About 15 Lincoln Avenue neighbors met at Eric’s house on 11/22 to discuss traffic calming options as part of the RSVP project. We were joined by our city council member Russ Stark, Public Art Administrator Regina Flanagan, and Forrest Kelley of the Capitol Region Watershed District.
We discussed options including traffic circles, bumpouts, speed bumps, pedestrian crossings, greenway, one way, public art, and rain gardens. Considering the timing of the RSVP project and the imperatives of making decisions about “concrete” quickly, we decided to focus our conversation on a traffic circle at Lincoln and Prior, bumpouts along Lincoln, and rain gardens.
Read on for details!
Traffic Circle
A traffic circle at the intersection of Lincoln and Prior would both slow down traffic along Prior and serve as a “gateway” to the residential neighborhood for traffic turning off of Grand. It would also be a tiny bit of additional green in the neighborhood, sprucing up our corner of Mac-Groveland. There was a good deal of support for a traffic circle at Lincoln and Prior. There was some concern raised about wintertime plowing and the hurdle a circle might present to large vehicles like RVs or school busses.
There is a circle now at Lincoln and Finn (on the way to Cretin) that was kept nicely clear last winter, and Russ Stark said he’d seen some circles in his neighborhood that were also well plowed. Plows generally need clear curbs and consistent measures to do solid curb-to-curb plowing, and the new streets will have that. The traffic circles are well marked and quite consistent through the city, so plow drivers know how to deal with them.
As to large vehicles, the concern raised was their ability to negotiate the “round-the-circle” left turns. Eric shared that Monica Beeman had told a neighborhood meeting that some commercial vehicles, like school busses, are given permission to carefully “cheat” the left turn, cutting in front of the circle in a way they can negotiate. He had no idea if RV owners were given similar dispensation, but noted that there would never be circles at two consecutive intersections, so at worst a large vehicle could reroute so that it could come straight through the circle.
Neighbors would be responsible for maintaining any plantings in the circle, which is one of the reasons that strong support from the four corners is so important. Though none of the “corner neighbors” could make it to the meeting, we know that David and Jamie on the southwest corner of that intersection are very excited about the idea. Steve and Eric plan to meet with the corner neighbors to see if they would be willing to champion the petition required.
In order to become reality, a traffic circle needs to attract 75% support in a petition circulated to all neighbors along Lincoln from Howell to Cleveland.
Bumpouts
Bumpouts, or curb extensions, narrow the street in a way that promotes safety of pedestrians, slows down traffic, and adds a bit of green to the boulevards. The city has said that our street, which is 32 feet wide, can only accommodate bumpouts along one side of the street and must leave two 13 foot wide lanes for traffic. Bumpouts along the north side of Lincoln would neatly mirror the bumpout that our neighbors west of Cleveland got at the corner of Lincoln and Cleveland as part of their RSVP project last year. Our block is long enough that in addition to a bumpout on the north side of Lincoln at Cleveland, we could consider a bumpout in the middle of the block.
Bumpouts increase pedestrian safety by giving people on foot a chance to get their view out beyond the line of parked cars without having to leave the curb. When a child, for example, wants to cross the street, they can really get out and see traffic without having to duck out between parked cars. This also helps drivers, who get a better view of the pedestrians waiting to cross. Bumpouts can be filled with grass or rain gardens so they increase the green along the block as well.
But bumpouts do reduce parking and they do produce another obstacle for plows. We have high hopes for the parking petition that Sara successfully circulated, so that concern was not too great. But again, wintertime plowing was a significant concern for neighbors. Although the curb-to-curb plowing facilitated by the new streets should make our snow management situation much better along Lincoln, neighbors were concerned that the street would get too narrow with bumpouts.
However, it was hard for most to picture what bumpouts would really look like without drawings. Even though there was less support for this option than for the traffic circles, we agreed that circulating a petition that clearly illustrated the concept would still be worthwhile. Note that to succeed, such a petition would have to get 75% support of the neighbors on Lincoln between Prior and Cleveland, so this won’t come to pass without significant support.
Rain Gardens
Forrest Kelley shared some pictures of a simple rain garden concept that looked attractive to about half the people at the meeting. This concept did not require unusual plantings, but instead just diverted rain water from the street to the boulevard in order to let it soak into the ground there. This would be accomplished by depressing a small portion of the curb to let water slip into the boulevard as it rushes past during rain storms. In our case, where many Ash trees will be lost and replaced with new trees during the RSVP project, these depressions could even be arranged so they help water new trees.
Some had heard at a neighborhood meeting that our soil was not very conducive to rain gardens, but Forrest had assessed the soil at Steve’s house on the east end of the block and found it quite good for soaking up water. This kind of diversion of water into the boulevard also does not require the same sort of under-street space that some more ambitious rain garden concepts would require. There is a good chance these could work in our neighborhood.
Eric and Steve agreed to let Lisa Falk-Thompson know of the Lincoln Avenue interest in this kind of rain garden so that the option would be presented to each house. Note, this is not something that would require a block-wide petition since each owner can decide for him or herself whether to request a rain garden on their boulevard. Forrest would be happy to answer questions about this option via email or at 651-644-8888.
Public Art
There was also some discussion of public art options for the RSVP project. These are not under the same time-pressure as the traffic circle or bumpouts, but Regina Flanagan does hope to make some decisions about where the focus will be on art for this RSVP project before the end of January. She was looking for volunteers to be part of a public art group to meet and discuss options. Contact Regina at via email or at 651-266-9159 if you are interested.
Next Steps
We agreed to encourage Lisa to hold another neighborhood wide RSVP meeting to discuss these options. That meeting has now been set for Wednesday 12/7 at 6:30pm. Unfortunately no space could be found in the neighborhood, so we will meet in the auditorium of the Hillcrest Recreation Center at 1978 Ford Parkway that evening. After the holidays we will probably have another block meeting to make sure our petition circulation is going well.
If you would like to help circulate petitions for the circle and/or bumpouts, please contact Eric Celeste (651-323-2009) or Steve Gorg (651-334-7624). We need your advocacy and assistance to make the most of this opportunity!