Missoula City Council is currently working on the Downtown Safety and Mobility Project, which entails changing the designs of Higgins, Front, and Main streets. The goal of this project would make public streets more accessible to downtown transportation, improved circulation of visitors to downtown businesses, further developing the downtown, and maintaining the economic health of downtown Missoula.
Specific aspects of this project that are to be applied to Higgins Avenue from Brooks to Broadway include dedicated left turn lanes, protected bike lanes, curb extensions, improved transit stops, street trees, wide sidewalks, and more. These changes are projected to reduce up to 50% of crashes on this street. Projects similar to this have been studied across the country to conclude that this will almost certainly have economic benefits for Missoula’s Downtown. It will make the area much more acceptable for people who use all kinds of transportation, thus creating more business for the area.
For the Front and Main St. two-way conversion, this part of the project will work towards restoring Front and Main streets two-way traffic, improvements on intersections, signal upgrades, the creation of a bicycle loop, and others. This will have similar effects on Higgins Avenue, generally improving the roads for multiple types of transportation and opening up the city to more people and more opportunities for business in the downtown area, as well as creating a safer environment.
Safety has been highlighted in this plan. “Our streets are designed to make cars go through them as fast as possible. Safety has always been second to efficiency with street design,” said Daniel Carlino, a City Councilman. This project aims to change the design of the streets to have priorities based on the safety of civilians. Regarding what the projects hope to achieve, Carlino said “Safety, adding dedicated lanes for cyclists, bigger sidewalks, bulb out, and decreasing the number of lanes for cars on Higgins.” The ability to pick between transportation does not only improve public safety, but environmental safety. It is likely that should it be allied, there will be a reduced number of cars on the road in exchange for buses, bikes,and pedestrians because it will be much more accessible and suited to downtown.
“The negative is that cars will go a minute or two slower through this part of Higgins during busy traffic times. The positives is that we are now getting protected or raised bike lanes across all of these streets! Plus the bulb outs, reduction of lanes, and conversion to a 2 way street for Front and Main will all make for safer travel for car drivers and pedestrians as well,” said Councilman Carlino.
This project is being paid for with the Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) federal grant, announced by John Tester and Steve Daines in June of 2023. This is one of the largest federal grants regarding transportation that has ever been awarded to Montana.
