Fairmount Neighborhood residents met with city staff for a second time to discuss improving traffic conditions in the neighborhood Wednesday night.
The meeting is part of an ongoing project to address traffic problems and concerns in the neighborhood east of campus and to develop scenarios for future traffic conditions because of planned construction in the area.
A primary concern raised by residents at the first meeting, held in February, was the heavy traffic congestion and pedestrian crossings on Agate Street. The surrounding neighborhood, which covers the streets from Franklin Boulevard to East 19th Avenue and from Agate Street to Fairmount Boulevard, absorbs cars cutting through residential streets as a way to avoid delays on Agate Street.
A major focus of the study is to maintain the safe pedestrian environment on Agate Street while keeping it working as a minor arterial road. Minor arterial roads, one classification for city streets in Eugene, are generally designed to accommodate an average volume of 7,500 to 20,000 cars a day. The roads in the Fairmount Neighborhood are classified as local streets and designed to accommodate a daily volume of fewer than 1,500 cars.
Certain intersections in the Fairmount Neighborhood, particularly along East 15th Avenue at Orchard Street and Villard Street, exceeded the volume of local street with as much as a daily volume of almost 4,000 cars, according to tests that were conducted in the neighborhood.
Residents at the second meeting, held Wednesday in the cafeteria of Edison Elementary School, said pedestrian crossings along Agate Street, particularly near Agate and East 13th Avenue, continued to be a major cause of traffic delays and cut-through traffic as cars turned at East 15th Avenue and East 17th Avenue and used neighborhood roads in order to get to Franklin Boulevard. A popular suggestion by residents was to build either a pedestrian overpass or underpass at Agate Street next to the University’s residence halls as an easy method for pedestrians to cross the street.
Senior Transportation Planner Rob Inerfeld said an underpass or an overpass would cost around $2 million to build, but that it was something that could be examined as a possible solution despite the potential problems and cost.
“One of the goals here is to present recommendations to the City Council, and if the community wants to make that something that is recommended, we’re open to that,” Inerfeld said. “But putting an overpass or underpass in there may be something that works great in terms of traffic control, but in terms of viability, it could be a lot more difficult.”
Residents also complained of frequent speeding, particularly along north-south streets, the difficulty in seeing around corners because of parked cars and the lack of compliance with stop signs. The University was also criticized for not providing enough parking, resulting in people parking along nearby neighborhood streets.
Inerfeld said the project includes the possibility of including traffic calming measures that would reduce vehicle speeds and cut-through traffic and improve pedestrian and bicycle safety. He said this could include speed humps, traffic circles, center islands along the median and raised crosswalks to make pedestrians more visible.
Inerfeld said the city of Eugene, which has the oldest traffic calming plan in the country, has a list of specific rules for initiating and prioritizing traffic calming in a neighborhood. Additionally, two-thirds of affected property owners must sign a petition before any action is taken. He said putting in traffic signals along Agate Street was another possibility.
The next step for the project is to analyze four possible scenarios for the future, according to project documents. These scenarios included one that would examine the neighborhood traffic without any actions, and another scenario would look at what would happen if the city placed signals on Agate Street and used traffic-calming measures.
He said future meetings with a neighborhood traffic subcommittee and with residents will be held in the future.

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