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Cleveland Street and Redmond Way were converted to a one-way couplet in
April 1986. The intent of the change was to reduce congestion on
Redmond Way by including Cleveland Street into the main traffic system.
In 2002, the Downtown Transportation Master Plan (DTMP) was established. As
part of that process, it was agreed that the one-way couplet should be
converted back to two-way operation. This decision was based on
the consideration that two-way streets would make the downtown more
destination-oriented and easier to navigate.
In addition to reconverting the couplet, a 5-lane
Bear Creek Parkway was under
consideration to divert many of what were assumed to be "pass-through"
trips off of Redmond Way and Cleveland Street. In this plan,
Redmond Way would continue to carry significant vehicle volumes, but
also be pedestrian-supportive. Cleveland Street would be designed
to become downtown Redmond's traditional "Main Street."
Following the DTMP, Redmond began developing a Citywide
Transportation
Master Plan (TMP). As part of that process, a license plate
matching study was done to determine the actual percentage of
pass-through trips in the area. Results of the study found that
only 37% of the trips in the downtown during PM peak are pass-through,
which was much lower than the 50% that was previously assumed.
Based in part on this data, a 5-lane Bear Creek Parkway no longer seemed
necessary and the cross-section was revisited and reduced to one through
lane in each direction with turn lanes. With a major emphasis of
the TMP to provide better connections in the downtown grid, extensions
of 161 Avenue NE and 159 Avenue NE were added to existing proposed
connections of 160 Avenue NE, Bear Creek Parkway, 164 Avenue NE and 168
Avenue NE. These connections are intended to do many of the same
things as the couplet conversion by making downtown trips more direct
and intuitive.
The current street grid planned in the DTMP and the TMP will be
evaluated to ensure that it will be able to support the planned growth
in the downtown. The future of the couplet will be written over
the next year as the Downtown East/West Corridor Study progresses.
This page was last reviewed on October 16, 2008.
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