Doglegs on streets to #slowthecars
Member submitted question:
Can you help me with resources to address the crazy, wasteful McGilchrist project in my town of Salem, Oregon. I am the leader of our local conversation group and we are trying to engage with this and at least try to bring the cost down, which is currently up to about $51m (much higher than when Chuck wrote about it). One of the aspects of the project that makes it so expensive is that part of the plan is to eliminate a dogleg where 22nd St. intersects with McGilchrist. Here is a map where you can see that:
22nd St is classified as a “collector street” but it goes though a low-density industrial area and doesn’t seem to carry that much traffic. I looked up traffic accidents at this intersection and there has only been one in the years 2007 to 2020 and there was not a serious injury.
The plan is to eliminate the dogleg to make 22nd continuous and put a traffic light at the intersection. I understand it will involve having to purchase quite a bit of right of way. We are trying to find out the cost of just this one part of the $51m project. We assume it might be many millions.
Here is my question for Strong Towns: Is it really a safety improvement to eliminate doglegs? I might argue that it is safer to have people stop at stop signs and proceed with caution as they must do now, than to have people speeding up to get through yellow lights and running red lights, etc. In short: what’s wrong with doglegs? I don’t get it.
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4 comments
What do you think? Do you have any other thoughts on this question? Feel free to add your comments below
I have learned that the amount budgeted to "realign" the dogleg (the term they use): $10.4 million! And it may be higher because they may not have included all the right-of-way they plan to buy for the entire project (around $5 million for that) some of which may be needed for this. Still, $10.4m is a breathtaking amount, it seems to me.
What is the problem they are trying to fix? If it is a safety problem, does the crash data justify it?
I need to correct the statement I made above about crashes and injuries at the dogleg from 2007 to 2020. I got better information from a knowledgeable source. There were more crashes than I stated above, a total of 16. Here is a summary of the data I received. Looking at these numbers, I would still contend that there is not a serious safety problem here that justifies spending $10.4 million to "realign" 22nd St.
I would love to get Chuck's opinion on this! What's wrong with having a dogleg?
Removing doglegs is one of those traffic flow obsessions. Widen the street and speed up traffic, then doglegs become really dangerous. Thus removing them is orthodox.
This project is really frustrating. I'm sorry.
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