Great Falls' 10th Avenue South
(Great Falls Tribune, 7/94)
Reading the articles on 10th Avenue South reminded me of several points that get lost in the frenzy to widen roads and serve only the motoring public. Simply widening roads like 10th is like taking Alka Seltzer; it provides temporary relief but doesn't solve the problem for a number of reasons. For example
(1) Such projects encourage more traffic as people move to suburbs farther and farther out of town and drive more. Planners sometimes claim that bigger and wider roads don't help create more traffic but common sense tells us otherwise. The easier it is for people to live in the boondocks and drive to town five times a day, the more people will move out there and do just that.
How much do auto-dependent suburbanites drive? According to one Oregon study, they drive twice as many miles as those who live in older neighborhoods and make 20 to 30 percent more car trips. By subsidizing car-dependent commuter lifestyles, we ensure more traffic in the future.
(2) By facilitating higher traffic volumes, major widening projects focus pressure on nearby roads that must then be widened themselves. We're seeing this in Missoula with our newly-widened South Reserve Street. Now that motorists can fly up South Reserve at 55mph, they get even angrier creeping along North Reserve-one motorist recently pulled a gun on another who wouldn't yield! So, there's a big push to widen North Reserve; the most vocal proponents live in low-density suburbs west and north of town. Now we must build a 5-lane section, a new freeway overpass, and a four-lane bridge. Then, of course, we'll have to widen something else.
(3) Monster road projects harm those "in the way." Traffic noise and pollution increase for people living in the impacted area, neighborhoods are cut in half, residential streets become one-way couplets, houses are moved or torn down, five lane roads come between kids and their schools or playgrounds. A study from San Francisco showed that, as traffic increased on a residential street, fewer people knew their neighbors and more folks considered their neighborhood "unfriendly." Typically, none of this damage occurs to those who most benefit from road projects, however.
Our newly rebuilt South Reserve Street is so wide, residents have more trouble than ever getting across the darn thing, especially on foot. In my own neighborhood, Missoula's Northside, exurbanite commuters flood off I-90 onto Orange Street at rush hour, making it almost impossible for people living there to get across. Drivers routinely whiz past mothers with baby carriages trying to cross in the crosswalk. The message: Forget it, mom. Get a car and move to the country.
(4) The ultimate result of road widening is the creation of a hellish no-man's land where humans fear to tread. To see what it looks like, visit a place like Irving, Texas. I was recently stranded there for a week at a Holiday Inn on a two-lane one-way frontage road on one side of an 8-lane freeway. On the other side was another two-lane one-way frontage road going the other directiontwelve traffic-filled lanes all together. The frontage roads were lined with restaurants, motels, Walmarts, and K-Marts. Few sidewalks. Every two or three miles there was a bridge over the freeway. To go from the Holiday Inn to a restaurant you could see just across the freeway, you'd have to go 3 or 4 miles.
Even more interesting was this strip's relationship to nearby residential areas. As is typical of many suburbs, the neighborhoods turn their backs on stores, often with tall walls blocking pedestrian access. To walk to the 7-11 for a quart of milk, a distance less than 1/4 mile, you'd have to scale the wall or walk about half a mile out of your way. The message: Drive or else. Especially since sidewalks were long ago sacrificed for more traffic lanes.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that, as our communities spread out, encouraging more people to drive and making our streets more "pedestrian-hostile" and "auto-friendly," we ultimately create ugly places that shame us. In Missoula, visitors often poke fun at our Brooks/93 Strip. Sadly, it's what many remember about our town.
What's the solution? We need to reclaim our cities and towns, making them more compact and pedestrian-friendly; the primary purpose of our public spaces should be to foster life and community, not move greater and greater numbers of single-occupant cars and trucks from the suburbs to work centers. To accomplish this vision, we should rebuild roads like 10th Avenue South to include continuous sidewalks with curb cuts and safe pedestrian crossings for nearby residents, shop customers, and employees. We need to improve transit connections and reverse the trend of building isolated stores and shopping centers surrounded by seas of "free" parking and monster roads. We need to re-discover the benefits of sidewalk-oriented shops like we still see in Small Town Montana, and in some of our city centers.
We should eliminate our sacred single-purpose residential zoning and start building neo traditional neighborhoods, complete with compact mixed land uses and street grids and alleys coupled with traffic calming measures. The purpose: to eliminate extraneous car trips and make short walking trips to the market or the park possible and pleasant once again. At the fronts of our homes, porches and sidewalks should replace three car garages and huge driveways. Neighborhoods should again be places to live, rather than just places to drive or park.
We should reward employers who encourage carpooling and other alternatives. Subsidized employee parking should give way to an employee transportation subsidy that can be spent on transit, car-pooling, biking, walking, or, as a last resort, to rent a parking space.
In short, we should move beyond banking on the single-option car-oriented
transportation system represented by a 6- 8- and 10-lane 10th Avenue South,
and enter the 21st century encouraging a range of travel options and enhanced
community life.