Animals Showing Up On Area Roadways

It's spring again, which means there are more animals out on and around area roads. This is part of a herd of elk that's been out every morning recently near Stateline.

They, like deer, turkeys and a lot of other wildlife, are coming down to lower areas, and crossing roads to get there, to eat in the fields. So be alert while driving in outlying areas, those guys critters can be quick and sneaky.

Is A Car Essential For Your Commute?

Is a car essential to your commute? A new study concludes that 4/5ths of research participants felt car ownership was not essential to their everyday commute. Of course, the study was done in Boston and San Francisco so that weighs into the results.

The study found that autonomy was more important for commuters than the status or comfort associated with car ownership. Especially in the presence of ride-sharing services, study participants agreed that car ownership was not essential to their lifestyle. The City Fix blog has more of the study results.

Rumor Has It We Can Be Bribed With Coffee

Okay, not necessarily transportation-related, but this cracked me up. We just got out of a staff meeting where the subject of the 'KMPO coffee fund' came up. Not everyone around here drinks coffee so only the six people who do pay into the fund. The fund pays for bags of coffee, usually purchased at Costco (where's it's less expensive), to be made in the office coffee maker.

Apparently the coffee drinkers went over budget last year. In 2010, they spent $208 on coffee! For six people! That explains why Ryan always gets me things the second I ask for them. And Jeff's nervous tic turns out to be coffee jitters. Who would've known...

Sherman Ave. Water Work

Phase I of a two-phase City of Coeur d'Alene Water Department project begins Monday, April 4th. In the first phase, water services on Sherman Avenue between 2nd and 3rd streets, that are no longer in use, will be abandoned. In addition, a service at
7th Street and Sherman will be updated. The first phase of the project will take approximately one week and will take place mostly in the parking strip and sidewalk. During this time, there may be temporary traffic and pedestrian disruptions.

The second phase involves extending the water main from the alley south of Sherman and 5th Street, north to the water main in Sherman Avenue. Additional information will be sent out prior to starting this portion of the project.

Plan Calls For Banning Cars In European City Centers

We talk a LOT in my line of work about reducing carbon dioxide emissions, finding alternative modes of transportation and reducing vehicle miles of travel. Well, in Europe they're apparently tired of talking and are proposing to do something about it. The European Union recently released a plan aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions- and it involves banning all vehicles from city centers in the future. Not all areas though, just the major cities. Still, a lot of folks are calling the plan 'crazy' and 'extreme.' Here's more from London's newspaper The Telegraph.

Bill Would Take Millions From Drivers Ed

The Spokesman-Review's Eye on Boise blog is reporting that the Idaho House will debate a plan to strip millions in funding from driver's education classes, essentially ending a subsidy for programs offered through public schools.

Republican Rep. Steve Thayn of Emmett says his bill, introduced Friday in the House Education Committee, would boost the private share of driver's ed classes to $325. It sits at about $200 now.

The measure would redirect $2.2 million annually to the public school rainy day account and $100,000 to the Idaho Transportation Department. Another $1 million now in an account for the driver's training programs would be returned to Idaho state government's general fund. Thayn says these changes would likely spur private driver's ed businesses, but insists his main goal is to have a debate about spending priorities.

I know a lot of folks who are already having a hard time scraping up $200 for drivers ed considering the state of the economy. But then again, is it really a priority in your household that your teenager be able to drive? What are your thoughts on this?

I90 Rock Slide Pictures

Snoqualmie Pass over I90 was closed earlier this week due to a rockslide. It was reported that one of the rocks was the size of a pickup truck, and here's the picture to prove it was big. Holy cow, can you imagine driving along and looking up and seeing that thing coming down the hillside?! Luckily, a 'rockfall fence' caught it before it could get onto the roadway. Here's the whole story of what happened, and how WSDOT and other crews got the road open again quickly.

Joint Board Meeting Agenda Available

I posted last week about a joint Board meeting we're holding next week between the KMPO Board and our 'sister' agency in Spokane County, Spokane Regional Transportation Council. The meeting is to discuss results from the 2010 Census that have come back recently showing population growth in both Spokane and Kootenai counties. Growth such as that has the potential to affect how metropolitan planning organizations work with federal programs. The agenda for that meeting is now available here.

The meeting is next Thursday, March 31 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Garden Plaza in Post Falls. The address is on the agenda. The meeting is open to the public so feel free to attend.

Japanese Fix Earthquake-Damaged Roads At Amazing Rate

This is truly amazing. Even in times of catastrophe, the Japanese are extremely industrious. The picture to the left is a road in Japan that was severly damaged by the earthquake.

And,according to autoblog.com,this picture is just six days later after crews worked at a feverish pace to repair it.

If this is true, kind of makes us look pathetic. But maybe their quick job doesn't translate to a quality one. Who knows. You can read more about this amazing repair job here.

Gas Prices Expected To Top Out Soon

AAA says you can knock off the panic. They say gas prices have either topped off or will before hitting $4 a gallon.

And while they still appear to be rising by around 5 or 10 cents per week, the thought is that they'll slow down around $3.75.

The Coeur d'Alene Press has the reasoning behind it.

New Website Helps You Get Around Construction

If you're one of the many folks who commute to Spokane for work, you've probably already noticed construction projects popping up in Spokane County, and it's only March. So imagine how many there are going to be by the time May rolls around. There are more projects than ever this year, due to cheap contractor and material prices.

Several have the potential to delay your commute, especially the project to widen I90 in the Valley and those who work downtown will have to contend with cosntruction on Second Avenue.

A new website is aimed at helping you avoid construction, and congestion in general. Go to www.SpokaneRoadFix.net to check it out. Then tell the folks you know who also drive to Spokane. The more people we can get using alternative routes or alternative modes of transportation, the less road construction will slow us down.

Megaloads Could Be Coming To Kootenai County

Megaloads, megaloads, megaloads. I'd never heard the word until recently, now I hear it every day. And we could be seeing them in person. The oversized loads of oil refinery equipment destined for a project in Alberta, Canada, may be detoured north through Kootenai and Shoshone counties.

The Idaho Transportation Department is reviewing a proposal from Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil to reduce the size of 33 megaloads at the Port of Lewiston so they can be shipped up U.S. Highway 95 to Interstate 90. The Spokesman-Review has the details.

Mainline A: Put The Trains Down The Middle

I attend a lot of public meetings because of my job. And more and more I find it's hard to get people to attend. They all have other stuff to do; running the kids to school functions, grocery shopping, working late, etc. That makes it hard to get public comment on potential future transportation projects, and its SO important to gauge the public's opinion when you're spending that kind of money.

Detroit may have found a way to get people to comment on a light rail line, and it uses Lego people. I wish my budget was big enough to buy Legos AND a video camera.

Letter Writer Recommends CNG

FUEL: Why CNG can save money
Coeur d'Alene Press Letter to the Editor

Ronald Johnson's research (Wikipedia) and conclusions regarding natural gas as a vehicle fuel don't fully tell the story.

With 16 years of experience managing a fleet of city vehicles for a California city, I have been through it all regarding alternative fuel vehicles - propane, electric, CNG (compressed natural gas), etc. CNG vehicles were available in three different options - after market bi-fuel (gasoline/CNG), vehicle manufacturer bi-fuel and dedicated CNG. Overall, CNG is a safer fuel than gasoline and has a higher octane rating (105+). However, CNG has a lower gge (gasoline galion equivalent), which in real world operations, is about 95 percent of a gallon of gasoline.

Downside - bi-fuel vehicle engines can't take advantage of the higher octane equivalent of the CNG because the engines have to also run on the lower gasoline octane. Upside - a dedicated CNG vehicle's engine is manufactured to utilize all the power of CNG such as a higher compression and other engine computer control tweaks.

In regular city day-to-day operations, the actual loss of fuel economy for any CNG powered vehicle was very minor compared to the significant fuel cost savings. The only concern I would have is to ensure there are qualified mechanics or service facilities to maintain the CNG vehicles and there are both slow fill and fast fill CNG refueling available.

My best fleet vehicles were the Ford dedicated CNG F-150, the Honda Civic CNG and the Honda Civic Hybrid and a Tymco CNG street sweeper. These vehicles saved me a ton of money in my fleet fuel budget and over the years as the CNG fleet grew I even had annual reductions in the budget.

TOM BASSLER
Hayden

I found this letter, in response to a CDA Press story last week on the possibility of eventually converting Post Fall's fleet of vehicles to CNG, pretty interesting. I know very little about CNG and hadn't heard much at all about it until recently. Anyone have any additional info on CNG, pro or con, to share?

Train Derails Spilling Grain

If you're taking a train anywhere tonight or tomorrow, you could be rerouted due to a derailment near Bonners Ferry. 25 cars came off the track, spilling a large amount of grain that was being hauled. The Coeur d'Alene Press has the details.

CDA Woman Takes On Trash & Wins

A Coeur d'Alene woman has been named Adopt A Highway volunteer of the year by the Idaho Transportation Department. That's right, she's one woman but she's done as much as any group, picking up over 1,000 pounds of trash along U.S. 95 all by herself. The Coeur d'Alene Press has Katie Burke's story.

Sherman Ave. Work Could Start Next Week

Traffic interruptions on Sherman Avenue in Coeur d'Alene could begin as early as March 28th when work begins a project in advance of this summer’s planned overlay. The project consists of two phases: (I) work on water services and (II) a water main extension. Work begins as soon as asphalt is available for road patching.

The first phase of the project will take approximately one week and take place mostly in the parking strip and sidewalk. During this time, there may be temporary traffic and pedestrian disruptions. Business access will be maintained at all times.

Phase II involves extending the water main from the alley south of Sherman and 5th Street north to the water main in Sherman Avenue. The extension of this water main will involve the temporary closure of Sherman Avenue during that portion of the work on Sherman Avenue. 5th Street will remain closed during the entire phase. Phase II will take approximately two weeks.

Hawaii Gas Hits $4 Per Gallon

Here it comes, those high gas prices we keep hearing about. Hawaii just became the first state to have unleaded gas reach $4 per gallon. The Idaho Press Tribune rounds up some of the gas prices around the nation.

I90 Project Starts March 28

For those of you who commute to Spokane for work or school, a warning that a project to widen I-90 in the Spokane Valley starts on March 28, so you may want to leave a little earlier to get where you're going.

The Interstate 90/Sullivan Road to Barker Road widening project will add a third lane in each direction through this 2.8-mile section of I-90. Crews will remove the existing asphalt pavement then rebuild the highway with a more durable Portland Cement Concrete Pavement (PCCP) surface.

This section of the freeway was built in the 1950's, when traffic volumes were significantly lower. The plan is to continue widening the freeway, in stages, to Liberty Lake and eventually the state line, as funding becomes available.

Besides moving more vehicles, this widening helps to move freight more efficiently. Traffic will flow freely through the project with two lanes in each direction during most of the construction. Crews will build temporary pavement and lanes, so all the freeway traffic can use one side of the existing highway.

Drivers will need to be alert as they travel through this section. The lane width will be reduced from 12 feet to 11 feet and shoulder width will be only two feet. The speed limit will be reduced for the duration of the project.

Construction on the $15 million project should be complete by late fall.

Keep watching here, because all of the agencies that deal with transportation in the area are coordinating on a campaign to keep congestion to a minimum this construction season. I'm hoping to be able to tell you more next week.

Area Highway To Be 'Medal Of Honor Highway'

Medal of Honor recipients from Idaho will soon be honored throughout the state with the naming of highways.

Gov. Butch Otter recently signed into law Senate Bill 1050, which designates Highway 3 as North Idaho's Medal of Honor Highway. The Coeur d'Alene Press has the story on how many area Medal of Honor recipients there are and which highway will be named after them.