Our View: The City Must Prioritize People Over Cars

It's time to Prioritize People Over Vehicles

Our April 24th edition of the Civic Capacity Newsletter was the most widely read missive this publication has put forward to date. In just over 24 hours, this story was read over 3,500 times. Of the over 200 stories that have been chronicled here, no other story comes to close to that kind of readership. And perhaps more amazing than the readership, was the response of the public that was swift, certain and most notably, severe. There were thousands of individuals in our community that held a less than favorable view of the plan.

This publication went to great strides not to opine on the vices or the virtues that the plan put forward; rather, yesterday’s publication was about accomplishing two main objectives. First, this publication wanted to inform our readership about the plans that were discussed at last week’s “stakeholder” meeting using the presentation that was provided on the city’s website. Second, this publication wanted to provide thought-provoking questions as this project is beginning to take shape.

As this plan is moving ahead, it is important to remember that our downtown shops and services have been suffering blow after blow due to a number of traffic issues. The First Phase of the West Main Street Reconstruction Project made downtown nearly inaccessible, and the 10-month closing of the 100 block of West Main Street was embarrassing. The impeding long-term time frame of constructing this plan, beginning in less than a year, came as a real shock to our readers reeling from the never-ending road construction on West Main Street.

But perhaps the most objectionable part of the plan is where there appears to be little care and concern for downtown pedestrians, rather the main thrust of this project is to protect vehicle travel. This publication believes that is the wrong approach; pedestrians should mean more than vehicles. Vehicles don’t shop and eat, people do. Most importantly, vehicles can’t give you ideas and insights on being a pedestrian downtown, only people can.

As stated yesterday, the presentation gave on April 17th had two main goals: Improve the pedestrian safety and vibrancy of Downtown and Engage local stakeholders to enhance the city’s vision for these improvements. In order to meet these goals, there must be strong public agreement on a shared vision in order to make this project a success. This publication believes this community can rally together to accomplish two major goals that are not mutually exclusive, saving our square and prioritizing people over vehicles. To meet those goals, this publication that the following actions should be considered:

Give Downtown A Break

Downtown businesses have had a rough go of it for the last four years. The Covid Pandemic of 2020 was nearly immediately followed by the First Phase of the West Market Street Reconstruction Project. Just last week the 100 block of West Main Street was opened to vehicular traffic for the first time in ten months, and after four years the sidewalk on the south side was finally open.

Currently, the Phase Two of the West Main Street project is underway, again making travel to the downtown less than optimal. The current plan as presented is to start this project in 2025 and the project could last two years. In addition, the City is still planning on putting a roundabout at West Main Street and Experiment Farm Road after the Phase Two project and when funding is secured.

All of these improvements in a such a short period of time are wreaking havoc with our residents and our downtown business owners. This publication suggests that if any roadway improvements are done, they should occur no earlier than June 2026.

Enhance Cross Walks With Pedestrian Safety In Mind

There are two cross walks in our community with two rapid rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFB) in our town; one is near the High School on North Market Street and the other is near Kettering Hospital on West Main Street. People like these tools because they work.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, “The RRFB is applicable to many types of pedestrian crossings, but is particularly effective at multilane crossings with speed limits less than 40 miles per hour. Research suggests RRFBs can result in motorist yielding rates as high as 98 percent at marked crosswalks.”

The traffic islands proposed in the plan are a nice start to help address pedestrian safety, but this publication believes there needs to be a more robust discussion about establishing RRFBs on all four crosswalks in the Public Square. Of course, this publication is well aware that the standard of line of, “These RRFBs aren’t warranted by traffic counts”, or some other bureaucratic language will try to be used to kill the ideas. However, this publication wishes to point out that the current use of concrete planters probably doesn’t meet any traffic design standard currently on the books.

Traffic Should Slow Down

The continuing use of traffic engineers to solve pedestrian problems seems to cause more problems than it solves. In the April 17th presentation, the consultants recommended putting in a second lane in the roundabout/traffic circle. The consultants claim that these lane changes will reduce traffic delays from 44 seconds to 20 seconds. Solving this problem does nothing for pedestrian safety.

The ultimate goal should be to have traffic slow downtown. Giving vehicles the opportunity to move faster downtown will only increase traffic accidents and put more pedestrians at risk. It is interesting to note, that the current draft Existing Conditions Report, completed as part of the new Comprehensive Plan, shows that downtown is already a hot spot for traffic accidents. It is also interesting to note that the same planning consultants state that growth of traffic in the public square, is expected to be at 1% a year for the future.

Continue the Conversation by Getting Feedback

Former Mayor Mike Beamish was fond of saying that the Public Square was the community’s living room; it is the place where our community gathers, welcomes visitors, and it’s the place where we often meet our neighbors. As such, all residents have a strong and vested interest in this project. Public meetings, like the one on April 17th, are great a first step to help engage the public in this project, but those engagement efforts should not end there. City leaders should be open to more feedback from all our residents, downtown business owners and other civic groups as this project moves forward. More discussions and more stories about this project are critical to bring our residents along in the process.

This publication believes that if our community would commit to undertaking these four common-sense approaches, this project can be a success and from that success, we can begin having a discussion about the plaza options put forward in the presentation. In other words, let’s make sure we take care of pedestrian safety at crosswalks and slower traffic before we begin talking about creating new public spaces.

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