Iâve been meaning to respond to the Busway discussion, but have been having one of those busy stretches of life, so please forgive me.
Status of the Riverview Corridor transit plan (the âBuswayâ): Not wholly dead, but comatose and the health insurance ran out a long time ago. The plans at the City are sitting on a shelf with an uncertain future. Some of the planning that took place at the very end of the process has applicability to ongoing projects (RiverBluff) and things we hope to make better in the future (a redesigned Randolph Avenue between W7th and Shepard). The one thing that Riverview did promise was fewer bus stops for that route, and by golly thatâs just about the only thing we got out of the deal. In a neighborhood with lots of elderly residents, we have had the local route to the VA hospital cut out, replaced with the 54, with fewer stops. Thatâs the way to serve an older community â make âem walk farther and donât go where they need to go. The âplanned increasesâ mentioned by Mr. Sands would really be just restoration of what the Met Council took away as a result of their Sector 5 study. On the re-striping of West 7th: Itâs not a conspiracy to give us the busway, if anything, itâs a conspiracy to make the street a pedestrian-friendly, locally-based commercial corridor so that if this lousy idea ever resurfaces again, it will be seen as even more out of sync with the area. The striping (which has been in discussion for a while) is designed to slow things down, allow the on-street parking to be less dangerous, and to make it easier to cross the street. Crossing W7th has always been difficult, because of the angles of the cross streets. On the river side of W7th, there are no playgrounds, no rec centers, very little public space appropriate for kids. They shouldnât have to take such risks just to get to Palace playground. Itâs being done on that part of the street with the lowest traffic volume, although I pushed for it all the way between Smith and 35E. North of Smith, itâs too crowded, and south of 35, itâs too crowded. The studies done for the busway did show that this section of the road has low volumes. The arguments for slowing things down are the same arguments that the residents pretty overwhelmingly agreed cut against the busway. We already have two huge corridors through our area â indeed, weâre surrounded by them â 35E and Shepard Road. When we held community meetings on the busway, there were things people said they wanted over and over: keep the traffic slow, keep the sidewalks wide, retain on-street parking as safe, donât build something that would make turning left impossible, donât use the road as a through-way when we have two others, make it so riding a bike on the street isnât fatal. The re-striping advances all of these goals. Diane Gerth I really live in the West End
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