Chris Ferguson holds a master's degree in environmental engineering, an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, an MBA in finance and a law degree, and he's focusing his interdisciplinary talents on a bold endeavor: to make University Avenue in St. Paul one traffic lane in each direction, at least in segments.
Ferguson, the president of Bywater Business Solutions, has created a website at parkingpossibilitiesmsp.com that asks visitors to, well, ponder the parking possibilities. Much of the avenue is currently two lanes in each direction, with the occasional turn lane.
The Green Line light rail corridor travels down the middle of University Avenue in St. Paul, and its arrival has eliminated 85 percent of the on-street parking, as well as a host of left-turns onto low-volume streets.
"I have a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old. We don't really walk on University Avenue because right now there's no buffer" from traffic, Ferguson said. "The sense of safety is not there."
In all, 975 parking spots were removed along University Avenue, leaving 175 on-street parking spots behind. Meanwhile, accessing many mid-block businesses across the street remains difficult for drivers traveling in the opposite direction because there's tracks in the way.
But what if one of those travel lanes were converted into a parking lane? The avenue would have room for more greenery, sidewalk cafes and pedestrian flourishes, and traffic would be forced to slow down a touch in the business corridor, making pedestrian crossings easier for light rail passengers and neighborhood residents. It'd be easier to pull over, park, and cross the street (and the tracks) to shop. Drivers that feel the need for speed can do what they're supposed to do -- use the interstate.
That, at least, is Ferguson's reasoning. He figures that if business development along the light rail corridor emerges differently than predicted (say, a bevy of truck-heavy manufacturers materialize and luxury lofts don't), the meters and parking stall striping could be easily removed.
Some business owners have said that removing a travel lane might not work for the entire length of University Avenue in St. Paul, but it could work in segments. He recognizes that the travel needs of truck traffic near University and Minnesota 280 would probably be different than the needs of shoppers in the Little Mekong Business District by Victoria Street.
"It's not a one size fits all. As of right now, you definitely have to look segment by segment," said Ferguson, who owns a Dairy Queen on Washington Avenue near Stadium Village in Minneapolis, which is already down to one lane.
Another possibility is to vary parking by time of day. "You could have segments that are parking in non-rush hour periods, that are parking all-day, and that are parking in the evening only," he said. "The goal should be how do you maximize how the road is used for all of the people that use it? ... It's a complicated thing to look at."
Batman says that this Central Corridor Light Rail worker should come back, close a University Avenue traffic lane in each direction and bring back on-street parking. Do you agree?
An advisory committee looking at the possibility of bringing parking back to University Avenue is still assembling information, such as whether or not traffic along the avenue has returned to the levels it enjoyed before light rail construction began about four years ago. Ferguson says it clearly hasn't.
Ferguson said traffic levels dropped anywhere from 25 to 40 percent along University Avenue from pre-construction to post-construction, and it's unclear how much has bounced back. If the vehicle numbers are still low, that could be another good argument for eliminating a travel lane.
A report and technical analysis funded by the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative is due to the committee by the end of the December and will be made available on the parkingpossibilitiesmsp.com website.
The concept received hesitant reaction from the Ramsey County board a year ago, with commissioners urging the committee to hold off on any kind of formal proposal until the Green Line got rolling, which it did on June 14.
"We're just going to be measuring traffic in the next week or two, and doing public surveys and getting feedback from residents up and down the corridor," Ferguson said. "You've got to see the data first, and once you've seen the data and analyzed the data, then you can make a recommendation."
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