Traffic in the USSR growing more STUPID

The recent article in the Bee about the $5.1 million grant to improve Highway 95 from Coeur d’Alene to Highway 53 states that the Idaho Transportation Department anticipates an increase of traffic along the corridor from the present 34,500 cars per day to 49,000 in 2035. That is an increase north of Coeur d’Alene of 42 percent in 19 years. Those projections also apply here in the U.S.S.R. — Undeniably Scalar Sandpoint Realm. Scalar is a mathematical term meaning “having a quantity but no direction” — a term that the engineering department is plagued by but unfortunately unfamiliar with. Realm is used because “republic” implies a functional government and “realm” has become synonymous with a fantasy land.

The U.S.S.R. is going to grow. The U.S.S.R. is surrounded by Dover, the lake, Kootenai and Ponderay leaving only one direction to expand — northwest. Sandpoint can only grow toward Baldy and up the North Boyer corridor west of Sand Creek. And, let’s not forget Schweitzer’s resort expansion. The most logical access to this burgeoning area is the Schweitzer Cutoff bridge over Sand Creek. The design apparently is a closely guarded secret that the city council, city residents or concerned county residents are not privy to. The plans have not even been shared with the city of Ponderay which is paying half of the matching funds.

The closest anyone has come is a vague email picture showing two 14-foot lanes with two 6-foot sidewalks and a 5-foot bike lane. The claim is that a two-lane bridge meets future traffic projections. Who came up with those projections — Bilbo Baggins? If two lanes is adequate for future vehicle traffic, what is the justification for a full one third of the bridge being dedicated to pedestrian and bike traffic? Just where is this increased foot traffic coming from? The closest buildable land is a half mile away. Is the engineering department planning on a burgeoning amount of daily jail escapees or an astronomical increase of missionaries flooding out of the nearby Mormon church? That bridge is going to be there for 60 years. It should be a full four lanes. If pedestrian and bike traffic increase to more than a single sidewalk can handle, a bike path can be constructed beside and below it in the future, just like everywhere else in the world.

To flesh out my admitted rant about the Schweitzer Cutoff bridge, I am going to give you a quick history of the city’s dubious traffic decision making. About 1969, the Union Pacific Railroad removed their wooden trestle over Sandcreek and, at the ITD’s request, built the steel four lane overpass currently in use at the north end of the present bypass. Half of that overpass sat fallow until recently because the city leadership seemingly enjoyed the view inside their lower G.I. tract where their heads had been firmly ensconced for forty some years.

Fast forward to the ill-fated Curve project. The Highway 2/200 corridor is a designated oversize vehicle route to get such vehicles off of Fourth of July and Lookout passes. You will no longer find a narrow bridge between Spokane and Superior along Highway 200 or Libby on Highway 2. Sandpoint is the only bottleneck. The state already owned the abandoned rail-bed and some of the buildings where the project was planned. The original five-lane design was the most versatile and cheapest option but the city’s insistence on oval-a-bouts killed the project. Crosswalk length was the reason given. I guess the pedestrians are slower and fatter by Dubs than they are by Safeway. The heavy northbound traffic on Boyer resulting from that debacle expedited the Schweitzer Cutoff bridge’s demise.

Now, the ITD, desperately wanting to be rid of the downtown core, is chucking more money at Sandpoint. The plan is to take Columbia Bank’s overflow parking lot at the intersection of Fifth and Pine, through imminent domain, so that the radius of the corner will allow two semis to pass. Isn’t that the very same parking lot that the city made Columbia (Panhandle) bank buy as a condition of their new building’s construction? Since I haven’t heard of any offer to replace the lost parking spaces, the parking needs of the bank must have mysteriously diminished. The number that I have heard attached to that particular debacle is a mere 2.5 million. Meanwhile, the ITD owned “Curve” right of way will remain a tumble weed magnet from now until eternity. City leadership should wear Gopro cameras so the rest of us can see what is so special about the view up there.

S.T.U.P.I.D. : Sandpoint’s Traffic Underwhelmingly Planned Inadequately Designed.