Two of the stated goals of the designs being submitted for McGillivray Boulevard are to create a mobility corridor for everything from skateboards to mobility scooters, and divert “through traffic” to Mill Plain. Neither of these goals serves the residents’ needs and ignores existing resources.
Much of the corridor has sidewalks on both sides of the street, mainly around the areas of Mountain View High School and Wy’east Middle School, both of which recently opened new buildings. McGillivray supports thousands of students on buses along with parents dropping kids off and high school students who have earned the right to drive. Removing a lane each direction would be a disaster.
Instead, let’s install lighted ADA crosswalks, high-contrast speed limits applied to the pavement, trim back the trees to let in light, use high texture, high-contrast material for permanent lighted crosswalks, install LED street lighting along the entire corridor, install STOP HERE arrow signs and larger stop signs at intersections, have Vancouver police cite moving violations, and so forth.
Eliminating a lane of roadway in each direction solves nothing. Build on what we already have to really improve the corridor.
