One Way to Do It
Before we start coming up with ways to fix Marquette’s North Third Street, we need to acknowledge that it needs fixing. With that, those who use the street regularly… drivers, bikers, and pedestrians, no doubt recognize the challenges of navigating what has become one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.
With a number of vibrant bars and restaurants, very few vacant storefronts, and residential properties near max capacity, the street itself has become ground zero for the frequent comings and goings of residents and visitors… year ’round.
Curbside parking spaces have been stretched to the point where turning onto North Third from any of the side streets has become a game of vehicular peekaboo. At the same time, pedestrian crossings require the proverbial head-on-a-swivel, lest you risk life and limb just to get a cup of coffee.
The addition of the bike lane a few years ago, though progressive, and popular among the two-wheeled crowd, tightened everything up… and not in a good way. Now the routine practice of simply exiting your car has become a matter of timing and temerity, as objects in your mirror are closer than you think.
Have I missed anything? Oh yeah. With the proliferation of eBikes, and the fact many of them are prohibited from using our multi-use trails, we can expect even more two-wheeled stress on streets like North Third. (More on this later.)
The People Speak
A series of recent community workshops addressing the topic of Active Transportation revealed a modest groundswell of support for the idea of turning, or re-turning, North Third Street to one-way.
Those who’ve been here for forty years or so might remember when one-way, north to south, was the way we traveled North Third. One block over, North Front was also one-way… south to north.
The change to two-way was primarily driven by the North Third business community, thinking, right or wrong, two-way traffic would mean more people having easy access to their stores.
So before we start repainting the lines and putting up new signage, we’ll have to check the pulse of today’s North Third proprietors. I reached out to a number of business owners who would be directly affected by such a change and got a mix of results.
A slim majority of those who responded to my survey indicated a desire to change back to one-way. Their reasons varied, but most were concerned about the safety factor I previously cited, rather than the impact such a change might have on their business. One suggested allowing parking on one side only, which would only exacerbate our lack-of-parking problems.
Adamant opponents of the one-way suggestion hearken back to when two lanes, going in the same direction, resulted in drag racing, as well as a presumed loss of business. But the thinking this time around is for one lane of traffic… south to north, a widened two-way bike lane to accommodate that burgeoning brotherhood, and an open buffer lane to ease the claustrophobia we feel today.
It Won’t be Easy
A change this dramatic would require approvals from a wide range of city entities and offices. And, logically, the business community. Executive Director Tara Laase-McKinney speaks for the Downtown Development Authority… “We haven’t conducted a survey with that particular question yet because we don’t have an exact idea of what the streetscape would look like if it were one-way. We certainly aren’t against the possibility of a one-way street, but we do want to make sure that if one were proposed in the future, it works best for majority of the businesses and residents on that street.”
We can expect the consulting firm hired by the city to conduct the Active Transportation workshops to come back with recommendations based on community input, as well as their expertise in working with similar community challenges. Hopefully, they’ll give us something more concrete to work with, rather than our initial emotional responses.
The eBike Exception
As if we were in need of another problem seemingly devoid of a solution, not unlike our homeless issue, we’re now confronted with an eBike uprising… the robust proliferation of motorized two-wheelers taking over our streets, sidewalks, and multi-use trails.
While we were once comfortable sharing our lanes with traditional bikes, we’re currently being confronted with those same modes of transport, now souped up with motors, being commandeered by all manner of riders, responsible and otherwise.
Ebikes come in three flavors… fast, faster, and fastest. Only the fast, or Class 1, are currently allowed on our multi-use trails. And therein lies the problem. Buyers appear to be fond of the more powerful Class 2 and 3 models, and contend they can ride the trails without utilizing the throttle, which relieves them of the need to constantly pedal. The thinking is, if they’re not using the throttle, and only the pedals, they should be allowed to use the multi-use trails.
The city established the ‘Class 1 only’ ordinance strictly with the safety of other multi-path users in mind. Makes sense. But in a classic case of unintended consequences, those Class 2 and 3 bikes are now relegated to our streets, subject to the same laws of any other motorized vehicle, and adding to the existing congestion.
Evidence of Irresponsibility
If recent Facebook posts are any indication, the “responsible” riders are being overrun by those not so responsible. Often young, as well as untrained and unsupervised, eBikers are all over the place… literally. It seems the power of the throttle has gone from the hand to the head, and while getting around our hilly berg is easier with a motor, it has undeniably led to more risky behavior, and more dangerous conditions on our streets.
The city’s Traffic and Parking Advisory Committee is aware of the problem and plans on inviting the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee to join them in pursuit of a solution. As Parks and Rec is the office that oversees the multi-use paths, they’ve got skin in the game too.
What does the community have to say? Well, they’ll have their chance at the upcoming Parks & Rec meeting, Monday at 5:45, at the Citizen’s Forum room at Lakeview Arena.
I can’t speak for either committee, but I imagine they’d welcome community input, especially if it leads to a satisfactory conclusion. Until then, a little parental supervision, common sense, and basic consideration will go a long way. With or without the throttle.