Put brakes on two-way traffic plan

There’s something to be said for leaving well enough alone.

Unfortunately, that is a lesson rarely learned by government officials and bureaucrats.

The latest case in point is the decision by the Kalispell City Council to convert the one-way streets on Third Avenue East and Fourth Avenue East into two-way streets.

Mind you, we can understand why residents of those roads might have been ticked off when they were turned into one-ways in 1967. People who lived there had been used to the convenience of two-way traffic after all, but let’s remember — the decision wasn’t made for them; it was made from the point of view of traffic engineering.

Now, we seem to be going back to two-way traffic — after 50 years! — for the sake of the personal convenience of a few residents, and with nary a thought for traffic control.

These two roads have provided convenient access between U.S. 2 and U.S. 93 for decades, and now we have to ask ourselves where is that traffic going to go?

Either it remains on Third and Fourth and becomes even more dangerous when those narrow streets are handling two-way traffic flows, or it moves elsewhere. But where exactly? Main Street? Haven’t we heard that there are plans to turn Main Street into a two-lane highway with a turning lane? Isn’t that going to constrict the traffic flow even more? Do we turn First Avenue East and First Avenue West into one-way streets? If so, shouldn’t we know that now?

Frankly, this reminds us of the short-sighted and costly downtown Streetscape plan that the Kalispell council committed to in the last decade. The result? Benches that are virtually never used, and corner traffic obstructions to prevent convenient turns at intersections.

Back in 1967, the Inter Lake used its “Man on the Street” feature to query readers about how they liked the new one-way streets. Three of the four respondents thought the innovation was a positive development. The only dissenter objected to the street changing to two-way traffic at Second Street East, and that problem was later eliminated to everyone’s satisfaction when one-way traffic was extended to Center.

Today, instead of “Man on the Street,” we have Facebook, and the overwhelming reaction to our story on Sunday was that the city is making a big mistake. “What a waste of taxpayer $,” said one of the dozens of commenters. “Those roads have been a couple of the most efficient ways to get around town for years, so why change that now?” Others pointed out that the roads are not wide enough to conveniently handle two lanes of traffic. Some suggested spending money on fixing potholes or fixing the traffic nightmare at Hutton Ranch Plaza.

We strongly encourage the City Council to reconsider this plan after getting further input from city residents who will be affected as well as developing a long-range traffic plan that makes sense for the entire downtown area.