Locals want trucks off of Cascade

Some local residents are worried a proposed Hood Avenue/Main Avenue couplet will create three busy streets instead of one.

To help prevent such an outcome, the Couplet Advisory Committee at its Monday, January 26, meeting expressed a unanimous desire to see heavy truck traffic aggressively diverted off Cascade Avenue and onto the Hood Avenue and Main Avenue arms of the couplet.

The 20-person committee met for its monthly meeting to refine plans to design an east-bound Hood Avenue and a west-bound Main Avenue couplet. The committee will make recommendations to the Sisters City Council and the Oregon Department of Transportation for design structures for the couplet, which is intended to relieve traffic congestion on Cascade Avenue during peak traffic periods.

"I would like to see us have a quaint, quiet Cascade for pedestrian traffic and then I would be okay with a busier Hood Avenue and Main Avenue," said Bill Anthony, Sisters District Ranger. "I'd like to see us do this couplet in a way that creates a quieter downtown."

Howard Stein, of CTS Engineers, Inc., presented data to the committee on current and estimated traffic counts for Hood Avenue, Main Avenue and Cascade Avenue with and without a couplet. The data was compiled by CTS Engineers and Cogan Owens Cogan, the consulting team facilitating the couplet plans. Most of the data came from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The data indicate that with the couplet, the average daily trips on Hood Avenue and Main Avenue will each number 3,700 to 5,000 in 2022 compared to the 2,500 to 3,300 average trips per street that occurred in 2002.

Stein said Hood Avenue and Main Avenue have capacity to hold much more traffic than does Cascade Avenue.

"One day I was walking and there was a traffic back-up on Cascade," Stein said. "But I could have walked across Main. There were no vehicles! On Hood, there were some, but not much."

As one-way streets, Hood Avenue and Main Avenue will average 619 to 825 vehicles per hour (VPH) in 2022, according to the data. Nevertheless, Hood Avenue and Main Avenue will still be under the Sisters Transportation System Plan's estimated capacity for one lane, which is 850 VPH, Stein said.

The couplet is expected to immediately divert about 30 percent of the traffic off Cascade Avenue, according to the report. Still, Cascade Avenue is expected to increase from 1,287 to 1,361 VPH to about 1,650 VPH in 2022. That would mean Cascade Avenue would hold twice as much traffic as its capacity.

This increase is expected because ODOT estimates traffic through Sisters will grow at about 2 percent per year, reaching a 50 percent increase in 20 years.

Committee members urged the consultants to consider design ideas which will encourage truckers to use the couplet. Some committee members wanted to prohibit any large trucks from using Cascade Avenue, but Matt Hastings said the law requires the city to accommodate trucks on that street.

Matt Hastings, Cogan Owens Cogan consultant and committee facilitator, said trucks will most likely choose Cascade Avenue during off-peak hours because it would be difficult for them to make a turn onto the couplet.

"We will do everything possible to accommodate trucks on the couplet, but some trucks can't even make those turns and won't even think about going off there," Hastings said.

Still, design ideas are suggesting a quieter Cascade Avenue, said Eric Dolson, publisher of The Nugget and member of the committee.

"We are talking about bulbs and wide sidewalks (which will slow traffic)," Dolson said. "It doesn't take me many trips on a road that is slower (rather) than faster before I change my driving patterns."

While the committee was in agreement on diverting truck traffic, Brad Boyd, owner of Eurosports on Hood Avenue, who attended the meeting as a visitor, said it is a horrible idea.

"The whole presumption is we want to put big trucks on Hood Avenue and Main Street (sic)," Boyd said. "Now we've got three busy streets instead of one. That, to me, is the absolutely worst idea. It makes sense to me to keep the traffic on Cascade. I don't want big trucks zooming by while people are test riding bikes."