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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us October 9, 2004 Imagine a 21st-century Ashland By Stanley Jones Ashland Imagine � taking a leisurely walk from Plaza to library along a wide, flagstone-paved boulevard. There is no traffic roar. All is quiet and peaceful. No exhaust fumes foul the air. There are no stoplight intersections. No deadly pedestrian crossings to negotiate. One can wander at will without concern for one's safety. Only a broad traffic-free open air mall stretches before you. It is thronged with people, many socializing amid plantings of trees and shrubs. Locals and visitors alike are spending money, shopping, dining and theatre-going like they never did before. Hanging flower baskets and planter boxes adorn the facades, each meticulously maintained by a local nursery. The patios of coffee shops and restaurants extend onto the thoroughfare. Colorful table-umbrellas dot the scene. Local craft stalls occupy key sites down the center. But you know it was not always like this. You recall when our downtown was bisected by a vehicle-clogged four-lane highway with a traffic density higher than the freeway. When the Plaza was a parking lot. When shop-window displays were hidden behind lines of vehicles parked nose-to-tail either side of the street. When people rushed about to beat expiring parking times, or increasingly shopped Medford's remote malls, denying city and downtown business untold revenue. When through traffic trundled through town rather than used the freeway. And when you risked your life just to cross the street. Walkways, located at each end of the boulevard, connect to easily accessible parking areas. A graceful pedestrian overpass links the midpoint of the thoroughfare to a part underground, multistory car-park, adjacent to Lithia Way. The parking zones are connected to each other, to the inner bypass, and to Highway 99 and I-5, via a road system that discourages thru-traffic. Traders say sales have increased significantly compared to the bad old days. They say downtown is a far easier and safer place to do business in now. Delivery trucks no longer need to double park on a busy highway, or loop repeatedly around town looking for an empty slot. Light vehicle business access is via rear alleyways linked to the inner bypass. City agreements forged with major carriers dictate that business frontal access occurs only before 9 a.m. and after 11 p.m. Ashland is a thriving pioneering town of the 21st century, whose wise and informed council didn't say no to a pedestrian boulevard. They didn't say it was too expensive. They didn't say it couldn't be done. They didn't say we couldn't be like countless other traffic-free British and other European towns. They voted for it. Because citizens demanded it. Ruled that all street planning dovetail into it. Established agreed phases of construction during which elements of a master plan were implemented over a period of years. So one day it became a reality. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Isotoner Slippers Dsw Shoes Ceramic Piggy Banks Fanny Mae Eloans Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Citibank Student Loans Acs Loan Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation helzberg diamonds Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams