HELENA – Next week, Helena city leaders will decide whether to support major changes to traffic flow and parking around the Montana State Capitol.
At a meeting Monday night, the Helena City Commission will consider a new transportation plan for the Capitol Complex proposed by the Montana Department of Administration. If they agree to implement that plan, the streets surrounding the Capitol could look very different in a few months.
“We just believe that our job is to create an environment that is fundamentally safe for everyone to encourage people to come to their capital – whether as tourists, as legislators, or to do business – and to get them here safely and effectively, regardless of their mode of transportation and mobility,” said Steve Baiamonte, chief of the DOA’s General Services Division. “We take that job very seriously and believe this is really a good step in that direction.”
Jonathon Ambarian
The proposed plan envisages converting several streets to one-way streets, with angled parking spaces replacing parallel parking. 6th The avenue would only run east from Montana Avenue to Roberts Street, 5th The avenue would run east from Roberts to Sanders Street, and Lockey Avenue would run west from Sanders to the Capitol. Generally, traffic would have to travel clockwise around the Capitol Complex.
According to an analysis by an engineering firm, the changes would officially increase the number of available parking spaces in the project area from 220 to 225. However, Baiamonte expects the impact to be far greater because drivers often do not park efficiently.
“If you look out the window now, you can see that there’s basically about 20 feet of space between cars out there, 15 feet to the next car — for about every fourth or fifth car, we actually lose a space,” he said. “During the session, we see that people then try to maximize those spacings — and then we have a lot of hit-and-runs and a lot of fender bender because someone is trying to squeeze through and they’re trying to back into a space while there’s four other cars behind them.”
Jonathon Ambarian
Baiamonte said that angle parking generally slows down traffic and makes it easier for drivers to find parking spaces and maneuver in and out. In addition, removing parking spaces on the opposite side of the street allows for the creation of bike lanes on 6th and Lockey.
Overall, the goal is to create more of a “campus feel” around the Capitol Complex, Baiamonte said.
“It would be a more natural feeling and people would naturally slow down – and then tourists would feel more welcome to actually stop and come to their capital,” he said.
Baiamonte said DOA has been negotiating with the city for about two years about the potential changes. He said the changes would not require any remodeling or construction work – just a new coat of paint and new signage. Overall, he estimated the work would cost less than $25,000 and could be completed within two months. He said DOA would share the cost with the city and pay for some of the work.
Baiamonte said there had been no discussions about changing the length of parking allowed or charging drivers for parking.
Jonathon Ambarian
DOA wants to implement the new transportation plan before the Montana Heritage Center opens to visitors.
“We don’t know what the traffic is going to be like, how many people are coming and going, but if we can start influencing traffic patterns now, then we can have more of an impact,” he said. “Once the museum is open, once it’s been open for a while, the right thing to do is collect data for a year or two and then make changes accordingly. But that’s a lot easier when we’ve already made the key traffic impacts.”
The city commission meets at 6 p.m. Monday in the City-County Building. City leaders have said they hope to hear more about the public’s reaction to the proposal. Baiamonte said the DOA has been taking public comments for several weeks and recently held an open house.
“Generally, most of the questions we get are about bigger issues,” he said. “While they may not be concerned about that, they’re wondering, ‘How does this impact the rest of us?’ or ‘Why can’t we get more connections or bike lanes?’ ‘How do we make the rest of the city safer?’ Our answer to that is that, of course, we can only control what happens in Capitol Square. We hope that this can be a catalyst, and we’re happy to work with the city.”
