No Bridge Over Wadsworth for Belmar

Unfortunately, the Downtown Lakewood Connectivity and Urban Design commission looks to have ruled out the construction of a pedestrian bridge over or under Wadsworth.

At the June 18th public workshop, only at-grade crossing improvements were in the works.

On the good side, some of the proposed improvements are substantial, with landscaped medians, trees, and stone barriers to enhance pedestrian safety, particularly at Wadsworth and Virginia Ave. On the downside, however, is a depressing looking kludge at Alaska and Wadsworth (below).

The latest plan calls for a pedestrian crossing combined with what looks to be a left hand turn lane into Lakewood Commons at Alaska. (Currently, Alaska is split by Wadsworth. Westbound traffic can only merge into northbound Wadsworth, and eastbound traffic can only merge onto southbound Wadsworth.)

I can see the appeal of this option. It would allow northbound Wadsworth traffic to turn left into Lakewood Commons. Pedestrians could cross when Wadsworth traffic is stopped by a red light, and there would be little or no problem with drivers turning right into traffic and menacing crossing pedestrians.

However, I have a hard time seeing how this would work in reality, based on current traffic patterns at Alameda and Wadsworth.

The first problem is that in the rendering above, the plan appears to take out a lane of northbound traffic and divert it into Belmar at Alaska. This is going to result in inattentive drivers getting trapped in that lane, and when they try and merge left, it's going to backup traffic on northbound Wadsworth. I say this because there's already a problem with drivers doing this when they realize they have to turn right at Alameda, and they currently have 100 or so more feet of road in which to merge left.

The second problem is with the turn signals at Wadsworth and Alameda. Right now, there's so much traffic at this intersection that cars turning southbound are continually getting trapped in the intersection on red. What happens is that they get the green turn arrow, but because of a red light at Virginia and Wadsworth, there's already a road full of southbound cars that aren't going anywhere. Drivers turn into the intersection anyway, and a giant mess ensues. It's bad enough right now that it can take 2-3 cycles to make a turn at this intersection if you hit it at the wrong time of day. So my question is... what's going to happen if the city adds a third stop light into this mix, in between the first two?

Disaster, that's what. At least from a driver's perspective. And I'm not at all sure that it would feel that much safer from the pedestrian's point of view. What it does have going for it is that it's the cheapest option short of doing nothing. Which brings me back to my initial use of the word "unfortunately."

The best option-- the really, truly, absolutely best option-- would be to bury Wadsworth in a tunnel starting at Ohio. It would then come up again at around Alaska, and the area in between would allow for easy pedestrian crossings. It would also square the circle of how to allow Wadsworth to function as a major arterial while at the same time connecting downtown Lakewood into a cohesive space. I'm sure it's also completely cost prohibitive. Unfortunately.

The second best option would be a bridge of some sort for pedestrians over (or even under) Wadsworth, but I'm willing to guess this is cost prohibitive as well, and probably politically unpalatable as well after all the fuss that was made about the "Bridge to Nowhere" at Wadsworth and Bowles.

So instead we're left with what's really a third or fourth best choice.

In this rendering, you can see the proposed Wadsworth and Alaska pedestrian crossing. Note how the far right lane would now end at Alaska instead of Alameda, and the stop light at what would be a new intersection.