City Delays on Fifth Street Compromise Public Safety

Tuesday evening the Davis City Council will take one more step towards a solution to the multiple problems on the 5th Street corridor.  This process has been painfully slow to many of us who experience the personal risks firsthand and witness the aftermath of frequent automobile collisions.   Many of these involve vulnerable bicyclists and pedestrians.

We have also watched the unprecedented opportunity to reconstruct the street with federal stimulus package funds go by the wayside because the City failed to simply ask for the money.  Still, we will try to put a good face on it and join others in the community once again to urge action toward the one solution that is low cost, does not impede motor vehicle flow, reduces risk for all users of the corridor, and beautifies the street.

That solution only requires one leap of understanding to see how is makes sense.  That leap is to see that we do not currently have a four-lane road on 5th Street.  We have a two-lane road with two left turn lanes.  Because the cross streets come at frequent intervals (every 320 feet) and 5th Street provides access to densely populated residential neighborhoods and our thriving downtown, drivers make a lot of left turns off of 5th.  As they sit at the intersection waiting for oncoming traffic to clear, they completely block traffic flow in the left lane.

This creates multiple hazards:  those drivers may impatiently make an unsafe turn and get hit, they may be rear-ended by an inattentive driver behind them, an impatient driver may make an unsafe lane change to avoid the stopped vehicle and hit a car in the right lane, or the stopped car may block the view of a driver coming the other way who makes a left turn into the path of an unseen vehicle in the right lane.  And so on.

None of this, of course, includes the obvious risks to pedestrians crossing the multiple lane street or to bicyclists who are all over the place in the corridor, crossing 5th, riding along it in the gutter, in the vehicle lanes, and riding both directions on the narrow sidewalks allegedly reserved for pedestrians.

The solution is to combine those left turn movements and provide a place for those drivers to wait in a shared center left turn lane.  (The left turn lanes will leave enough room for small pedestrian islands mid-street at the crosswalks.)  This leaves two through lanes on the street, one in each direction.  The remaining roadway space can then be striped for bike lanes.  Those missing bike lanes, by the way, are the only significant gap in the bike lane network that otherwise serves us so well on major streets in Davis.  They have long been on the Primary Bicycle Network map in the General Plan (Figure 23), but not painted on the street.

All of this–two through lanes, two bike lanes, and a center median/turn lane will fit within the existing curbs.  This solution can be implemented with just paint and new left turn signals at the F and G Street intersections.  This solution, tagged with the unfortunate “road diet” moniker, has been employed in literally hundreds of situations all across the country with great success.  Two months ago nationally recognized street design and walkability expert Dan Burden presented evidence of the benefits to a crowded workshop in the Community Chambers that included images of 50 streets.  Studies conducted on many of these streets showed a huge decrease in accidents, often 50% or more, and even greater reduction in injuries, due to slower vehicle speeds.  These other towns have seen increases in pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and NO significant impact on vehicle travel.  This includes the number of vehicles in the corridor, travel times, etc.

An added benefit is that in many communities this simple redesign became the catalyst for new development, redevelopment, increased property values, and increased business activity. There are no losers with this solution, and there is no significant “spillover” traffic to other streets.

Four years ago the City Council had an opportunity to approve this solution. It is spelled out in detail in the adopted General Plan, and directed by numerous policies that promote alternative transportation and safe streets.  Opposition, lead by the downtown business community, prompted the Council to conclude that “the community isn’t ready” for this solution.

This opposition was fueled primarily by a bogus (there is no better term) computer simulation funded by the Public Works Department that was manipulated to show the road diet configuration would increase peak hour congestion.  A video simulation reflecting these results was shown to a standing room only audience at the Police Department meeting room, and left many with the mistaken impression that this solution was a failure.

After a long struggle, advocates of the safer street forced a correction that reflected proper modeling techniques.  This vastly improved vehicle flow in the simulation, which has been the real world experience with other streets that have received this road diet treatment.  The new video simulation was shown to two members of the Old North Davis Neighborhood Association, and revealed smooth and efficient vehicle flow.  The Public Works Department refused to schedule another public meeting to show that video. The next City Council hearing was attended by many people opposed to the road diet because they were not given a chance to see the new film.  Later, staff in the engineering firm that conducted the model effort stated they were instructed to destroy the video and the model.

So nothing changed on the street, and the high accident rate continues.  Year after year ten percent of the accidents in the entire City of Davis occur on 5th Street.  Thirty-five in 2007.  Thirty in 2008, eight of them involving bicyclists and pedestrians.  There were six accidents in just January and February of this year.  Of those, four involved people who were not in motor vehicles, and all four were injured.  Many of these accidents would not have occurred if this street had been reconfigured four years ago.

So this long evaluation process extends out as the accident and injury toll continues.  City officials have shown a willingness to ask for outside funds to improve streets downtown:  There is a nearly $400,000 grant of federal funds on the way to do a makeover for 2nd Street downtown.  Half of that amount would probably be sufficient to fix 5th Street.

There were six accidents on the 2nd Street corridor downtown last year.  Two of them were on 2nd Street itself, and the rest on cross streets near 2nd.  Both 2nd Street accidents were on rainy nights at 2 AM as the bars were closing.  There was only one injury last year in the 2nd Street corridor, a passenger in a rear-end vehicle crash on B Street near 2nd.

By contrast, the same stretch of 5th Street west of the tracks saw two dozen accidents last year.  These resulted in 13 injuries, and involved four bicyclists and two pedestrians.  Yet not a dime of federal funding was sought to address this problem.

To move on from safety to the environment, there are also some clear policy directives and clear benefits that point to the road diet solution.  Obviously, the chaotic nature of the current street is an impediment to walking and bicycling.  The high accident toll this non-motorized population sees is testament to their determination.  Imagine how many more people would come out on foot and on bikes if the street were safer.  These activities are healthy, pleasant, and non-polluting.  Numerous General Plan policies direct the City to foster these modes of transportation.  There is also external pressure and encouragement from sources as diverse as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Conference of Mayors, the federal Center for Disease Control, the U.S. EPA, and the California State Legislature.  Communities around the globe are taking local action to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.  Nothing in the status quo on 5th Street does that.

A recent independent transportation model exercise in the School of Engineering at UC Davis reveals that the road diet alternative reduces stopped vehicle idle time, and the pointless pollution associated with it, by 53%.  Davis should leap at this opportunity to show progress in reducing climate change.

The business community’s fear of negative impacts from the loss of customers is valid.  Many small, local businesses work hard to maintain a narrow margin of profit.  But the experience in dozens of communities all across America, and the results of the two most recent traffic models, show that this redesign will not create congestion, or spillover traffic, or drive customers away.

At the public hearing four years ago, several people who live far from downtown Davis spoke up to say they do not like shopping downtown, because they hate driving on 5th Street.  They will come back downtown if the street is a calmer place to drive.  Moreover, some of the loss of business downtown merchants may be feeling currently is not due to the economy, but because nearby residents are refusing to patronize merchants who are so openly hostile to their personal safety.  We value the downtown–it is our neighborhood shopping district.  We try to be good citizens and not drive three blocks, but we feel left out in the cold by merchants who don’t want to help us get there safely on foot or by bicycle.

Pedestrians and bicyclists should be the customers downtown merchants prefer most.  We don’t pollute, we don’t crowd the streets, and we don’t take up scarce parking spaces.  It is a mystery to us why so many merchants have silently stood by while their leadership shows hostility and disdain for those who want a safer street.

The Chamber of Commerce’s lead on the 5th Street issue says the current accident toll is an acceptable level of risk.  I personally have a masters degree in transportation planning, nearly 30 years experience in the field, and work on street design projects all over California.  But he dismissed me as “a fundraiser” to people in the community.

At a public hearing that same individual called a graphic showing the intersection of 5th and D Streets that was prepared by a graduating senior in Landscape Architecture at UCD “a cartoon.”  He attacked that image because the turn pockets were too short to handle the demand.  They were drawn that short so that some full median landscaping could show the potential of the redesign in the small space the Davis Enterprise had for the image.  Moreover, what is the total number of cars turning left in the entire peak hour from the turn pocket he ridiculed as too short?  Twenty, one every three minutes.  This does not require long turn pockets.

We wish this level of attack was beneath the business community, but we try to stay focused on the facts, the real issues, and the evidence from the many examples built in other places.  Maybe it is time for the business community at large to reevaluate the position their leadership is so locked into.  A position that is so unfriendly to so many good customers.

Finally, the report that will go to the City Council tonight has one other option that is up for further study.  It would leave the four-lane street in place, but create bicycle paths or mixed pedestrian/bicycle paths in the City-owned right-of-way behind the curbs.  This would almost certainly require the removal of dozens if not all of the more than 100 trees lining the corridor.

This is an unacceptable trade-off, to get a solution that may be more dangerous than the existing problem.  It would create bike paths in  very hazardous locations with numerous new conflict points at the nearly 30 driveways and15 alleys and cross streets that intersect 5th Street in the corridor.  This alternative should be dropped from further study tonight.  It is pointless to consider it, spend time and money on that evaluation, or use the paper to print out the results.

That said, there is really no need to consider any other alternatives beyond tonight, or to continue this process.  We have seen from the two most recent models that the 2 lane plus turn lane configuration is superior in terms of traffic flow.  We have heard from the bicycle community about the value of this link to the bicycle facility network. We have a large body of General Plan guidance that points to this solution.  We have seen the positive effects of this solution in other communities.  We have a high degree of external pressure to do the right thing to create complete for all users of the corridor.  And finally, Davis wants to be a leader in the struggle against global warming by promoting alternatives to motor vehicle travel.

It’s time for our leadership to show their stuff and bring this community back to the forefront.  Let’s not have the opening of the Bicycle Museum marred because at the other end of Central Park is evidence that Davis seems determined to be the last community in California to embrace a dangerous example of outdated transportation thinking.