Hearing to Direct Traffic in Missoula’s University Neighborhood

By Dana Green, 4-19-06

	Caption: Bike/ped activists want two single-lane roundabouts like this on Arthur Ave.

Next week, there’s a public hearing, hosted by state transportation officials, on a plan to widen Arthur Avenue near the Madison Street Bridge to four lanes.

State officials say the plan is necessary to divert highway traffic from the university and maintain traffic flow. But traffic-calming advocates call the plan unsightly and unsafe, and have come up with their own “citizen” plan for the key intersection at the edge of the historic university neighborhood.

Montana Department of Transportation officials, working with the university and the city, have come up with a $2.5 million plan to create two new lanes on Arthur Avenue, or U.S. Highway 12, allowing north and southbound traffic to flow where the road currently allows only southbound access between Fifth and Sixth streets.

The plan would require tearing down university-owned homes on the eastern edge of the avenue, and paving over a section of the Jeanette Rankin Park, a grassy triangle skirting the roadway. It would also widen the current intersection from 40 feet to close to 100 feet.

Last fall, student organizations and bike/pedestrian activists hosted a series of meetings, hoping to raise public awareness about the project and address their questions about increased traffic, public safety, and noise and air pollution.

Bob Giordano, director of the Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation, believes the MDT plan is overkill. In Giordano’s view, the wider intersection will be an eyesore in a residential neighborhood, creating a strip-mall feel not unlike busy Reserve Street west of town, he said.

“It’s ridiculous to put in a bigger intersection than Reserve right here in a beautiful neighborhood,” Giordano said.

Giordano also questions whether installing a new stoplight at the intersection will encourage drivers to “beat the light,” endangering bikers and pedestrians traveling to campus.

Giordano argues that the state design is based on 20-year traffic estimates, treating the residential intersection just like any highway in the state and ignoring the neighborhood’s character.

“It’s an old formula – you look at rush hour 20 years in the future and build for that,” he said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Giordano and others have come up with an alternative plan, calling for two, single-lane, modern roundabouts on Arthur Avenue, moving traffic slowly through the heavily bike and pedestrian-trafficked area.

Pedestrians would have to get across two 11-foot sections, rather than navigating a 100-foot road, he said.

Bicyclists can merge easily with the slow-moving traffic to traverse the roundabout, or get off their bike and cross by foot, Giordano said.

Roundabouts, popular in other Western states, are slowly gaining acceptance in Montana – the first major modern roundabout is going in at the Hills/Higgins/Beckwith intersection next year, after city transportation officials voiced support for the design. And the Montana Legislature, not known for taking bold stands on planning issues, passed a bill last session encouraging the use of roundabouts over traffic lights in the state’s metropolitan areas.

But Steve King, director of Public Works for the City of Missoula, defends the state plan as a practical, safe solution for Arthur Avenue.

Single-lane roundabouts were rejected for the site because of traffic volume needs – and double-lane roundabouts were unsafe and too large for the available space, King said.

The Environmental Assessment for the Arthur Avenue project acknowledges that singe-lane roundabouts are the safest option, stating: “the risk of being involved in a severe collision is lower at (single-lane) roundabouts than other forms of intersections, due to slower vehicle speeds.”

However, the assessment goes on to acknowledge that Arthur Avenue is a state highway – and needs to accommodate trucks using Highway 12. As well, according to the assessment, the intersection needs to accommodate special events planned at the University – and roundabouts would be difficult to reroute and monitor during games and other events.

King believes the current plan does take into account pedestrian safety, using pedestrian islands and other key safety features. The intersection will be similar to redesigned Stephens Avenue, with a median strip, he said.

King said there is no hard evidence to indicate that drivers speeding up at traffic lights will endanger pedestrians – and noted that reducing highway traffic through the university area and Maurice Avenue was a paramount safety issue.

“There’s been a variety of pedestrian safety features built in,” King said. “Right now there’s an uncontrolled high-speed road … that would be substantially improved.”

The public hearing over Arthur Avenue is an important one – the two intersections may have the most intensive interaction between cars, pedestrians and bikers in the state of Montana, King believes.

But it is also a venue for discussing Missoula’s vision for the future and how to retain its neighborhood character, Giordano argues.

At least a half-dozen major transportation projects are coming up in the next few years, including reconstructing Russell Street, a major north-south traffic corridor. Missoula citizens will have to decide what they want their city to look and feel like – not just determining how best to accommodate car traffic, Giordano says.

“We need to consider the livability of this part of town: air quality, noise, everything,” he said. “Do we want the feeling of Reserve Street everywhere in Missoula? It comes down to a clear community vision for the future.”

The public hearing will be at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, April 25, at the University of Montana University Center, 3rd floor. The purpose for the hearing is to present information about a completed Environmental Assessment and take public comments through June 2.

The EA is available online at www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/eis_ea.shtml.

Oral or written comments may be presented at the public hearing. Alternatively, written comments may be sent to Jean Riley, MDT Environmental Services, at 2701 Prospect Avenue, PO Box 201001, Helena, MT 59620-1001 or submitted online at www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/eis_ea.shtml by June 2.
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