Can we afford road diets?

<p>After feeling sorry for the city because of its major financial difficulties, I’m beginning to think City Council and staff might not be innocent bystanders. A while back, I was informed of some city crosswalk work that was scheduled. It was called to my attention because someone thought it was very expensive.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>This particular project involved insetting flashing lights in the roadway at a number of crosswalks. Similar installations can be seen on Petaluma Boulevard at Putnam Plaza and on Washington Street east of the river.</p><p>The situation, as it appears to me, is that federal or state participation in certain categories of roadwork make doing those types of projects almost too good to pass up. The city can get a million dollars worth of work done for less than 10 percent of the cost to the city. A million-dollar project for only $100,000 in city funds seems like a great deal.</p><p>Except, if you don’t need the project, is it worth any expense at all, especially to a cash-strapped city? It’s like buying a raincoat at a steep discount just because it’s a good buy even when you don’t need a raincoat. So now you’ve got a new raincoat at a good price but don’t have any money left to purchase something else you really do need.</p><p>This crosswalk project is an example of spending money that doesn’t have to be spent just because someone else will pay a high share of the cost. There are other expensive “road diet” projects to reduce lanes on Petaluma Boulevard through downtown and to eliminate the permissive left turns on green at many intersections throughout the city.</p><p>I’ve gotten the impression that much of what the city does isn’t because it’s necessary, but because someone else will pick up most of the bill. This may relate more to job security than thoughtful expenditure of funds.</p><p>The Petaluma Boulevard lane reduction project is estimated to cost almost $900,000 with the city paying roughly $100,000. This is a project that could be done by city crews for less than a thousand dollars worth of paint.</p><p>To show I’m not simply against such projects, here’s my off-the-cuff alternative. Paint Petaluma Boulevard northbound from B Street to Washington Street for two lanes (maybe traffic data would favor southbound) and one lane southbound. This would allow for about a three-foot widening of each of the remaining three travel lanes with only half the impact on parking one lane in each direction would have.</p><p>If it doesn’t work, sandblast the lines and restripe to its present configuration.</p><p>Is nobody frugal any more? Doesn’t anyone ask, “Would we do this project if we had to pay for it all?”</p><p>The proposal to eliminate the permissive left turns where there is both a left-turn green arrow and a circular green indicator illustrates a complete unawareness of motorists feelings. Nothing is so frustrating as having to just sit there at an intersection when there seems no reason for not making a left turn.</p><p>If there is truly a safety problem, will all the non-protected left-turn lanes on Washington Street all across the city be eliminated in the name of total safety? Let’s not buy into things just because someone else will fund most of it. Oops, I forgot about the 5 percent surcharge City Hall gets from each of these projects.</p><p>——</p><p>On a whole different subject, who in the county is responsible for managing the swine flu program? I had the thought that suppose there’s a spike of swine flu cases and only 10 percent of Sonoma County residents (50,000 people) wanted to obtain masks. Are they available? Is anyone monitoring the situation to insure at least some minimal levels of masks are available? Is the county health department doing anything? Are they checking with drug stores to verify supplies? What are their plans, both A and B.</p><p>It would be nice to know that our county health officials are on top of this. </p><p><i>(Jack Balshaw is a retired transportation planner and former Petaluma City Council member. His e-mail address is jbcolumn@sbcglobal.net. His blog is jacksblog.balshaw.com)</i></p>