Submitted by Ken Watts
The first draft of the “community” proposal for the design of US 20 Ashton to SH 87 has been completed by the proposal committee (17 members of the community). In an effort to inform people about the contents of the proposal, Ken’s Korner is publishing sections of the proposal. It is hoped that you will provide feedback and offer your ideas to the committee so that the proposal can be improved. This week the section on traffic/accident studies is being published for your use. This section was chosen because these studies are needed before highway designs can be selected. 3.0 TRAFFIC/ACCIDENT STUDIES The purpose and need for the US 20 Ashton to SH 87 project cannot be properly addressed without current and reliable traffic and accident studies and data. The project must start from this point. ITD must precisely know the traffic patterns (north and south) for the various highway segments before a detailed design can be completed. For example, how many vehicles going north, never reach SH 87? Where do they turn off? Also, how will the upgrade to Yale-Kilgore road affect the traffic patterns? If 50% of the vehicles traveling north stop in Island Park, this changes the highway design. Traffic studies being used by ITD are using data that is many years old, incomplete and taken at the wrong time of year. COVID has caused traffic aberrations that must be accounted for. Therefore, a detailed long term (~5 years) traffic study should be completed by an independent contractor that specializes in traffic studies and has long term experience in doing traffic studies. In no case should this contractor have any involvement in the design and construction of US 20. The resulting study shall be peer reviewed by other independent contractors and submitted to the City of Island Park and Fremont County for review. The study must include recreational vehicle traffic and the numerous recreational vehicle crossings locations. Snowmobile groomer crossings shall also be included. A long term accident study (~5 years) shall be conducted by an independent contractor that has no conflict of interest in regard to the outcome of the study. In no case should this contractor have any involvement in the design and construction of US 20. This study shall consider the effects of current and near term highway improvements. For example, tree cutback, rumble strips, wider shoulders, merge lanes, deceleration lanes, etc. This study should include a detailed analysis of the causes of accidents and mitigation methods and recommendations. It shall be based on the new Safe System Approach to setting speed limits and not the archaic 85% approach.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Making Sense of It All
This blog will help you make sense out of all the information on the website, how it affects IP, our history, and how efforts continue to put IP into various forms of conservation status. Archives
May 2023
Categories |