For the week of December 24 - 30, 2002

Tangled web 
of traffic woes

---

The city of Sun Valley bounced The Community School’s proposal to develop a new elementary school. It wants the school to come up with a plan to restrict the amount of traffic it generates.

Opponents have groused loud and long about the terrible, irreversible effects large amounts of new traffic will have on their quiet residential community.

No question, they’re right.

And the city has been adamant in insisting that The Community School produce such a plan.

But, what’s good for the goose . . . .

Sun Valley residents and second-home owners are producing more and more congestion on State Highway 75, Main Street and Sun Valley Road in Ketchum every year, especially during peak periods.

Each day noisy throngs of exhaust-spewing cars and SUVs pour into the city. Drivers make multiple trips. They expect to find free places to park, which these days cost upwards of about $40,000 each.

The cost of disturbance of ear-shattering unattended car alarms to the peace and quiet of downtown lunch and coffee establishments is incalculable.

Sun Valley’s tank-like SUVs alone are enough to make any pedestrian’s hair stand on end, not to mention occasional cell-phone impaired driving.

Traffic congestion discourages pedestrians who are distracted from the primary mission of spending gobs of money because they are forced into a deadly game of dodge ’em.

SPLAT, the Society for Prevention of Little Animal Tragedies, points out that traffic poses a big danger to Ketchum’s pampered cadre of roaming canines, who refuse to learn how to navigate light-controlled crosswalks. "What about Fluffy?" they ask in pained voices.

Sun Valley drivers have little choice.

The city of Sun Valley has no services—groceries, pharmacies, dry cleaners or hardware stores—and just one school. Residents must drive the roads of another city just to stock the pantry!

While the Sun Valley Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council demand traffic mitigation from The Community School, they have done nothing to address the impacts of the city’s own traffic on other communities.

The options for mitigation are legion.

As a sign of good faith and in the spirit of fairness, the city of Sun Valley could offer to pay Ketchum to construct a couple of parking garages. It could work with Ketchum to limit vehicle traffic by requiring special stickers for Sun Valley cars to restrict parking to days when congestion is low. It could require residents to use the Ketchum Area Rapid Transit System. All could be controlled with tasteful little tollgates on Sun Valley Road and State Highway 75 designed to look like log-style national park entrances.

After all, fair’s fair.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.