MORGANTOWN – You don’t need to be a traffic engineer to see the problem – a primary artery into and out of downtown Morgantown cuts through the most heavily traversed pedestrian crossing in the heart of WVU’s main downtown campus.
The results are as expected – traffic on the periphery of the city’s central business district backs up in both directions along University Avenue at various points throughout each day as university foot traffic filters through idling vehicles.
As potentially perilous for pedestrians as it is frustrating for drivers, Grumbein’s Island has been studied, discussed and debated for decades, but there’s never been as much unified momentum pushing for significant changes than there is right now.
It’s a priority of new WVU President Michael Benson – so much so that he included it in his first State of the University address, delivered Monday.
“We’re trying hard. As I come out of Stewart Hall every day and I watch students try to navigate University [Avenue], it needs to be closed. It needs to be made into a pedestrian mall and traffic needs to be diverted,” Benson said. “I’ve been told that we’ve been trying this for 30 years. I don’t care. We are going to do it. And we need the support of our county and our city.”
Following his remarks, Benson addressed the matter further, noting support in Charleston is also required.
“It’s a state road. So we understand that we have to work with all the folks at the Department of Highways, but we started with our local delegation. We met with our city council, with our city manager. I’ve talked to the mayor about it. I’ve talked to our county commission,” Benson said. “It’s going to take a lot of work in terms of figuring out where traffic might go, but think about how that would change the epicenter of our campus. Arguably, that quad right there between the Mountainlair and Woodburn Circle is the most heavily trafficked area probably anywhere on campus. So, why we have a line of cars going each direction at the worst possible times of day in between classes is a problem that’s got to be fixed, not only for safety, but also just for the ease of passage.”
Some of the work Benson alluded to has already been accomplished.
In May, the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization rolled out the recommendations resulting from a two-year, $500,000 microsimulation study of the downtown and surrounding areas.
Among those recommendations is the closure of University Avenue between its intersection with Stewart Street and Campus Drive on one end and Willey Street on the other.
The plan, as modeled in the study, would reroute the bottom of Falling Run Road through the parking lot at its intersection with University Avenue to connect directly to the Campus Drive/Stewart Street intersection.
On the other end, a portion of the parking lot next to the West Virginia Junior College would be taken in order to design a two-way connection between Willey Street and Beechurst Avenue.
The DOH did not respond to questions about the process required to initiate these traffic changes in time for this report.
