Citizens want slow couplet or none

Most local opinion on a proposed couplet has been negative, judging from the response at a public meeting held last month on the City of Sisters' Couplet Refinement Plan.

The city is proposing a Hood Avenue/Main Avenue couplet to relieve traffic on Cascade Avenue during peak periods.

If a couplet is built, locals prefer a design that encourages access to Cascade Avenue and keeps speed limits at 25 miles per hour.

Workshop groups discussed couplet options at a public meeting last month. Only one of the six groups reported at the end of the workshop that it supported the couplet as an option. The speaker for that group emphasized that the group supports planning for the couplet now so that it will be an "option" in eight years, which is the earliest it could receive funding.

The citizens looked at four design options and unanimously chose Alternative 1 -- the alternative recommended by the Couplet Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC is a group of 20 community members and leaders who have been meeting since November to design a couplet.

Alternative 1 would keep Cascade Avenue as the state highway, and is the only alternative that allows eastbound and westbound highway traffic to both exit and enter Cascade Avenue. Alternative 1 makes Hood Avenue and Main Avenue one-way local streets.

The citizens at the workshop indicated they least favored Alternative 2, which was designed by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). That design makes Hood Avenue and Main Avenue the state highway and only allows through traffic to access Cascade Avenue via side streets off of the couplet or at an east-end roundabout at the Hood Avenue/Highway 242 intersection.

A third option allows traffic to enter town by continuing straight onto Cascade Avenue but requires highway traffic to leave town using the couplet. A fourth option allows traffic to leave town on Cascade Avenue, but requires vehicles to enter using the couplet.

The citizens groups also considered three east-end options to access a one-way westbound Main Avenue: turning right on Locust Street, turning right on Larch Street or turning right on Cedar Street.

Some groups preferred using Larch Street and others preferred using Locust Street.