A recently completed audit of three Government Street intersections manifested ideas of Water Street serving as nothing more than a moat for bicyclists and pedestrians at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Mobile City Council Tuesday.

Wendy Allen from Smart Coast – an organization serving to promote the creation of “complete streets,” which accommodate and foster harmony amongst bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists – accompanied officials from the National Center for Bicycling and Walking to explain results from their sample study. It was the NCB&W that performed the intersection audit.

For their audit NCB&W officials analyzed Government Street at three separate locations specifically chosen for not only their high traffic, but also the subsequently high need for amenities that accompany clusters of people.

The intersection of Government and Broad Streets was chosen because of the proximity to downtown Mobile’s only grocery store, according to Mark Plotz, program manager for the NCB&W. The intersection of Government and Joachim Streets was chosen because of its proximity to the courthouse and hotels. And, the intersection of Government and Water Streets was chosen for its location at the center of downtown hotels, the Gulf Coast Exploreum, the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center and other future attractions like the Maritime Museum.

Each intersection poses different challenges, according to Plotz.

At the intersection of Government and Broad Streets bus stops sans wheelchair pads are in breach of the guidelines set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act and walking signals don’t provide enough time for pedestrians to traverse the roadway. At Government and Joachim Streets, the environment seems to encourage jay walking, Plotz noted. And, at Government and Water Streets, the aforementioned “moat,” pedestrian crossing could be made easier by during off-peak hours, altering outside lanes to allow for on-street parking, Plotz said.

Solutions, according to the “Complete Streets” initiative, would come in the form of installing wider medians on main avenues to allow pedestrians a mid-way stopping point when crossing wide roads, increasing sidewalk width for those pedestrian and bicyclists once they’ve crossed the street and even making room on the side of streets for a bicycle lane in some cases.

The city of Mobile has already begun working on one shortfall of the downtown area noted in the audit, according to Bill Metzger, of the city’s traffic engineering department.

“There’s a lot of pedestrian signal confusion in this city,” Metzger said before noting the nearing arrival of new digital signals featuring more user-friendly interfaces.

When a pedestrian signal says walk, according to Metzger, that means a pedestrian should begin walking. But when the signal begins flashing “Don’t Walk,” that really means the pedestrian should keep going if they’ve already begun crossing, he added.

“A lot of the public is totally confused,” Metzger said. Only when the “Don’t Walk” message halts flashing, should a person stay on the sidewalk, he concluded.

The timing of the flashing “Don’t Walk” signal in the current system is based upon a calculation of a person covering three-and-a-half feet per second crossing a roadway. The new system will feature a digital numerical countdown in lieu of the unpopular flashing “Don’t Walk” signage, but essentially operate the same otherwise.

City Councilwoman Gina Gregory noted the affordability of some aspects of the “Complete Street” movement would be a problem in the current economy. But as the end of Mardi Gras nears, she noted, she would be submitting the concept to the city’s urban planning division for consideration.

Gregory’s interest came much to the liking of Plotz’s superior, NCB&W Executive Director Sharon Z. Roerty, who, after a walk down Government Street during her pedestrian audit, noted many businesses had chosen to avoid using any doors that face the street as an entryway, instead electing to use side entrances.

And where Roerty saw a problem, she quickly found a solution. If the whole “Complete Streets” concept is adopted, Roerty said, business would be much more likely to use their front doors, thus creating not only a better environment for pedestrians and bicyclists, but also for business owners.

“When you do things right, business will flourish,” she said. “Government Street has good bones.”

Besides the improvements that would help pedestrians, bicyclists and businesses, the pedestrian audit and “Complete Street” concept could also help land what Smart Coast’s Wendy Allen would call, “minds you want to attract to the city.”

At one point during her analysis, Allen said she spoke with a med school recruiter at the University of South Alabama who said prospective students, like clockwork, were consistently concerned about biking from their living space to classes or the hospital. The recruiter said the “Complete Street” concept, if it comes to fruition, would be a valuable recruiting tool.

Gregory, in addition to passing the audit and previously submitted “Smart Coast” plans to the city’s urban planning department, said she thought accommodating simple safety-enhancing improvements like brightly painted pedestrian lanes would be feasible.