by Travis Mateer
How did this episode get finished? I don’t really know. Jesus was involved, I am told. I had given up and taken a nap at that point, but not before constructively texting my buddy that ProTools can go fuck itself. It shouldn’t take nearly 5 hours to figure out how to fix the audio on a 90 minute recording.
I’m very happy a divine intervention occurred to bring you this week’s review of Zoom Chron articles. Do we discuss the Chinese spy balloon? Yes, we do, along with ALL the week’s activity on the blog.
This coming week the Higgins corridor lane reduction scheme will get a more PRIMETIME public hearing on Monday, and I plan on being prepared with some prepared remarks that will be LESS than 3 minutes and delivered in a tone-appropriate voice (hopefully).
Will the main opposition to this plan, Scott Billadeau, read his 11 points of concern faster than Wednesday? He probably should, because I don’t feel like Council has much patience right now for public criticism.
As I promised in this week’s episode, here are 11 points of concern:
1.) While the proponents of the downtown road diet claim broad engagement, the reality on the ground is that very few business owners, employees, and residents of the downtown area knew about the project until very recently. Many are still not aware of the project. According to the road diet proponents, the current number of survey respondents reflect less than ½ of 1% of Missoula County residents. We suspect that those initial survey respondents are directly or indirectly connected with the project and/or the proponents of the project.
2.) The ‘downtown road diet’ is being heralded as a solution to an enduring safety problem. The real agenda appears to be the goal of forcing more people to bus, bike, or walk downtown. We have no issue with nudging more people to bus, bike, or walk, but it should be a choice they make. For most Missoulians and out-of-towners, it is simply not an option to bike, bus, or walk in order to get downtown. Further, there are on average only 5 (five) reported biking or walking accidents in downtown Missoula, of which the majority do not include injuries. Given the fact that there are several million mobilizations annually, a .000001 incident rate, does not represent a problem that needs solved. If anything, that’s a safety success story. It is simply not possible for millions of mobilizations and zero accidents.
3.) There does not appear to have been safety studies that take into account the safety ramifications of implementing a road diet. For example, what would happen when fewer people respect yellow and red lights when forced congestion occurs? What would happen when cars are backed up across several blocks during rush-hour traffic? What would happen if people felt inclined to drive faster in order to not get stuck on the same block after several turns of a stop light? What would occur if substantially more traffic is forced onto the Orange Street or Madison Street bridges?
4.) The road diet would ensure longer travel times in and out of downtown, which would cause more inefficiency and more idling automobiles along with the exhaust thereof. Besides causing more CO2 in the atmosphere, it would cause more air pollution in a city that is constantly plagued with air quality issues.
5.) Downtown Missoula has been fighting a negative perception problem for decades, and the road diet would only add to that negative viewpoint. While a large number of city officials, the Missoula Parking Commission, and the Missoula Downtown Association would like to think there is not a negative perception of downtown Missoula, the reality is that many Missoulians view the hassle and cost of parking downtown, as well as the ongoing and increasing problem of homelessness as major deterrents to coming downtown.
6.) The authors of the study analysis with respect to downtown Missoula concluded that Missoula is has already been successful in its effort to create multi-modal transportation downtown:
Higgins Avenue is a critical spine of Missoula’s downtown core, providing mobility to the city’s center as well as forming a “postcard street” as described in Missoula’s Downtown Master Plan. The corridor is already a multi-modal thoroughfare, with pedestrian and bicycle activity happening alongside auto, truck, bus traffic,plus ample ride-share traffic…
7.) The new Beartracks Bridge was designed with extra wide sidewalks and biking areas for the purpose of making it easier and safer to bike and walk downtown. Why would Missoula now go against that initial design and a $17 million dollar expenditure?
8.) There are dozens of additional businesses downtown and hundreds of additional hotel rooms without ANYadditional parking spaces. The idea that a road diet and removing parking spaces would somehow benefit downtown Missoula goes against all notions of common sense. The supposed studies that claim economic benefit have dubious study design. Further, the comparison to other largescale cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Denver do not reflect a similar scenario as Missoula. Further yet, the economic benefit claims have been double and triple counted (using San Francisco three times, and Denver twice). Large cities have multiple ‘main streets’ and substantial thoroughfares for getting in and out of the their downtown areas. Missoula has one: Higgins Avenue.
The downtown Missoula businesses that experienced the current road diet on Higgins Ave (North of Broadway) unequivocally state that it caused economic hardship and at least in one case, closed their business because of it.
9.) Higgins Avenue is also Highway 12. Many drivers are simply driving from I-90 over to Highway 93 and down the Bitterroot or vice versa.
10.) Downtown Missoula has construction fatigue. Even if the downtown road diet was a good idea and it solved an actual problem, people are tired of what feels like never-ending construction.
11.) As anyone can see from the city government presentations about the road diet proposal, a tremendous amount of time, energy, money, and resources was (and continues to be), invested into the project. Imagine if the same time, energy, money, and resources were invested into an actual problem, such as homelessness, or downtown parking.
Yes, Monday’s City Council meeting should be a fun way to begin the week, so stay tuned, and drop me a donation at my about page if you find value in this content.
Thanks for reading/listening!