The Municipal Services Committee met 03/20/2023. One of the items they took up was a request to approve the College Avenue Lane Reconfiguration Pilot Project. Staff was proposing restriping College Avenue to change it from 4 lanes to 3, 1 lane in either direction as well as a center turn lane and bike lanes on either side. These changes were estimated to increase congestion and the length of time taken to travel through downtown during peak traffic hours by between 1 and 3 minutes depending on the time of day and direction of travel. At the same time, staff believed that the changes would result it calmer traffic with less noise and increase the downtown experience for pedestrians. Additionally, the bike lanes would allow people riding bicycles and Bird scooters a more comfortable option that sharing a lane with vehicles.
This has been before the committee several times as an information item on 01/23/2023, 02/06/2023, and 02/20/2023. And was now back before the committee as an action item which the committee voted 4-0 to recommend for approval.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the discussion for download.
The cost of the changes was estimated to be around $130,000 and would be paid for from the 2021 Excess General Fund balance.
In response to feedback, staff ended up recommending that these lane changes be implemented as an 18-month trial program to begin in late fall of 2023 and be evaluated in the spring of 2025. Metrics used to determine the success of the project would include:
- Traffic Counts
- Bike/Pedestrian/Scooter Counts
- Crashes
- Vehicle Speeds
- Total Roadway Closures Due To Aggressive Driving
- Parking Meter Revenue Along College Avenue
- Business/Community Member Feedback
- Police And Fire Department Feedback
Two members of the public spoke on the issue.
Mike suggested that when the lanes moved down from two lanes to one lane that the city install stoplights similar those found on the Highway 41 on-ramps in Milwaukee that signal to allow the cars in two lanes to alternate as they merge onto the one lane ramp.
Jennifer Stephany, the Executive Director of Appleton Downtown Incorporated (ADI) said that ADI had arguments both for and against the change and was maintaining an impartial position. They hoped to find a balance between adequate traffic close, access, safety, and an enhanced pedestrian experience. They believed that noise pollution and traffic speeds had increased downtown since the start of the pandemic, and were encouraged that the Police Department was in favor of the lane reconfiguration. They were, however, worried about increased traffic congestion and wanted to see how that played out during the pilot program. They wanted to understand a little better how the pilot program process would play out. Additionally, they were worried about how the changes to how people parked would impact things.
Regarding the pilot program process, Director of Public Works Danielle Block said that city staff was studying the current conditions prior to the study and would continue to study them during the pilot before presenting that data to the Municipal Services Committee after the pilot ended. At that time, they would likely provide recommendations based on the data. She also assumed that the committee and Council would have to vote in order to approve the changes beyond the timeframe of the pilot project.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) felt that the alderpersons had think about what approving the pilot meant because there was a cost to implementing it. If the data turned out to prove it didn’t work then they had to be willing to retract the project at the end of the pilot.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) said that he continued to hear from his constituents and other people in the city that they would prefer to have the bike lanes placed between the curb and the parked cars instead of between the parked cars and the lanes of traffic.
City Traffic Engineer Eric Lom responded that placing bike lanes between the curb and parked cars is generally accepted as being a safer solution for bicyclist. However, in order to create that configuration, they would need to ensure that bike riders were visible to vehicle drivers at each intersection. Doing that would require losing approximately 5 parking spaces per block side. The impact on parking would have been so significant that staff did not feel the change would have been supported by downtown businesses.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) asked if during the pilot they started to see issues with congestion at certain locations would there be options besides returning the lane configuration back to what it was before the trial.
Engineer Lom responded that the changes were expected to increase congestion. Drivers could expect to experience a 1 minute delay during the peak morning drive hour and a 3 minute delay during the peak afternoon/evening drive hour. He did go on to note that that estimate of the delay time was based on three assumptions:
- That no drivers changed their route in response to the lane reconfiguration.
- That traffic volumes returned to pre-Covid levels which was 15% higher than their current levels.
- That future development in the Downtown corridor did not impact traffic.
He mentioned that it was difficult to tell how increased Downtown development would impact things. One the one hand, it would seem that building 300 dwelling units in that area would add that many more trips proportionately to the system; however, in reality, many of the people who chose to live in downtown areas did so because that was where they did their business, so they may not actually end up driving as much as might otherwise be expected. It was possible that increased development could end up being neutral in terms of its impact on traffic.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) noted for the public that this project was not driven by staff but had come as a response to concerns about speeding and loud noise in the downtown College Avenue area. He commended staff for listening to those concerns and spending a significant amount of time creating this plan and going over it with the committee.
The committee voted 4-0 to approve the lane reconfiguration request.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1078647&GUID=D6E9EC6C-7197-4F96-8633-DB09CF61FA11
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