As a former board member of Main Street Morgantown, I can say that this is not the first time this has been discussed.  When WVU redid the downtown campus curbing over 15 years ago it was also discussed making the area in front of Woodburn and the Mtn Lair into a ped mall.  Both that and blocking the downtown were opposed in favor of keeping traffic flowing through the downtown.  One reason Morgantown's downtown is not like Fairmont's or Clarksburg's is that the traffic flow keeps those businesses alive. There are many issues to consider such as state routes and truck deliveries to merchants which usually aren't problems in areas with proper sized alleys behind businesses. Bike access is also going to be affected, so we should be in the loop, but I don't see us endorsing the plan without specifics.

Chip

-----Original Message----- From: "Gunnar Shogren" gshogren@gmail.com Sent 10/27/2011 11:26:33 AM To: "Graber, Stephen" sggraber@hsc.wvu.edu Cc: "Bicycle Board" bikeboard@cheat.org, "Abildso, Christiaan" Christiaan.Abildso@mail.wvu.edu, "Frank Gmeindl" fgmeindl@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] Fwd: Pedestrian Safety Board - another letter in the works

While I like the idea of a ped Mall, and I thought that the way Charlotesville, VA was nice (not allowing bikes, which wasn't a deal breaker for me), I hadn't thought about the lack of parade space and that sort of thing. I've lived here a while and it's quite the common place thing for me, but Betsy is still astounded that there are so many parades and such downtown. It would be bad to not have that. I think we really need a diversion for truck traffic through dahntawn and no traffic through the main WVU campus. But I guess that's for another topic... On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Graber, Stephen sggraber@hsc.wvu.edu wrote: > I'm not sure I think a pedestrian mall is a good idea for Morgantown.  We > would lose much of our character and become less distinguishable from the > many other small university towns with pedestrian malls.  Charlottesville, > VA and Burlington, VT are two with which I've had some experience as I've > lived in both those places.  One immediate effect is to send a lot of > shopping traffic away from the downtowns to the outlying "malls".  That > might be even worse here considering the dirth of access our downtown > faces.  And where would we have all those wonderful parades? > > I'm sure in the end many better heads than mine will be needed to sort > through the impact of the various options and as long as enough time is > devoted to careful planning and study I'm sure it will work out for the > best.  Let's just not rush headlong into a solution that's been applied > elsewhere and hope it works well for us. > Cheers, > Butch > > ------------------------------------------- > > Stephen G. Graber > > Biochem & Mol Pharmacology > > PO Box 9142, HSN-3122 > > West Virginia University > > Morgantown, WV 26506-9142 > > phone: 304-293-2305 > > > >  ------   _0 > > ------ _ <,_ > >  ---- (*)/ (*) > > ________________________________ > From: bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org [bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org] On Behalf Of > Ryan Post [rpostwvu@gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 11:03 AM > To: 'Frank Gmeindl'; 'Bicycle Board' > Cc: Abildso, Christiaan > Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] Fwd: Pedestrian Safety Board - another letter in > the works > > Wow. There’s some aggressive ideas being thrown around now-a-days.  I’ve > spent some time at the Charlottesville mall, and it’s a unique kind of > place, with lots of outdoor dining area right there in the open corridor. > > > > I would think it would fit the college night time scene quite nicely, when > often the sidewalks are totally jammed up. > > > > High St seems to obvious location, but there would be a lot of parking > eliminated, as well as traffic shifted down to an already busy US19 > (whatever name it has), and the Stores are already designed around High > being “Main St”. > > > > Chestnut street would have less impact on traffic, although I wonder how the > stores that currently face High Street would feel. Chestnut is quite narrow, > and I don’t think would feel as open. Nor would there be much space for > seating outside on the mall. > > > > The Charlottesville mall does not allow you to ride a bike on it, you have > to dismount.  This presents an issue to cyclists if Chestnut and Spruce stay > the same, since you now have to go down to an even busier US19, or push your > bike for 4 blocks downhill. > > > > Ryan > > > > From: bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org [mailto:bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org] On > Behalf Of Frank Gmeindl > Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 10:23 AM > To: Bicycle Board > Cc: Christiaan Abildso > Subject: [Bikeboard] Fwd: Pedestrian Safety Board - another letter in the > works > > > > Bicycle Board Members, > > > > Let me know if you would support converting downtown to a pedestrian mall. >  If a majority does, I'll suggest adding the Bicycle Board to the signatory > list. > > > > Frank > > > > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board walkmgw@yahoo.com > > Date: October 27, 2011 8:21:57 AM EDT > > To: Bill Reger-Nash wreger@hsc.wvu.edu, Bob Anderson > randerson@hsc.wvu.edu, Christiaan Abildso cgabildso@mail.wvu.edu, Dave > Harshbarger harshbargerd@wvuh.com, David Small dsmall1@mix.wvu.edu, > Dwight Harshbarger dwight.harshbarger@gmail.com, George Lilley > mgranlil@frontier.com, Ilana Chertok ichertok@hsc.wvu.edu, Jan Derry > jderry@nwvcil.org, Jimmie Simmons Jsimmons2642@yahoo.com, Jonathan > Rosenbaum freesource@cheat.org, Maria Smith mariasmith@busride.org, > Martha Summers msummers@hsc.wvu.edu, Michael Graham > migraham@hsc.wvu.edu, Regina Mayolo reginam@verizon.net, Sarah Bias > sarahbias@gmail.com, Stan Cohen Stanley.Cohen@mail.wvu.edu, Tom Bias > tbias@hsc.wvu.edu > > Cc: Angela Wiley wileya120@gmail.com, Bill Austin baustin@labyrinth.net, > Claire Chantler cchantler@nwvcil.org, Damien Davis > ddavis@cityofmorgantown.org, Ella Belling ella@montrails.org, Frank > Gmeindl fgmeindl@gmail.com, Hugh Kierig Hugh.Kierig@mail.wvu.edu, Jim > Hunt jimhunt@sunnysideupwv.org, Jim Rye Jim.Rye@mail.wvu.edu, Josh Woods > joshua.woods@mail.wvu.edu, Kevin Leyden Kevin.Leyden@mail.wvu.edu, Matt > Cross crossnyc@hotmail.com, Michael Simms michael.d.simms@gmail.com, > Mike Breiding mike@EpicRoadTrips.us, Nick Hein info@positivespin.org, > Roy Nutter roy.nutter@mail.wvu.edu > > Subject: Pedestrian Safety Board - another letter in the works > > Reply-To: Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board walkmgw@yahoo.com > > > > All - > > In the interest of full disclosure, I've drafted a letter (attached) and > floated it to some potential partners (listed a co-signers of the letter) > including SPAN, GNA, Main St Morgantown, Urban Landscape Commission, etc. > re: studying the impact on downtown vehicular traffic of closing 1) Chestnut > from Willey to Pleasant or 2) High St from Willey to Pleasant (with > simultaneous restructuring of Spruce to be 2-way) to vehicles. The goal > would be a pedestrian street or mall downtown. We may spend some time on > this at our next PSB meeting, Nov 7th, to edit/approvie it depending on > discussions with potential partners on this idea. If others aren't > interested and the PSB is not we will not ask the city to ask the state to > study the traffic implications. > > Some explanation of why the letter came about in the text of email I've sent > to potential coalition below. > > Christiaan > > ----------------------- > > I have had separate conversations with each of you, or identified you as > logical partners with interest in developing a pedestrian mall to further > improve our downtown for downtown businesses, residents, nearby neighbors, > and visitors. During a recent presentation of the downtown traffic study by > Andrew Nichols of the Rahall Transportation Institute (as a WVDOT > consultant) discussion focused almost exclusively on pedestrian flow and > improving downtown to better support pedestrians. Andrew indicated that, > with the data he and his group collected about trip origins, destinations, > and time, they could model the impact of any change to traffic flow or > signalization on vehicular traffic time and congestion. Many informal > discussions with my colleagues - easily a biased sample - tells me that > young people and young parents would welcome a downtown pedestrian mall. > > > > With that backdrop I ask if now may be the most appropriate time to better > understand what impact creating a downtown pedestrian only access for High > Street (with simultaneous change to make Spruce a two-way street) or > Chestnut Street may have. I'm sure one of the major concerns of downtown > businesses is that store traffic would decrease because fewer vehicles > (thus, shoppers) would come through downtown. Well, there's only one way to > find out...we have to ask. > > > > I would like, therefore, to assemble a coalition of the many stakeholders to > ask the City via the City Manager to request the modeling be done by the > WVDOT consultant and presented to the City (via Traffic Commission or in a > small meeting of the coalition. I've drafted a letter I'd ask that each of > you review, consider the request and ways to improve upon it, and consider > any additional parties/boards/commissions that should be included. Then, if > you're all on board, can we meet to discuss at an upcoming MSM, SPAN, Tree > Board, Green Team, or GNA meeting in early November? We may be able to host > a discussion during our 1st Monday-of-the-month Pedestrian Safety Board > meeting if so desired. > > > > WVDOT will only ask the consultant to perform the modeling if the City has > interest. Thus, as the multiple interested parties we have to band together > to show the City that businesses and residents are interested. They'll only > act if they know they have our support. > > > > This could be a great first step toward determining, using quantitative > data, the potential impacts of a downtown pedestrian street. > > I look forward to hearing from each of you, > > > > Walk more, safely > > > > Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board > > Christiaan Abildso, Chair > > Bill Reger-Nash, Vice Chair > > http://www.morgantown.com/ped-safety-board.htm > > _______________________________________________ > Bikeboard mailing list > Bikeboard@cheat.org > http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard > _______________________________________________ Bikeboard mailing list Bikeboard@cheat.org http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard