08/13/1979 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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, Matthew Johnson, 1283 Tyler Street, takes 12th Avenue to work each day e and was glad that the diverters were there. His young son rides his bicycle on 12th Avenue and will be riding to Lincoln School. Jon Stafford, 1060 Madison, had been following this as a member of the Neighborhood Advisory Group and as Chairman of the Westside Neighbor- hood Group in 1976. He said this provides maximum benefit for minimum inconvenience. It reduces the traffic on 12th Avenue by 55 percent. This is part of a larger program and if this is not successful, the larger program will not continue. If these barriers are not made permanent, nothing else will be done with the neighborhood. Listed below were those speaking for the group opposed to the diverters. Bernice Willoughby, 1140 Adams, lives next to the alley. She said that since the diverter went in, the traffic has rerouted itself down the alley. When one problem is solved, another is created, she told the Council. Betty Williamson, 967 West 12th Avenue, has lived on 12th Avenue for 25 years. She said she pays taxes for. the street and does not under- stand why she cannot use the street. She said the traffic counters at Taylor, Van Buren, and Jackson showed that 300 cars were unaccounted for. However, the counter on Jefferson indicated the 300 cars had been accounted for there Those cars went down the alleys. After the diverters were installed, the number of cars that went down the alley e was 700. She was concerned that most of those cars were using the alleys. Another concern she expressed was that the fire engine could not pass the diverter. Roger Lesiak, 1260 Monroe, said the dust, vandalism, and speeding cars made living on the alley unpleasant. He asked why the bicycles could not use the Amazon Bikeway. Howard Warner, 1425 West 12th Avenue, felt there had always been very little traffic on 12th Avenue. He noted that several cars were going around the diverter. He suggested that permanent diverters would cut visibility. He asked the Council to remove the diverters because there was enough room for both bicycles and automobiles on 12th Avenue. Public hearing was closed. In response to a question, Mr. Farah said that the money for landscaped diverters would be available from the Community Development Block Grant. He directed additional questions to Public Works staff, Mr. Hanks and Mr. Hessler. Mr. Hanks, responding to the interpretation of the traffic counts (Ms. Williamson's testimony), suggested that the traffic counter was closer to the apartment complexes where the tenants could be using Polk to get to the arterial streets; east of Jefferson the traffic could be - going to Jefferson. He felt that the reduction of traffic was impres- sive and that the explanation could be that they were using 11th and 13th avenues. 4~ 8/13/79--3