Feedback on E. Longview Ave. Neighborhood Greenway Proposal

This is my personal feedback on the E. Longview Ave. Neighborhood Greenway proposal. Here's the proposed plan:

I'll go through it from left to right. From Pete Ellis to Kingston, there's ❤️ a new multi-use path, ❤️ a narrower street for cars on Longview Ave, and ❤️ narrower parking lot exits. There's also ❤️ a crossing over to the sidewalk after the busy Longview/Kingston intersection. All good safety and comfort improvements!

From Kingston to Glenwood West, there's traffic calming where there wasn't before. At the same time, the stop sign at Glenwood West and Longview was removed. I reviewed crash data for 2003-2022 at that location and there have been zero crashes there of any kind during that period. At the same time, we see cars and cyclist roll through the stop sign on a regular basis. I think this is an experiment worth trying. The traffic calming on either side should effectively physically slow traffic, while the stop sign is a suggestion to stop that's often not heeded.

Next we move into a section where I have a suggestion for refinement. 🚧 Unlike some other neighborhoods with the bump-out and traffic cushion traffic calming, Park Ridge does not have sidewalks and we have a fair amount of people walking in the street here. Getting pinched with a car in-between bump-outs is not a pleasant prospect. Here I recommend using the same full-width speed humps that we have now and work well.

The narrowing of the Concord and Longview intersection is also welcome ❤️. I think removing the stop sign there is another worthwhile experiment. There have been no crashes at this intersection either– I keep in mind that the highest crash intersections in Bloomington all have traffic controls. The speeds and volumes have a lot to do with the crash rate, and both are very low here.

While I live now on Morningside Drive, I have a relative on Longview Ave between Concord and Glenwood East, and lived there for a period myself. Traffic counts are low enough there that I think the bump-outs will be fine there. Here are the counts:

Longview between Concord and Glenwood West has the lowest traffic counts of any of areas proposed to have traffic calming updates. That matches my own experience. The section seems to carry more bike/ped traffic than car traffic, so the risk of meeting a car at a bump out is already very low.

Here I'm going to repeat the proposed updates again.

🚧 I also recommend using the current traffic calming of speed humps between Meadowbrook and Heritage and at the Heritage and Longview intersection, shown with more red arrows. These are higher traffic-count locations, have no sidewalks plus ditches on either side.

The final bump out by Smith Road has a much welcome ❤️ new sidewalk next to it, replacing a desire path. Here, pedestrians have an option to use a sidewalk to walk around it.

I understand that the City is using the bump-out with speed cushion as a network-wide design to signal "neighborhood greenway" to all road users, so I think there's some value to have those particularly as the "gateway" traffic calming to Park Ridge.

In some specific areas with higher car volumes and no sidewalks, I think the full-width speed humps will be a higher comfort facility.

Thanks for improving traffic safety and comfort in our neighborhood!