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MONDAY February 23, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 22, 2003 Downtown speeds going down A new ODOT designation will likely allow the city to lower limits to 25 mph By Bill Choy Ashland Daily Tidings A new Oregon Department of Transportation designation, which will allow cities to slow traffic on main streets that double as state highways, will include Ashland in the mix. Satsuki Doi | Ashland Daily Tidings Pedestrians cross East Main Street this weekend amid a steady stream of oncoming cars. A safety designation from the Oregon Department of Transportation should make crossing safer. Public Works Director Paula Brown said the city hopes to designate the couplet from Lithia Way at E. Main Street and Main Street from Siskiyou Boulevard north to Maple Street as a Special Transportation Area. This will allow Ashland to be eligible for different funding mechanisms for road improvements and to reduce the speed limit in certain areas. ODOT is expected to approve an initial round of designated sites at its January meeting. Brown said she expects they will approve Ashland since they first approached the city. The new designation will occur in about 50 cities throughout the state. The Ashland City Council approved the designation at its meeting last week. "It allows us some flexibility," Brown said. "It will allow us to do improvements in downtown that previously, ODOT would have to accept first... It gives the city a little more say on a stretch of road that is more important to us than to ODOT." The new designation will give the city more control in design, traffic speed, traffic calming, pedestrian improvements and similar urban standards. Brown said the speed limit through downtown will most likely be reduced from 30 mph to 25 mph. She said there has been too many fatal accidents where a vehicle hits a pedestrian in downtown over the years and the city hopes a speed reduction will help limit the dangers. "We want to slow it down because it will benefit the public," Brown said. Brown was grateful to ODOT for giving cities more say. "They realize there's a need for streets that go through a town to be run like a downtown street and not a state highway," she said. A Special Transportation Area plan typically includes the following elements, according to ODOT: goals and objectives reflecting the community's vision for its main street; clearly defined boundaries for the STA; design standards, including mobility standards, signal locations, and street treatment; strategies for addressing freight and through traffic; parking strategies addressing on-and off-street and shared parking; planning provisions that result in compact, pedestrian-friendly development; provisions for a network of streets for pedestrian, bicycle and motor vehicle routes. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: A new improved archive search is coming! Look for it in mid-February! .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams