City council studies ways to reduce traffic hazards

By Mary Rickard

Changes to traffic-flow patterns in campustown, public education and enforcement of traffic laws, including possible ticketing of jaywalkers and drivers who disregard crosswalks, are necessary to ensure success of the Campus Area Transportation Study plan, said Bruce Knight, planning director for the city of Champaign at the city council meeting Tuesday night.

Accidents on campus have necessitated a “paradigm shift” with regard to traffic management, said Knight who presented the council with the final report for the second phase of the CATS plan and urged their support.

Reduction of traffic from four lanes to three on Green Street, which was recommended in Phase I, has already helped ease congestion and slowed traffic “to reduce the chance of serious injury,” he said. The addition of loading zones on side streets has minimized the number of delivery trucks on Green Street as well.

The CATS study, started in 1997, helped develop a “philosophical approach to promote pedestrian safety over vehicular convenience in the University District,” wrote City Manager Steve Carter in a July 22 report to the city council.

Changes proposed in Phase II involve 14 streets at an estimated cost of $33,445,000. The projects would be implemented over many years. The Campus Area Transportation Studies are joint projects among Champaign, Urbana, the University of Illinois and the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District with a planning grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation.

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Knight urged the agencies to adopt the CATS II Report as the policy guide for future transportation improvements in the University District. A meeting of the Policy Committee, which is made up of the mayors and chief executive officers of Champaign and Urbana, the board chair and executive director of the CUMTD and the chancellor or vice chancellor or the university, will be held on July 21 to consider the adoption of the final report.

Champaign has a significant opportunity to develop “cultural tourism,” said Allen B. Worley, interim executive director of the Champaign County Convention and Visitors Bureau, as he presented the CVB work plan and budget to the council for discussion on July 26. Local arts and sports give Champaign-Urbana the potential to become the number two venue in the state for tourism. Matching funds for marketing ÿof up to $276,148 would be available from the state, Worley said, if more local funds were made available.

Worley proposes development of a comprehensive arts guide and an improved Web site to inform meeting planners and visitors about the area’s cultural activities and resources. “This is a world-renowned institution,” he said of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Formal tours to the research centers could be set up, he said.

The Arts Alliance Commission conducted an impact study of the effects of arts, culture and entertainment on the county’s economy, said Jennifer Armstrong, executive director of 40 North/88 West, an arts council which is part of the CVB and supports local artists. The results showed that $33.7 million came into Champaign County through the arts last year, Armstrong told the council.

Sports is another attraction for tourists. Don Flynn, board member of the Champaign County Sports Commission, who coordinates First Pitch Baseball, said that approximately 1,200 hotel rooms were filled as a result of 150 kids’ sports teams competing in mulitiple tournaments in Champaign-Urbana’s parks this summer.

“The impact of these visitor activities is far-reaching,” said Council member Thomas Bruno. “When measuring the effect that money spent on the arts has on the community,” he said, it is important to remember the indirect benefits of the positive impression visitors have of Champaign when they return to their communities. Parents and grandparents of 10 to 14-year-olds want to come and watch the kids play sports.

The Economic Development Corporation also presented its successes over the past year, including retention of local business and securing American and Delta flights to Willard Airport. Council member Vic McIntosh emphasized the importance of taking care of businesses that are already located here.

Mention was made that Expansion Management magazine had ranked Champaign-Urbana in the top 20 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas in terms of desirability to companies seeking to expand.

The study, which appears in the magazine’s July edition, cited 71 metropolitan areas as “5-Star Business Opportunity Metros” when seven factors are considered. The factors considered in the study were education, health care costs, quality of life, transportation, a knowledgeable work force, state taxing and spending policy and the perception of corporate site consultants.