County Questionnaire Targets Forest Meadows Traffic Problem

People who live along Bowdish Road in the Forest Meadows subdivision have been complaining for years about heavy, high-speed traffic along their street.

This week, some of their neighbors are being asked how they feel about possible solutions to the problem.

In a questionnaire mailed to about 500 households south of Bowdish and 44th Avenue, Spokane County is asking for opinions on these options for the curving, quarter-mile stretch of Bowdish:

Turning Bowdish into a cul-de-sac at 44th Avenue.

Constructing a median along 44th to keep eastbound drivers from turning onto Bowdish.

Leaving the street the way it is.

The county wants the questionnaires back by Jan. 15.

The county engineering department who’s doing the survey hopes to have a recommendation based on survey response for county commissioners by early February.

The responses could spur a public hearing to glean more information before making any recommendation to commissioners, county spokesman Chad Hutson said.

Traffic studies done by the county in September show that 1,440 cars a day travel the 40-foot wide road. Eighty-five percent drive at 30 mph. The posted speed limit is 25 mph. Fifteen percent drive at more than 50 mph.

Much of the traffic comes from the Ponderosa hills south of Bowdish and 44th.

“The problem is that it looks, smells and feels like an arterial,” County Commissioner Kate McCaslin said.

It is not an arterial, however. The county classifies Bowdish as a residential street between 44th and Dishman-Mica.

Six weeks ago, the county put up “Local Access Only” signs at Bowdish and Sands and at Bowdish and 44th to curtail the number of cars.

That did not work. Traffic volume didn’t drop and some Ponderosa residents contacted the county saying they have a right to drive the road, McCaslin said.

The biggest concern of those along Bowdish is safety.

Julie and Calvin Ryen said high-speed traffic has been a worry ever since they bought their home along Bowdish two years ago.

“We did not buy on an arterial,” Julie Ryen said. “This is a residential street.”

Cars whip down the curving hill. Some have hit mailboxes and parked cars, and one car rolled into a yard and hit a home because it was going so fast, neighbors say.

“We need to do something before someone gets killed,” she said. “The cul-de-sac is the hardest solution,” Ryen said. “We would accept anything that would reduce the volume and speed.”

“We’re not pursuing the cul-de-sac because we think we’re high and mighty, and that we’re the only people that should be using this road. We’re pursuing the issue because we were told by the county that there was no other alternative.”

The homeowners along South Bowdish say they are willing to pay the $20,000 total to build the cul-de-sac.

Ponderosa residents have mixed feelings about closing the road.

Janet Harmon has lived on Raymond Road for 17 years. She drives 44th to Bowdish almost daily to save a little time while running errands or on the way to church.

Yet she says she wouldn’t mind if the road was closed to through traffic.

“I wouldn’t cry or yell if they closed it. I think that’s what it would take to get people to stop taking it,” she said. “I don’t blame the homeowners. I’m sure it’s miserable.”

Others living south of 44th and Bowdish disagree.

Megan Mertens, a senior at University High School, drives Bowdish daily on her way to school and her afterschool job. Her home on Skipworth is just a block from the proposed cul-de-sac.

“That’s making it out of the way for us. It’s ridiculous,” she said. “It’s a busy road. Yes, you should go the speed limit, but don’t shut it down.”

She said she was angered after they put up the “Local Access Only” signs.

“I consider us local access. That’s direct access to our house,” she said.

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