‘This is our last chance’: ACHD commissioner advocates for pedestrians. Then this happened
While discussing a potential future roundabout, Ada County Highway District commissioners raised concerns about the overall future of roads in South Meridian and Southwest Boise.
The roundabout is planned to be located at the intersection of Amity and Locust Grove roads in southwestern Ada County, just outside Meridian city limits. Typically, approving a roundabout would be considered routine. But Commissioner Jim Hansen wanted to discuss the topic further because of safety concerns and the implications of approval.
Hansen argued that Amity Road offers an opportunity to create a more pedestrian- and bicyclist-friendly environment, which he views as a need for an east-west road in that part of Ada County.
“To me there’s only one route left that we can actually make safe for all users and also get them to where they want to go. And that’s Amity,” Hansen said during last week’s meeting. “There’s no reason why we have to give all the drivers everything we’re giving them on Lake Hazel and on Victory and on Overland and even further south.
“This is our last chance.”
After a discussion lasting more than an hour, commissioners outvoted Hansen and approved the nearly $400,000 contract to move forward with the roundabout plans.
The discussion shed light on the fast-growing area south of Interstate 84.
ACHD’s plans call for multi-use pathways on the sides of Amity Road, which Hansen likes. But the size of the roundabout turned him off. In a phone interview, he said a roundabout with two lanes in each direction is too big. That design, Hansen believes, invites more cars and faster speeds. That’s not conducive to a vibrant neighborhood, he said.
He prefers a single-lane roundabout that makes it easier for bicyclists and pedestrians, because there would be fewer conflict points for crashes. A smaller road that’s not oriented as much around bigger capacity and higher speed would benefit the future surrounding neighbors, Hansen said. Lower speeds and fewer cars would allow better transportation for “all modes,” and provide better opportunities for businesses and mixed uses along Amity Road.
Hansen said ACHD has planned to expand Amity Road to five lanes for at least a decade, but he believes that’s worth reevaluating, since new residential development is altering the landscape nearby. He said the people who will be most affected by the design of the new roundabout are people who don’t yet live in the area, because houses haven’t been built yet.
“Are we basically saying all arterials, every mile, is just going to be for cars?” Hansen said. “I think that’s a huge mistake.”
Since Victory Road one mile to the north and Lake Hazel Road one mile to the south are already being planned as no more than three- and five-lane roads, respectively, Hansen views Amity as an opportunity to focus on different priorities. Amity is cut off in Southwest Boise by the New York Canal, so it can’t be used to go farther east anyway.
Hansen compared his vision for Amity Road to what Boise Avenue is like now. In Southeast Boise, Parkcenter Boulevard and Federal Way are built to handle more traffic at higher speeds, Hansen said. But Boise Avenue, with only two lanes and lower speed limits, means more vibrant neighborhoods, because they’re more walkable and more desirable for businesses.
“Why can’t those neighborhoods (in Southwest Boise and South Meridian) have at least one road that can have mixed uses?” Hansen said by phone. “Or do we have to deprive them all of that? This is a chance. I don’t want the road engineers to decide that.”
With the future roundabout at Amity and Locust Grove roads possibly inviting more traffic, Hansen believes people will shy away from crossing Amity Road, and property owners will shy away from having driveways on the road. He’d like to avoid that, since there are similar roads accomplishing similar purposes just a mile to the north and a mile to the south.
“I say let’s have a conversation and decide whether Amity is going to be a pass-through or a neighborhood street,” Hansen said. “By building these big roundabouts, we determine that without having that conversation.”
The roundabout, as presented to the commission by Justin Lucas, ACHD’s deputy director of planning and project management, has two lanes in each approaching direction. The right lane at first would be only for right turns.
Eventually, when capacity increases, the roundabout could expand and eliminate these bypass lanes, Lucas said, at a cost of $100,000. Initially, drivers going straight or left at the roundabout would need to approach the roundabout in the left lane. After the expansion, they could approach in either lane.
The estimated total cost for the project is $2.3 million, according to ACHD’s integrated five-year work plan.
Bypass lanes in roundabouts don’t cross any other traffic. Therefore, drivers don’t need to slow down and yield the way they would when approaching single-lane roundabouts.
Hansen raised safety concerns about these right-turn bypass lanes, because drivers may speed up before fully exiting the roundabout, creating a potential dangerous conflict point with people who are not in cars.
The future roundabout at Amity and Locust Grove roads is similar to a recently built roundabout at Amity and Eagle roads. Hansen, though, thinks the Locust Grove one might be worse because of these bypass lanes.
Commissioner Dave McKinney suggested building the full roundabout at once rather than waiting to complete it in multiple phases. Lucas said the initially smaller roundabout could be more efficient in the short term.
McKinney also said he believes Hansen’s long-term questions about the future of the area could be addressed separately from this individual roundabout project. Hansen said approving the larger roundabout could help define what the future of the area will be like.
McKinney disagreed. He said in the meeting that development will happen either way, and the highway district can’t do anything about that other than help design roads that accommodate that.
“It is not the size of the road that drives development,” McKinney said. “It’s the other way around.”
Hansen urged the commission to review its future plans before spending money on this project.
The discussion came just a day after the city of Boise reviewed a pathways master plan that lays out ideas for more than 110 miles of off-street walking and biking pathways in Boise in the future. At recent highway district meetings, commissioners have disagreed on how much attention to give to bikers and walkers when planning future roads in Ada County.
Though Hansen was outvoted 4-1, Commissioner Alexis Pickering agreed with him on a key point.
“I just really wish we could have had more time to discuss the bigger vision of this region,” Pickering said. “It will continue to be an issue until we have that discussion.”
Said Hansen: “We have to decide what Amity is going to be like. If there’s five commissioners and three of them who say, ‘Yes, to hell with a neighborhood, we want this to go through with a lot of cars.’ Then that’s what we decide. But we haven’t decided that.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Victory Road is planned to be no more than three lanes between McDermott and Eagle Roads. The total cost for the roundabout at Locust Grove Road and Amity Road is an estimated $2.3 million. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of lanes and the total cost.
