The Alaska Department of Transportation will soon extend by nine feet the no-parking zone on Main Street in front of Talia’s Treasures.
In an effort to address perceived traffic hazards, Haines Borough and Chilkoot Indian Association officials have been working with the DOT to improve traffic safety at intersection of Third Avenue and Main Street. Citizens have complained to borough staff about obstructed vision at the intersection, said borough manager Debra Schnabel at a meeting last week.
CIA’s transportation department has been interested in improving traffic safety at the intersection for several months. CIA’s Ryan Barber and Nick Kokotovich explored the option of installing a mirror on the corner opposite of Talia’s Treasures, where vehicles often blind drivers to oncoming traffic, so people could see oncoming traffic driving from downtown.
At last week’s assembly meeting, assembly member Heather Lende proposed installing a four-way stop at the intersection. “It’s dangerous,” Lende said. “Someone’s going to get whacked there. You can’t see around it and there’s more traffic than there used to be.”
Public facilities director Brad Ryan said state DOT officials were looking into extending the no-parking zone. “We had that discussion quite a bit and getting stop signs installed by DOT is quite a bit of work,” Ryan said. “If we really want to move forward with a four-way stop, I think a more immediate solution is to do the painting and then we can have a bigger discussion with DOT about a four-way stop.”
Assembly member Sean Maidy made a motion to direct staff to work with DOT on the four-way stop. Assembly member Brenda Josephson said extending the no-parking zone was a good first step, and assembly member Tom Morphet said they should ask the police to enforce parking violations in the area. Assembly member Stephanie Scott also wanted to extend the no-parking area. It’s the size of the vehicle parked at the corner that is blinding, not whether vehicles are parked illegally, Scott said.
The motion to facilitate a four-way stop failed 3-3 with Morphet, Josephson and Scott opposed. Mayor Jan Hill was absent from the meeting, thus unable to break the tie.
DOT regional traffic and safety engineer David Epstein said between the lack of accidents and vehicle volume data, the intersection fails to meet state standards set to convert the two-way stop to a four-way stop. Five or more crashes in a one-year period is one standard. Only one crash has been reported between 2012 and 2016, according to Epstein.
The intersection’s use also fails to meet the minimum volumes for a four-way stop. Traffic engineers base that volume, depending on the roadway, on the average number of vehicles entering the intersection every hour during an eight-hour period. An average of 2,000 vehicles approach the intersection from Main Street every eight hours, according to DOT data. An average of 1,200 (including bike and pedestrian counts) approach it from Third Avenue. To meet state standards, there would need to be at least 2,400 vehicles approaching the intersection on Main Street and 1,600 on Third Avenue.
In 2001, a driver who crossed Main heading north was hit by a westbound vehicle at the intersection, which sent the car onto roadside boulders about 20 feet from the point of impact. “A pickup…parked at least partly into a no-parking zone on the corner also is believed to have contributed to the crash,” a 2001 CVN news report says. “[The driver] told police he had trouble seeing around the corner and never saw [the oncoming] car.”