From: Adrianna Anderson

Date: June 8, 2015 at 7:14:35 AM MDT

To: commissioners@tetonwyo.org, council@townofjackson.com
Cc: sbirdyshaw@tetonwyo.org, awatkins@tetonwyo.org, county@jhnewsandguide.com

Subject: Teton County Resident with ITP Safety Concerns

Dear Commissioners & Town Council Members,

Thank you for your hard work and time dedicated to the ITP last week. Last Monday’s Joint Information Meeting was a long, informative session that provided many solutions as well as areas needing further exploration in the coming weeks regarding Teton County’s traffic situation. We trust that you will make the right call for Teton County and it’s inhabitants and I look forward to future discussions.

I am writing you today as a South Park resident and mother to two young children (6 & 9) who attend Jackson and Colter Elementary schools. My comments are regarding the proposed Tribal Trails Connector Road (TTCR) being built as a bypass in the South Park neighborhood. I am aware you have heard many rationale in favor and opposed to the TTCR and with so much information it can be challenging to sort through the minutiae of it all. I promise to stick to the facts of the matter.

While Mr. Charlier spent much time persuading how the TTCR would reduce traffic at the Y by up to 10,000 cars a day, he did little to provide rationale as to how the TTCR would not become a bypass for pass-through traffic. According to the study on South Park traffic by his competitor he mentioned (Teton County’s 2010 Felsburg South Park Study), Mr. Charlier states that most of the traffic using the TTCR would be South Park local traffic. When reading the study however, I was surprised to find that only 33% of traffic using the connector would be South Park “Local” residing traffic. The other 67% would be pass-through traffic. See details in traffic engineer Robert Bernstein’s Analysis of the 2010 Felsburg South Park Study.

How this increase in pass-through traffic will affect our children:

One of the main take-away points of the ITP is that Teton County’s goal is to increase pedestrian and bike traffic while decreasing vehicular traffic. A wonderful goal for our future indeed. While facing a 400-1,200% increase in traffic on many South Park roads that already deal with traffic congestion during school drop-off/pick-up times, how can a parent feel comfortable allowing their children to bike/walk to school and athletic practices? Daily I witness drivers failing to stop at cross walks for children and adults attempting to cross the road in school zones. What will be done to mitigate this blatant danger to our children? I find it contradictory that our county goal is to increase bike/pedestrian commuter traffic yet the proposed TTCR will make it more dangerous for our kids to get to school this way. I think you will find more parents driving their children to school if the TTCR is built thus nullifying our goal.

The thing I found troubling about Mr. Charlier’s comments was his attitude that addressing safety is not something that should be first and foremost. Comments like, “I’m not an advocate for writing a safety section” and “It’s essential to everything that’s in there but it’s not a separate topic” seemed lacking to me when referencing our most child-dense and sensitive zone in Teton County. His inability to provide details when questioned by Commissioner Newcomb on Charlier’s outline for safety consideration left me disappointed and feeling like this proposal hasn’t properly been vetted. Perhaps an independent child-safety analysis would be prudent?

When asked by Commissioner Vogelheim if roundabouts in the TTCR proposal would mitigate traffic, Mr. Charlier’s answer was, “You really don’t know until you get into the details of project planning”. The impression I got was that this is a plan that has been drafted yet details of safety mitigation and how to protect our children have not been fully thought out. Is this how Teton County works? Vote on a road rife with child safety concerns yet wait until later to find out if the risk is worth it? I believe our kids deserve better from us, the adults who are granted the honor of keeping them safe and out of harm’s way.

These are the questions that keep me up at night and I feel you have the power to challenge our county engineers and planners as to giving us the full story before a vote comes to order. I disagree with Mr. Charlier about the details; the details are where we are going to find out if the risk to our children’s safety is worth easing congestion at the Y. If you also felt like vital information was lacking, I urge you to please dig deeper on this one.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss this further.

Sincerely,
Adrianna Anderson