Questions about Monroe trial

The city of Spokane will do a trial study on switching North Monroe Street from four to three lanes. This trial study will be costly.

The City Council should not allow this expensive three-lane trial run to go forward until it establishes specific goals for the trial period. What is it, exactly, that the trial is supposed to show?

Since safety issues have been a motive behind this trial, what are the proposed measures of gains in “safety improvement”? On the other hand, what if this very busy three-lane trial confuses people so that a pedestrian, bicyclist or driver is injured or killed? Will that shut down the trial and the plan?

Businesses along Monroe Street have complained that the three-lane plan will reduce their business income. During the trial period, how will “significant” business losses (or gains) be determined? What if businesses lose, for example, 10 percent of their revenue during the trial period? Will the plan to permanently change Monroe to three lanes be scraped? Or will the city go ahead with it anyway?

Because these are highly contentious issues, answers to these questions should be spelled out in advance and should be published in the Spokesman-Review.

Larry Vandervert

Spokane