Ray Moe barely mentioned 23rd Street as he gave city officials a primer in "access management" on Wednesday.
But as he described the hallmarks of good roadway design well-spaced driveways and traffic signals, medians that inhibit left-hand turns at bad spots officials couldn't help but notice the attributes were nearly the opposite of conditions on 23rd.
"Twenty-third Street is our best example of how not to do access management," City Commissioner Sue Hack said afterward.
Moe, a consultant for LSA Associates in Fort Collins, Colo., had the workshop for city, planning and traffic officials as part of creating Transportation 2025, the city's new long-range comprehensive traffic plan.
He said good access management can ease driving on a road and increase the number of vehicles that can safely navigate it.
The key, he said, is to space out signals, driveways and intersections on major roads.
Put too many driveways too close together, he said, and the result is a glut of vehicles trying to enter and exit the road, blocking traffic behind them in many cases.
"You don't want (access points) bunched up," he said.
Another consultant, TranSystems, is finalizing a report on how to fix traffic problems on 23rd Street. The main culprit, consultants have said, is that drivers have too many access points along the road.
TranSystems consultants have suggested eliminating some driveways as businesses on 23rd Street change hands and redevelop, forcing them to share access to the street with their neighbors. Hack said commissioners will probably be receptive to the idea.
"I think the city's interested in limiting access points on 23rd," she said. "Every one is an accident, a crash waiting to happen."
Moe said such "retrofitting" of old streets is necessary, even if slow.
"It's not going to be easy, but over time you've got to deal with it," he said. "Any time you retrofit, it's going to be harder than if you designed it right to begin with.
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