote to Hayden Mayor Vince Rossi, “but let me suggest that 33 are too many. I know lots of people think that 12 are too many, but I can see from your input and deliberation that you think we need more.”
McHugh said Thursday it’s highly unlikely the state ever will build a bypass road to streamline traffic flow. He said he has no problem with right turns off the highway, but doesn’t like left turns or cross traffic.
“If all we want is a strip mall and a traffic signal every few hundred yards, so everyone can turn into their favorite department store, that’s fine,” he said. “That’s what we’ll have.”
But he said there’s no reason for Hayden officials to be worried.
“I just wanted to get some discussion going,” he said. He said there will be public input on any proposed closures, likely at City Council meetings.
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