UI, city officials plan ways to improve safety near rec center

IOWA CITY - The University of Iowa's popular new Campus Recreation and Wellness Center has increased foot traffic at a busy downtown intersection.

University and city officials have discussed their concerns about the traffic and keeping pedestrians safe as they cross the street to use the center.

Iowa City officials have a plan to add a center median on Burlington Street for a two-block span from Capitol Street to the Iowa River bridge, with a budget of about $2 million, of which the UI will contribute about $700,000. But that project has an indefinite timeline due to a UI flood-recovery project to replace some underground utility tunnels in the area, a project that is working its way through the Federal Emergency Management Agency funding process. City officials don't want to begin work to add the median until they have an idea where and when the UI tunnels will be replaced.

“There will be a median in that block, but right now we are waiting on that timeline with FEMA,” Ron Knoche, Iowa City engineer said.

In the meantime, city officials have taken other steps to maintain pedestrian safety near the UI Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, a $70 million facility that opened in August at the southwest corner of Burlington and Madison streets.

Last fall, signs were added to all traffic signal masts at the intersection noting that “turning vehicles must yield to pedestrians.” A city study performed before and after the signs were installed found a 50 percent reduction in the number of pedestrians in the crosswalk who were hurried, blocked or crowded by turning vehicles, Darian Nagle-Gamm, city traffic engineering planner, said.

The city also added a “yield to pedestrians” traffic sign in the middle of the intersection of Madison and Court streets, just southeast of the rec center. North-south flowing traffic on Madison Street was uncontrolled before the addition of the sign, and it was a popular spot for center users to cross the street after parking in a nearby lot, Rod Lehnertz, UI director of campus planning, design and construction, said. The addition of that sign has helped, he said.

“That one is a safer intersection now because of what they've done,” Lehnertz said.

The original plan, UI and city officials said, was to have the short stretch of median on Burlington Street completed when the recreation center opened. But the 2008 flood delayed that.

The eventual addition of the median on Burlington Street likely won't impact traffic flow much, Lehnertz said, but it will “provide some area of refuge at the intersection if somebody doesn't make it all the way across” while walking.

Several UI and city officials said they've heard of only one pedestrian-vehicle accident in that area since the rec center opened, a minor collision that involved a pedestrian crossing outside of the crosswalk, they said. Collision data for specific intersections is compiled by the Iowa Department of Transportation, and city officials haven't received 2010 numbers yet.

City traffic counts taken in October show during peak afternoon hours, 2,449 vehicles and 745 pedestrians go through the Burlington and Madison intersection. During peak morning hours, it was 1,849 vehicles and 279 pedestrians.

The UI Campus Recreation and Wellness Center averages about 4,000 to 6,000 users each day, with 4 to 7 p.m. being the peak usage time, UI Recreational Services Director Harry Ostrander said.