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Mon. February 12, 2007, 06:40am PST
Poll ~ Which way St. Helens?
With all the brew-ha-ha surrounding the Broadway Local Improvement District (LID) I'm sure opinions are a plenty. The latest portion of the LID issue everyone can wrap their minds around is which direction St. Helens should go. The city is allowing you to voice your opinion pro or con to three options that include St. Helens between 9th and Market [ map ] being one-way north (up hill), one-way south (down hill), or, leave it as it is currently, a two-way street. You can send them an email (how very 21st Century of them!), call 253-591-5269, comment below and/or vote here in a poll that I'll forward on.
There's also a meeting you can attend though it's during most working stiff's 9 to 5. It's at the Pantages next Wednesday, Feb. 21 from 9am-11am.
Link to City of Tacoma's Broadway LID page
Thanks Erik!
Comments (8) | To Top
2/12/2007 @ 10:19am
Kudos to the city for asking the public what they think about this important issues, especially for those who live and work in the area.
It seems to me that the street could stay two way pretty easily. One way streets are usually disfavored in downtowns.
With that said, the street is very narrow. If they did decide to turn it into a one way street, the traffic should go south down the hill for a couple of reasons:
First, most people (80 percent?) driving on St. Helens are seeking to drive south on the street. The direction imposed should follow how people natually want to use the street.
Second, having the street run south allows people to park normally downhill in angled parking spaces.
Third, one-way southbound is the solution that would leave the most on-street parking spaces for visitors (which is good).
If drivers were forced to take St. Helens north, they would have to use "reverse angle parking." Not very fun or attractive.
Below are the pluses and minus for each option and the number of resultant parking spaces which would be left.
Erik
by St. Helens Parking Options Detailed
2/12/2007 @ 11:30am
First let me compliment you on the great site. My two cents for Northbound only.
St Helens provides one of the primary cycling routes between downtown and Stadium due to its grade and light traffic.
Grade is not a significant issue going downtown on a bike as speeds approach the traffic speed and any hill will do. Leaving downtown is another story. For a slow grind it is nice to have an easy grade, a big shoulder and light traffic. Cyclists don't enjoy backing up traffic. For this reason I would prefer to see St Helens become Northbound, if it has to go one-way.
As for parking, I would offer the angle parking on Pacific at UWT as an example for the potential problem of head-first parking for the Southbound option . I agree it is easier for the initial park, but backing out when a large car is parked to your right can be rather exciting, if not faith building.
Joe
by Joe
2/12/2007 @ 12:09pm
Thanks, Joe, for bringing up the cycling route issue. I was going to bring that up myself, as a downtown worker who bikes with some regularity. This is my regular route home...Broadway works, or I can shoot straight up 11th if I'm feeling tough, but as you mention, St. Helens offers the combo of low grade and low traffic.
I also agree with you 100% on back-in angle parking. I don't really see any negatives to it, and it may even offer advantages over head-in.
My big vote is for keeping it two-way, but failing that I would definitely support northbound-only.
by jamie
2/13/2007 @ 9:14am
p.s., I think that the email link for Kurtis Kingsolver is incorrect (also on the city's BLID page) -- should be kkingsol@cityoftacoma.org (missing the 'g').
by jamie
2/13/2007 @ 9:35am
Thanks Jamie -- just made the change.
by KevinFreitas
2/13/2007 @ 10:25am
Ok. I went down St. Helens today with about 6 other cars. No one was trying to go up St. Helens.
As far as parking, 5 cars were parked reverse angled on St. Helens facing north up the hill while around 25 cars were parked pointed south down the hill.
If people like to reverse angle park, they certainly are not showing it.
by St. Helens Parking Options Detailed
2/13/2007 @ 10:26am
The last post was from me.
by St. Helens Parking Options Detailed
2/13/2007 @ 10:26am
Dang. There. I fixed it..
by Erik