Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Letter Writer Defends Traffic Circles For Pedestrian Safety

Spokesman-Review Letter to the Editor
Traffic Circle Vetted


To John Yates and others in Spokane who speak without knowledge regarding our neighborhood traffic circle:

The Lyons Avenue and Cincinnati Street traffic circle project began after my husband was struck by a car in 2011. He was a pedestrian crossing this intersection. As a resident, I went to my neighborhood council and received permission to use money from the red light fines to make our residential street a safer, less traffic-used area. The red light funds are not taxpayer money. They come from those who have failed to follow the law.

Next, the traffic circle was unanimously voted for by the people on this street and those nearby. We, the people on Lyons, are happy to see the changes made because this is not an arterial. We were disappointed the engineers created a less-aggressive traffic circle than what we expected. The circle could have been more similar to Seattle’s thousands of residential traffic circles, involving reflectors and a 45-degree-edge curb.

If you would like to travel down a street at speeds greater than 25 mph or avoid a traffic circle, I welcome you to use Francis Avenue, which is an arterial.

Alice Moon
Spokane

2 comments:

Charles said...

I agree people need to come to the neighborhood meetings, even though I am not in the Neva-Wood neighborhood I knew of this traffic circle for at least 2 years, and the traffic engineers tried to get it removed, but the neighborhood stood firm. When Fred Meyers was open I went by there weekly, but since Fred Meyers closed I think a lot of traffic also has stopped.

SRTC Staff said...

I like where she points out, "The red light funds are not taxpayer money. They come from those who have failed to follow the law." As for the Fred Meyer, it would be nice if something went in there.


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.