Widening North Reserve Street
(published in the Missoulian, 6/94)
Should we be surprised that there's a "serious" traffic problem on North Reserve? Probably not. It's been brewing for years, long before we widened South Reserve. But people like Donna Winn of Frenchtown (Missoulian, 6/22/94) who clamor for a 5-lane monster road to "solve" the problem seldom see their part in this unfolding drama.
As folks move beyond the outskirts of town to live a nouveau-country lifestyle, they place an ever increasing traffic burden on the rest of the community to support their auto dependent ways of life. They live far from most services and jobs and virtually every trip is a long one. Their homes are far apart (as compared to older areas of town); as a result, transit won't do them much good. Distances are too long for most to walk or ride a bike. According to one Oregon study, car-dependent exurbanites and suburbanites drive twice as many miles as those who live in town and make 20 to 30 percent more car trips.
Such people often see their excessive auto use as "normal" and make fun of those of us who walk, use transit, or ride bikes for some of our trips. They believe all Americans want to drive twenty miles each way to get a bag of potato chips.
It shouldn't surprise us, then, that their "solutions" to traffic problems they've helped create involve widening virtually every road between their quiet country cul de sacs and their favorite destinations. "Fixing" South Reserve made North Reserve worse. "Fixing" North Reserve will make Mullan, West Broadway, and Lower Grant Creek even worse than they already are. Look elsewhere in the community. It won't be long before we'll have to four- or five-lane the rest of North Orange, all of Russell, South 3rd West, SW 39th, Lower Rattlesnake, Duncan Drive, the list goes on and on. After we build the new South Avenue Bridge, we'll probably have to widen Blue Mountain Road and Big Flat. Shouldn't Clement be 4-lane? How about Spurgin Road? Then there's the new interchange at the airport, which will probably mean even more demand for the Westside Bypass Freeway that some traffic planners are talking about even now.
As each road is widened and fills with traffic (as more people move to houses on the outskirts and beyond and start driving those long distances), other "traffic problems" arise, only to be "solved" through widening, only to cause still further traffic problems which will be solved by, you guessed it, still more road widening.
What's often left out of this process of serving suburbanite and exurbanite motorists' desires for a stress-free travel experience is concern for the effect on community. Ever watch senior citizens try to get across Brooks near the Post Office or Orange Street at Front/Main? Ever watch people in wheelchairs trying to cross West Broadway? Ever try to cross North Orange in the face of the steady stream of commuters coming off the freeway? Ever watch kids trying to get a break from traffic near schools like Roosevelt, Rattlesnake, Meadow Hill, Target Range, or C.S. Porter? It doesn't happen.
This approach to planning is wrong and destructive of our community. Just because someone chooses to live on five acres near Huson doesn't give them a guarantee that their work trip to Lolo will-or even should-be a piece of cake. Instead of piecemeal auto dependent development followed by road widening projects, we should focus on making Missoula County a better place to live. Planning for traffic should take a back seat to planning for living. When roads like Reserve go by schools like Porter, for example, we should do more than put in a signal. The road itself should change dramatically to let motorists know that 55mph isn't acceptable near places where our children learn and play.
Similarly, when we build shopping areas, we should develop pedestrian connections to nearby neighborhoods rather than putting up barriers and surrounding our stores with monster parking lots. We should make sure that someone in a wheelchair can get from the bus stop to the front door without going up and over curbs or through the bushes.
And we need to re-think our concepts of residential development. To solve these growing traffic problems, we must get away from large-lot auto-dependent patterns. Our neighborhoods should include basic services within walking distance. Road networks should allow easy pedestrian access. Neo-traditional design, coupled with greater focus on in-fill development should be the norm, rather than the exception.
Exurbanites like Ms. Winn should start taking responsibility for their
part in creating and, therefore, solving traffic and air pollution problems.
And they should come up with positive solutions that do more than create
traffic barriers for the rest of us.