From a press release:
CITY OF PEORIA HOSTS MAIN AND UNIVERSITY TRAFFIC STUDY FORUM
September 22, 2008
7 pm – 9 pmThe Public Works Department and Hanson Professional Services will be hosting a public meeting on Monday, September 22, 2008; 7pm – 9pm at City Hall-Council Chambers, 419 Fulton Street, Suite 400, Peoria. This forum is a follow-up to the meeting that took place in early July. The City will be presenting a series of computer-generated illustrations showing how a variety of traffic-calming options will affect Main Street and the surrounding area using traffic counts and data collected in June.
This is a critical meeting for those of us concerned about our West Bluff community. This may be our final opportunity to provide input and influence the future of Main Street. Show your support of a walkable west bluff by attending this forum and wearing a green shirt to visually show our city leaders what our community wants.
If you are unable to attend this important meeting, please respond to this email to show your support of a vibrant, creative, pedestrian-friendly, and commercially-viable Main Street.
Here’s an easier way to provide a “walkable” West Bluff.
Build a time machine, and go back to, say, 1963.
I believe that’s probably a more feasible way to get it done.
C.J. – I used to drive over to BU once week at 4:30 and was amazed at the volume of traffic flowing through the area during rush hour. For those not intimately familiar with the West Bluff, what gives? There is a shiny new Highway 74 just a mile away from the intersection of Main & University that seems barely used at times. Is there no way to divert some of that traffic to other major arteries of the City that are better equipped to handle such a load.
First of all, if you reverted back to 1963, you have tons of traffic on the weekends when we used to cruise Main from Steak N Shake to Bradley Park. I can’t understand what the problem is. Let’s see…almost all the neighborhoods who have “Welcome” signs that border Main have had their streets made so no driver can cut through, like Frink, Douglas etc etc. Then the Uplands has “No Left Turn” signs off of Main during certain hours and has designed some streets so making a turn onto them is near impossible (Col Terr at University was an old cut thru years ago) Most of these neighborhoods, while welcoming you to them has “No Parking without Permit” signs posted on their streets. All these things with the exception of “Welcome” say “Go Away!” So now people are wondering what to do about Main Street traffic? For years, it has traffic has been forced to use Main Street when (for example) a taxpayer funded street like Columbia Terr could have been used to divert traffic away from Main over to Farmington Rd but no way were the home owners going to put up with that. No, now we have to slow and restrict traffic to Main. What a crock. Maybe if the police seriously enforced the traffic laws, like speed limits, No Left Turns, running the Left Turn arrow, yielding to people in the crosswalks etc etc, then the street would become a lot safer.
35% of the traffic along Main-Western is neither going to or coming from the West Bluff (ie external to external). Some 45% of the traffic passing into the West Bluff on University is like wise external to external traffic. Usage of I-74 is DOWN from what it was before the upgrade.
We got plenty of room to curb traffic on Main.
Emtronic – you seem very “frustrated” by this issue. I know many families that live in the West Bluff and they love the neighborhood feel and the ability of their kids to play and run freely. If the decision had not been made to minimize traffic through some of these areas, I do not believe it would be as vibrant as it is now and these families would have fled to the suburban neighborhoods like so many others. Times change, and so to, peoples lifestyles and expectations. I think this is one of the few examples of the City taking action to enhance the livability of an area.
The problem on Main Street is this: While there are many people living in the adjoining neighborhoods and approximately 6,000 students attending Bradley University, Main Street does not attract people as pedestrians and for those who must travel on foot it is dangerous.
Why? Because the majority of businesses have been designed or oriented assuming everyone will arrive by car. So, today whether you own one or not you feel most comfortable only when you can arrive by auto.
I have often wondered how Main Street evolved into auto-row. It doesn’t make much sense to me this would have happened considering its proximity to Bradley University and the many lovely older neighborhoods. Now that Main Street is no longer auto-row this area could, over time, evolve into a more charming village atmosphere. This transformation will not happen over night- but it will never happen unless the following concerns are addressed:
• The sidewalks are too narrow and are not buffered from the traffic.
• There are far too few street trees, and the trees that are there have not been planted to create the necessary tree canopy.
• Main Street has too few retail businesses geared to serve college student or young families.
If the area is allowed to remain auto centric then Peoria will miss an opportunity to serve and capture a significant demographic of people who are not only interested in living in urban villages- but will only live in urban villages.
If only our citizens and departments of Public Works, Planning and Growth, Public Safety and Economic Development had been asked to collaborate and design a variety of solutions to increase pedestrian travel we would be moving in the right direction- ahhh , but haven’t we already done that?
Over six years ago these issues were discussed, vetted, and depicted. The Heart of Peoria Plan and the Renaissance Park Plan are the resulting documents. I have confidence that if given the correct problem to solve, which is too few pedestrians, our engineers can provide a solution. Additionally, there is nothing wrong with people traveling by auto if they drive slowly enough in the presence of people on foot, in a wheelchair or bicycle.
If other cities have successfully created vibrant retail districts in the midst of adjoining older neighborhoods let’s hope Peoria can figure this out.
Maybe the problem isn’t neighborhood traffic- it is how to trust and work with one another.
Oh heck no, no frustration at all. I am simply putting forth why I believe Main has the traffic it does other than the obvious fact that there are more cars on the road than in ’63. I feel we don’t need the city wasting money on studies and fact finding forums which will surely produce neighborhood citizens who would like nothing better than to make the street a ghost street. In the end, we may get something like speed bumps like on N Prospect or another bunch of traffic lights like the new one at Maplewood which is too close to Farmington Rd light.
Simple fix is to simply enforce the speed limits and traffic laws. Stop cars from running red lights at Main and from not yielding to pedestrians. The speed limit is already 30 mph but rarely followed as anyone you had driven it knows. I-74 is useless for getting traffic off of Main and since this town has few North/South and East West “main” streets, what are you going to do?
It is, after all, MAIN STREET of Peoria and not a side alley. Maybe if the Med-Tech TIF had taken off and new businesses had built along upper Main, it wouldn’t be so bad, but that hasn’t happened. Just start enforcing the speed limit and start slowing drivers down would be a great start. there…no forum needed for that idea.