Wednesday, May 5, 2010

WP-SIA Meeting Provided Good Feedback

The West Plains- Spokane International Airport (WP-SIA) Transportation Study open house was last night and we got lots of good input from members of the public.

The WP-SIA study is a comprehensive look at the transportation system in the West Plains area. It looks at all modes of transportation (bus, bike, pedestrian and auto) to create a balanced plan for making connections and transportation improvements in an effort to increase overall mobility and safety.

Some of the input we heard last night includes:

- It's scary trying to cross Highway 2 on foot, even in crosswalks
- Crossing Highway 2 in a vehicle, or turning right or left onto the highway from Flint or Spotted roads, is dangerous.
- A handful of people aren't happy about the closing of McFarlane Road.
- More people would like to ride their bikes to the airport if there were better facilities to store them (for the record, one airport employee did tell me that they recently got a new bike rack)

One station at the open house meeting was an electronic survey on transit, walking, and bicycling conditions on the West Plains. We'd like to hear from more people on these subjects. Please take the survey by clicking here. The last day to take it is May 20.

Input from the meeting will now be assessed and SRTC staff will incorporate possible solutions into the long-term look at conditions in the study area. Here's more information on the WP-SIA Study. Updates and new information will be posted there as it becomes available.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I live in the area of the study, but couldn't attend the meeting. Was there any discussion of a park and ride facility at the Hwy 902/I-90 interchange for commuters to downtown Spokane? With all of the new residential construction right around the interchange, it would be great to have a safe, free area to park and ride mass transit. It would also be nice for the truck stop to have it's own interchange, but I'm guessing that won't happen...

Thanks.

Unknown said...

It'd also be great to have more frequent bus service during peak commute times (i.e. 7:30-8:30 am and 4:30-5:30 M-F).

SRTC Staff said...

Actually there wasn't any mention of a park and ride. I will forward your comments to our planners though and get their input. Thanks for your input, that's what we wanted to hear. Same with more bus service. I've heard that before so it seems to be a shared sentiment. A separate interchange for trucks probably not going to happen though. sorry.


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.