The Municipal Services Committee met 02/20/2023. They received one information item which was an update on the College Avenue Lane Reconfiguration Proposal.
I’ve prepared a PDF transcript of the discussion for download.
As laid out in the memo submitted to the committee and as a response to community feedback, city staff is now recommending that this lane reconfiguration take place as an 18 month pilot project. During the 18 months they would collect data on a variety of things including:
- Traffic Counts
- Bike/Pedestrian/Scooter Counts
- Crashes o Vehicle Speeds
- Total Roadway Closures due to Aggressive Driving
- Parking Meter Revenue along College Avenue
- Business/Community Member Feedback
- APD/AFD Feedback
This information would be evaluated in the spring of 2025.
During the 02/08/2023 Municipal Services Committee meeting, some concerns had been raised about the process of moving this item forward and approving/denying it. Those questions were addressed in both the memo and at the meeting by Director of Public Works Danielle Block who noted that in March of 2023 the project would appear before the Municipal Services Committee as an action item to approve or deny. If it was approved, staff would send the project out for public bidding and then in April or May the contract award to restripe College Avenue would appear before the Municipal Services Committee for a vote and then move on for final approval or denial by the Common Council.
The total cost of the project was estimated to cost $130,000. Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked if it would cost that much to change the downtown College Avenue corridor back to how it currently is if, after the pilot concluded, they decided they didn’t like the new layout.
Traffic Engineer Lom responded that about $70,000 of the total cost was estimated to be for pavement markings. The majority of the remaining $60,000 would go toward signal improvements. He thought the cost to undo the lane reconfiguration would cost around $100,000, maybe a little less, because they would not have the cost of the signal improvement, but there would be more markings to remove the second time around than the first.
Two members of the public spoke on this item.
Darrin Wasniewski spoke on behalf of AARP Wisconsin, which was based in Madison. Per Mr. Wasniewski, Appleton had joined AARP’s network of age friendly communities in May of 2022, and it was in the spirit of that relationship that he spoke. He was in favor of the changes and said that faster travel speeds had a negative effect on people traveling by foot or on mobility devices. information He said that 40% of Appleton’s population consisted of non-drivers and people over 65 were disproportionately the victims of pedestrian auto crashes.
He also said that research did not support the belief that “road diets” caused business to decrease. “In fact, it shows the customers are more comfortable parking on the street due to the slower speeds. But more importantly, some research also shows that people walking or riding bikes tend to spend more money locally than those who drive through in cars. And as a former business owner in a main street district in Ohio, I can attest to this. We definitely saw more from walk-in traffic in my district. And so, from a business standpoint, that’s great.”
Jenifer Stephany the Executive Director of Appleton Downtown, Inc talked about the efforts ADI had taken to gather input from and dialogue with business owners and commented “It seems as though each time we have dialogue, each time we kind of dive into what this really looks like, there seems to be a better understanding and there seems to be more comfort. Does that mean that everybody feels great about this? No, that’s not exactly what I’m saying. But we’re happy that the process is continuing.”
She expressed an interest in continuing to do community outreach on the proposal.
Alderperson Shari Hartzheim (District 13) asked how the city was conducting its informational campaign on the issue and what, if anything, those education efforts cost. While Director Block did not answer the question about cost, she did say that city staff was working internally to develop materials that cold be posted on social media and the city’s website and was also talking about potentially send out mailings.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) was happy to see this being turned into a formal pilot project and liked the inclusion of the metrics. He thought that the lane reconfiguration had a really good chance of being successful, but if it was successful the inclusion of the data would help demonstrate why it was successful.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1083498&GUID=07D59BAD-C272-46E2-A606-3C7C0D23F531
Be the first to reply