Yup. Local Traffic Only.

An update to my post from last May, re: a shortcut many people in Ammon are used to taking through a neighborhood to the south of us to get from 17th Street to Sunnyside without having to traverse the mess that is Hitt Road.

The city's traffic comittee, in conjunction with residents in the area along Curlew and Eagle Drives between 17th Street and the canal at Salmon Street, have decided to really make the roads local traffic only by kneecapping access.

The plan is to make the canal bridge at Salmon a one-way only going south, and the intersection of Curlew and 17th street a one-way-only going north out of Curlew.

Like this:

The yellow line shows the route people were taking to avoid traffic on Hitt, and the red arrows show how that trip will be rendered impossible by the new restrictions.

Changes at the canal bridge will be immediate, but the city is going to have to do a little study and homework to make the change at Curlew and 17th Street take effect.

Traffic counts are showing the route is seeing more than 4,500 cars a day. I'm going to say I have my doubts about this. I admit I take that shortcut route on occasion, and I've never felt the roads had more traffic than the minor arterials in our neighborhood. Yes, Eagle is a narrow road, but for the most part, I've seen people well behaved there. That being said, I don't live on the road and haven't seen what the residents have seen, though I suspect when the traffic counting was taking place there were more than a few residents of that neighborhood who did a few extra loops every time they left home to goose that count up.

As I mentioned in my previous post, linked above, the city has a much better minor arterial at Midway that could do the job this route is doing except it doesn't have traffic lights at either end. A city councilman told me today that to move the traffic lights would cost in the neighborhood of $1-2 million apiece, and since Midway doesn't have the traffic count to merit grant assistance, the city's not in a position to do the work.

That seems a bit disingenuous as I believe the current shortcut is taken partly because the traffic lights at either end, and if the lights weren't there but elsewhere, the traffic count elsewhere would increase. But that's clearly cart before the horse thinking.

Anyway, I guess the local input is what mattered here. I hope they're willing to sleep in the bed they've made, because I'm fairly confident residents of those streets also liked being able to get in and out without having to go to Hitt Road -- which they really can't do anyway, as the city's streets in that area are kind of a cluster anyway (see the linked post above).

I should point out that as of today, the traffic situation in our neighborhood has changed. John Adams is now a through street from almost Ammon Road to Hitt, and before too long Curlew will be a through street from 17th Street to First Street. First Street is temporarily closed as the canal company puts in a new bridge over the canal by Hitt in preparation for First being widened to five lanes next year.