Capital City Development Corporation recently received a study it commissioned looking at options for pedestrians and cyclists along the busy downtown streets of Front and Myrtle.
The four to five lanes of traffic running east and west through the city’s core present a physical and psychological barrier to foot traffic and cyclists. Crossing that many lanes of fast-moving traffic just doesn’t appeal to a lot of people.
Boise’s downtown developer, Capital City Development Corporation tapped Sam Schwartz Consulting to draft a set of proposals to make the high-traffic area more accessible. According to infrastructure blog BoiseDev, some of the key ideas include cutting the number of lanes on the two streets along some blocks and adding on-street parking at points along Front and Myrtle.
Other suggestions contained in the report include widening the sidewalks with landscaping features.
Complicating any proposed overhauls of the streets is the fact both are classified as highways and overseen by the Idaho Transportation Department – an agency not usually tasked with urban planning.
Capital City Development Corporation has yet to take a position on the proposals put forward in the study.
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