Item B: Willamette Street Study - Laserfiche WebLink

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ability of cyclists, c.Concerns were voiced about the impact of two-way conversion on the pedestrians, people with disabilities, and students to cross Willamette on their way to South Eugene High School, Roosevelt Middle School, UO, LCC, and other destinations. thth Many now cross at 19 and 20, where one-way traffic flow clearly makes crossing th Willamette Street a greater easier, or at 18 because of the light. Many have found thth challenge to cross and utilize because of the two-way conversion between 13 and 18 thth on Willamette, supporting the concerns about impacts between 18 and 20. th intersection of 18 and Willamette d.The overload in southbound traffic at the is thth currently causing backup queuing to the north from 18 past 15 during peak traffic th times. (Members of the stakeholder group have seen traffic backup past 14 on several occasions.) The conversion to two-way would force all the southbound traffic into one lane for most of this section contributing to longer queuing. thth e.The two-way section from 13 to 18 causesdifficulty for people with cars making left turns in and out of parking lots, or from cross-streets along Willamette Street. It is also difficult to enter a traffic lane from an on-street parking spot. Together with the additional impacts of this prior conversion noted above, these problems have led the thth committee to support a recommendation to evaluate the conversion of the 13 to 18 section of Willamette back to one-way southbound traffic flow. f.According to DKS Associates, the consulting traffic engineering firm for the study, a similar problem with left turn access to and from parking lots and cross-streets would occur in all conversion scenarios they studied with northbound traffic waiting to cross the th intersection at 18 and Willamette. Clients and staff of the State Children’s Services Building and customers of the Meridian businesses who utilize their parking lots would find traffic blocking entry to their parking lots. All alternatives studied would create significant access problems that don’t exist with the current configuration. A problem exists with southbound traffic needing tomerge g. from two lanes to one thth between 18 & 20. Drivers race and jockey for position causing safety concerns in this area. Keeping these two blocks one-way and possibly changing the lane configurations th for southbound Willamette leading up to the intersection with 18 may improve this merging problem. The committee urges traffic engineers to consider this revision of lane configurations, noting that it may also allow extension of the southbound bicycle lane to thth 20, whereas it currently ends just south of 17. inconvenient h.The current street configuration can sometimes be . Northbound morning car commuters and some customers and clients of businesses would prefer a more direct route by automobile to their destination than currently exists. The committee is sympathetic with this concern, but has determined that the most significant objection to the current system – the requirement to jog east to Oak Street in order to enter westbound thth th traffic on 18 – cannot be resolved by conversion of Willamette from 18to 20 to two- way because of the operational infeasibility of including a north to westbound left turn at th 18 and Willamette. This can only be solved by a broader plan to modify traffic flow that we are recommending. ATTACHMENT A Willamette Street Study Stakeholder Summary and Recommendation 4