Item A: South Willamette Street Improvement Plan

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I am thrilled that there is a lot of thinking and discussion concerning improvements to south Willamette Street. I am also happy that you are leading the effort. Congratulations! And thanks! For many years, improvement of south Willamette has been my favorite project. I have always lived in south Eugene, so Willamette is a key street for me. We talked about it years ago when I was with LCOG. It is a tough project, but a very important one, because Willamette Street is perhaps the most vital street in the city. It is the spine with a wonderful history of commercial and cultural activity. It is so disappointing to me that the city has not been able to make the street represent its values of being a bike-friendly, walk- friendly, attractive and interactive community. I hope all the thinking and discussion results in something tangible that better represents those values. I definitely support the idea of three lanes including a center turn lane and bike lanes on both sides of the street. Improving the pedestrian access with better sidewalks and separation from traffic with space and plantings also is important. Other ideas I support are providing turn-out bays for the LTD buses and reducing the number of access points. People have always been concerned about removing travel lanes on south Willamette because of the heavy traffic demand. However, traffic flow is very poor now with four lanes because of the frequent need to maneuver around cars making left turns, buses stopped to pick-up passengers and cars entering the traffic lanes from so many access points. A center turn lane, bus turn-outs and fewer access points would go a long way to improving current traffic movement. And of course adding the bike lanes and improving the pedestrian environment would make the street more attractive and useful to all modes of transportation, perhaps reducing the vehicle demand. Another important factor is that there are two available alternative arterials to Willamette Street in the Amazon Parkway and Hilyard/Patterson Streets.Thanks for your work. Let me know how I might contribute. Here's a crazy idea: relocate all through motor-vehicle traffic to Amazon Parkway, and dedicate South Willamette to local-access traffic or bike/ped/transit only. Here's my vision:Approaching from the north, at 20th Street, all southbound motor-vehicle traffic is diverted through the former Civic Stadium parking lot onto Amazon Parkway. Conflicts with northbound Willamette traffic are minimal because all northbound through traffic has also been diverted to Amazon Parkway, at 29th.Traffic on Willamette between 20th and 29th can exit in either direction, but the only way to get onto Willamette in that stretch is from a side street or from a business. This reduces traffic flow dramatically, so that Willamette only needs to have a single narrow travel lane in each direction for local business access, with intermittent center-lane turn refuges.Removal and narrowing of traffic lanes creates room for bike lanes on each side, as well as for widened sidewalks. The pedestrian experience is further enhanced by undergrounding and/or relocating utilities.The center turn lane is shared by the Skinner City Trolley which runs every 15 minutes or so, connecting to the EmX backbone at the Downtown Eugene Station (and continuing north past the Hult Center to the Amtrak station). Mid-street trolley platforms connect to pedestrian cross-walks at Civic Stadium, 24th, and near 27th. The terminal platform would be directly in front of Woodfield Station, heck we could start calling it Woodfield Station with a straight face!Woodfield Station would remain accessible from either 29th or Willamette Street (via a short stub). Business owners will still have vehicle access right to their front door, and the visitor experience will be so improved that those business locations will be in high demand, even though motorists might have to take a less direct route to/from the business. Pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders will enjoy direct routing to and from these businesses, of course. Motorists who formerly used Willamette Street simply to pass through the area will quickly develop alternate habits, using Amazon Parkway or other routes. A few of them might even decide to ditch the car in favor of some other mode! Already, I see people using Woodfield Station's parking lot as an unofficial park-and-ride location.