From: Ross S. Heitkamp
To: Bodduna, Aruna
Subject: Castro Pedestrian Mall: Mitigated negative declaration Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2022 10:09:30 PM
CAUTION: EXTERNAL EMAIL - Ensure you trust this email before clicking on any links or attachments.
Regarding the Mitigated Negative Declaration, I would like to raise the following objections to the findings in the following sections:
Air Quality: all sections say no impact however the use of stop signs, currently implemented as flashing red signals, has already resulted in much longer stop times for vehicles which increases the amount of pollutants being released.
Air Quality: the traffic backups already taking place due to the flashing red signals is resulting in vehicles taking longer distance drives to try to get around these bottle necks.
Energy: same as above air quality impacts, additional energy is consumed for these impacts but also extends to electric vehicles that navigate around the traffic backups.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: again, more idling and longer driving is more greenhouse gas emissions.
Land Use/Planning: The initial proposal which citizens supported was to alleviate the loss of transit on Castro Street by maintaining full cross traffic such that the streets parallel to Castro on either side could absorb the displaced traffic.
The use of stop signs
with no guaranteed or designated cycle when vehicles are allowed to go has greatly interfered with the function of the cross streets.
In addition to hampering the function of
the downtown area as a whole, this also disrupts residents on each side from accessing services and ingress/egress routes on the other side.
Transportation C: lack of dedicated crossing cycles for pedestrians and cars by use of stop signs creates an inherent hazard for pedestrians at night time when being seen against the backdrop of oncoming headlights prevents drivers from being reasonably able to determine whether the intersection is clear.
Next, why is there no section on SAFETY?
Clearly a change that results in a more dangerous
situation should be included in a report such as this. This is the flip side of the previous point -
Transportation is impacted by being put into a new situation where drivers become more dangerous and pedestrian safety is impacted by that on the other side.
Finally, as an objective reader, I get very suspicious of the adequacy of a report such as this that fails to find ANY impacts at all due to such an extensive and involved change that it takes 3-5 years to implement.
A thoroughly done report would find some impacts and then attempt to justify proceeding anyhow with mitigation measures. Is this because the analysis is done during a time when traffic remains well below the historical levels? And yet, observations are that the intersection configuration currently temporarily implemented and planned to be permanent is inadequate for even these reduced traffic volumes.
Additionally, this analysis is
performed AFTER the changes have already been made, so it becomes impossible discern the base level of operation.
My final comment is about the traffic circle at Castro and California streets.
I’ll say I am a
Attachment 2
huge fan of roundabouts. This is not one of those. It is simply an obstacle that was placed in the middle of the intersection years ago to try to slow drivers entering what was already becoming a pedestrian-centric part of our downtown. As a 4-way signalized intersection with this large obstruction, one could daily witness confusion from many drivers, especially if one is turning left and they would slowly round the center island and confront a red light in front of them. With this intersection becoming only a 3 way, this obstacle only creates more havoc and it should be fully removed. And with this transition out of the pedestrian mall area, the need for signalized crossings for both cars and pedestrians here is more important than anywhere else.
Please don’t accept this report as it currently stands. While I remain a firm supporter of the goal of establishing a permanent pedestrian mall here on Castro, doing it poorly and locking in place the failed portions of our 2 year trial would be folly. Visit Pearl Street in Boulder, CO and see for yourself what a properly done pedestrian mall can look like and how it operates.
Don’t fail to mimc success.
-----
Ross Heitkamp