Some more pictures and diagrams for Broadway Avenue in Missoula:

Looking West on Broadway near the Scott St. Signal, as the road appears today (November, 2009).  This section used to be a 4-lane road with no bike lanes.

There is much room to add in landscaping, wider bike lanes, enhanced turn pockets and wider sidewalks.

Enhancing the 3-Lane Broadway would bring better scale and definition to the road.

This is a possible 4-Lane section.  This is not recommended, as a 3-Lane can carry future traffic but with better safety and accessibility than a 4-Lane.

An enhanced 3-Lane Broadway at the intersection with Orange Ave.

This 4-Lane future option is not recommended due to projected severe injury crashes associated with signals and multi-lane arterials.

A rendition of how the current intersection of the 3-Lane Broadway and Orange could be enhanced to become more human-scale.

Improving the Broadway and Front St. intersection.  This would lower speeds for turning vehicles, making it safer for all modes of transportation, especially walkers and cyclists.

This 4-Lane option for Broadway and Front is not recommended due to safety, costs, and higher speed.

Broadway and Burton St. today (November, 2009, as a 3-lane).

This is a rendition of how the current 3-Lane Broadway and Burton St. intersection could be enhanced with both landscaping and land use changes.

Enhancing the intersection of 3-Lane Broadway and Burton St.

Not recommended is a 4-Lane Broadway and Burton St. Intersection as shown above.  The current 3-Lane roadway has proven to be much safer than the old 4-Lane.  One debate happening in Missoula right now it whether or not a 4-Lane Broadway can be designed to be safer than the old 4-Lane.  With 4 lanes, drivers tend to speed, make unsafe lane changes, and not see other road users as there are many blind spots that occur with 4 lanes of motor vehicle traffic.

Broadway St. (today), approaching Russell St., is not very appealing, lacks bike lanes and is generally very hard to cross safely as a pedestrian.

At a minimum, Broadway (approaching Russell St.) can gain landscaping and bike lanes, as pictured above.  One very possible design option is to create a 3-Lane Broadway for the entire length of the road- from Van Buren to the air port.  A 3-Lane Broadway in total would take away all the merges of lanes that drivers have complained about.  The section of Broadway west of Russell is the higher speed section that could greatly benefit from conversion to a well-designed and landscaped 3-Lane.  As development occurs in this area, there will be more cyclists and pedestrians using the road, which will increase the need for building sustainable transportation.

The pictures and diagrams on this page came mostly from the W. Broadway Vision Plan.

Back to Broadway page