Rationalizing a weird intersection

Park Court at 1st Avenue SE

Six years ago, while observing how people accessed Redmond Park in southeast Cedar Rapids, I was struck by how many people from the surrounding neighborhood walked through the park and then up Park Court two blocks to the 1st Avenue Hy-Vee Food and Drug Store. This probably is no news to anyone who lives in the Wellington Heights neighborhood, but it was news to me.

Many people, having walked up Park Court to 1st Avenue, then walk an additional half-block to 16th Street, in order to cross at a traffic light. Many others do not, taking their chances with 1st Avenue traffic. These daredevils ignore the sign telling them to walk over to the crosswalk, persisting as they do in their belief that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. And it's not like those who cross at the light do so without a care in the world, as there is always turning traffic with which to negotiate the space.

Looking at the aerial map from which the above picture was taken leads me to this modest proposal: Reroute 16th Street NE so it squares up with Park Court SE. This will not only ease the pedestrian crossing of 1st Avenue, it will allow what should have been done when the Hy-Vee was rebuilt in 2000-2001 i.e. put the store entrance by the sidewalk so pedestrians don't have to battle across the parking lot, which they currently must do no matter where they're coming from. (The back of Hy-Vee is built up to A Avenue NE, but there is no entrance to that end of the store.)

This will involve yawmping off a fair slice of Hy-Vee's parking lot, which they should allow for a reasonable price because [a] the store was rebuilt with a $1 million grant from the city, and [b] the parking lot would still be very large. You could have more parking across the new street, but I would argue there's room for additional commercial development. The new lot (outlined in blue above) would be roughly comparable to the one across 16th Street that currently holds Boost Mobile.

The new alignment would probably route more traffic onto Park Court as an alternative to 16th Street SE. While I'm on my soapbox, I'll argue for a three-way stop at Park Court and 3rd Avenue SE, because there aren't enough stops on 3rd (currently none between 10th and 19th Streets).

This proposal solves a pedestrian crossing problem, and eases walking and biking access to a popular local grocery, with little to no inconvenience to motor vehicle traffic.