St. Helens One-Way is Wrong for Bicyclists, Pedestrians, and Businesses
· Posted Tuesday May 8, 2007 by jamie
As we all well know, Bike to Work Month is happening right now; next week will be Bike to Work Week. Also next week, on Tuesday the 15th, the Tacoma City Council will consider an ordinance to designate St. Helens Avenue a one-way southbound street between Market Street and South 9th Street. This proposal received a unanimous “do pass” vote from the Council’s Economic Development committee last month. The irony is that, though the city is laudably promoting several events related to Bike to Work Week, closing St. Helens to uphill traffic will actually discourage potential bicycle commuters, as it is one of the only gradual slopes bicyclists can take into the north and central parts of the city from the downtown core. Sure, Broadway is an option, but it is difficult to cut up the hill until the Stadium District, not to mention that traffic will increase when it becomes 2-way through Antique Row.
But lets set aside just bicyclists for a second here. Current conventional wisdom in planning (See here and here) suggests that one-way streets tend to encourage motorists to drive faster. This will make the road less safe for both cyclists and pedestrians, not to mention people attempting to back out of the angle-in parking. If the desire of the city is to preserve a slow, pedestrian-friendly pace in the St. Helens area, encouraging cars to drive faster is certainly not the tack to take.
How about area businesses? Part of the reason the one-way decision was made was to preserve customer parking. But aside from the previous argument regarding traffic speed, the direction of traffic is such that it will shuttle drivers down the hill to the I-705 onramp, rather than encourage them to stay in the downtown core. People are unlikely to spend a lot of time checking out the businesses as they drive by.
Traffic engineering limitations related to the Broadway Local Improvement District make it impossible to leave the parking as-is along St. Helens while maintaining the two-way flow of traffic. Keeping traffic two-way will require the number of parking spaces to be reduced. Choosing one-way northbound instead has been pooh-poohed by people wanting to direct traffic towards the core. I know there is hand wringing from many quarters about parking downtown, but even if it means less parking, two-way traffic on St. Helens is the only logical choice, for the sake of pedestrians, bicyclists, the environment, and yes, business owners, who will surely benefit from drivers traveling slowly enough to notice their stores.
I don’t think we should accept the change as proposed lying down, and certainly not during Bike to Work Week. But let’s not just bitch in the comments (you can do that too). Hop on your bike and ride up St. Helens to show that it is being used. Write a letter to the editor (or as we like to call it, a “leditor to the editor”). Write to or call your Council representatives, or even the full council, expressing your concerns. Or best, show up at the May 15th City Council meeting to make sure they know that this affects a lot of people. They are there to listen, and we can make a difference.
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It also seems a little strange considering that the present plan for reinstalling the streetcars is along St. Helens Ave…
— Chris Karnes May 8, 03:38 PM #Chris said:
Well…sort of.
St. Helens would certainly be the ideal streetcar route given the population density along that corridor. However, at the most recent meeting of the streetcar advisory committee, the “sample route” presented by the city folks used Stadium Way, the rationale being that it is an easy extension from the existing Link terminus.
The route the showed, of course, was just for the purposes of cost estimation, and has no bearing on what actually will be built, but it is what it is…
— jamie May 8, 03:46 PM #I completely agree with the article. I live in the Webster apartments on 7th & St Helens; and there is a very steady stream of cyclists all day long coming up this particular hill. I personally ride it to/from work, and it would make people’s commutes even more strenuous.
— Tacoma (A)roma May 9, 11:36 AM #Traffic engineering limitations related to the Broadway Local Improvement District make it impossible to leave the parking as-is along St. Helens while maintaining the two-way flow of traffic.
I think you mean “limitations of conventional traffic engineer thinking.” There are many streets that have tight parking with two way vehicles. Traffic engineers generally don’t like them because they see vehicular congestion to be a bad thing. The engineer’s goal is typically to get vehicles through as quickly as possible.
Luckily Tacoma has some engineers that can think outside the box. I just hope they are the ones that show up on Tuesday.
Otherwise, good article. You captured many of the key points.
— A Nony May 9, 05:59 PM #Just got back from my daily bike ride up (and down) St. Helens. No way that street should be one way. It barely has any car traffic anyway, so what’s the congestion problem they’re trying to solve?
— michael g. May 9, 10:36 PM #I don’t think they’re trying to solve a congestion problem at all. As part of the Broadway LID improvements, they are making changes (landscaping, infrastructure, etc.) all along the Broadway and St. Helens corridors. I believe that since this block is included, the city’s traffic department is saying that they need to bring it up to their design standards, which are designed to accommodate emergency vehicles, buses, etc. Now, I have a hard time imagining a fire truck choosing to go down that block unless there is actually a fire on that block. But regardless, the approach being taken means that if two-way traffic is to remain, the lanes need to be made wider, meaning loss of parking. That’s how I understand the situation.
— jamie May 10, 10:42 AM #