For the week of Sept 25 - Oct 1, 2002

Don’t sacrifice character for traffic remedies

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Call it what you will—good news-bad news, win-lose, downside with the upside, bitter-sweet.

The unavoidable fact is this—growth (the good news that provides prosperity) also multiplies vehicles on Ketchum streets (the bad news that creates mounting traffic problems).

The basic problem is that Ketchum is not an island unto itself. The town’s traffic woes stem from north-south through-traffic on Highway 75, as well as residents throughout the Wood River Valley drawn to Ketchum for jobs, shopping and recreational and social events that make the town a magnet.

Ketchum is no more immune from traffic congestion than Los Angeles.

But the array of proposed solutions presented this month to the city of Ketchum by the traffic consultant Earth Tech, of Bellevue, Wash., shouldn’t be considered the last word in long-range remedies.

One of the report’s most atrocious suggestions is a by-pass road around Ketchum’s Main Street and down one of West Ketchum’s streets. The report’s recognition of disadvantages to this scheme is an understatement—"impacts on abutting residents, school businesses depending on selected alignment; high construction cost for some alignment choices."

Indeed. A by-pass would virtually destroy the lifestyle in West Ketchum.

One of the least odious proposals is to ban parking on one or both sides of Main Street, thus opening the equivalent of another lane. But even this would allow cars to dominate downtown at the expense of both businesses and pedestrians.

Several other alternatives have been given less attention by the consultants—paid off-street parking and more intense intra- and inter-city transit to reduce usage of cars.

Some vehicles are unavoidably needed throughout the day because of the nature of their owners’ jobs. But others—commuters, shoppers, strolling sightseers—could accommodate their transportation needs without adding to the town’s traffic congestion.

For example, park-and-ride lots on the fringes of Ketchum could be developed for parking and from where frequent transit service to the downtown area would be provided. Ketchum’s KART could expand to include jitney service—rapid, small-vehicle service in main corridors of the city.

If parking were banned on major streets, then the city would necessarily need centralized parking facilities in strategic locations, some charging fees for the convenience of closer proximity.

The geography surrounding Ketchum unfortunately prohibits any reasonable ways for constructing a by-pass loop to move through-traffic on Highway 75 traffic around the city.

Having said that, it’s also imperative that solutions to accommodate increased traffic not ignore or destroy the character of the city’s business district and residential neighborhoods.

Other communities, large and small, that’ve bowed to the automobile at the expense of their character have become unattractive after thoughts to their traffic solutions.

 

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