Widen roads first, put bicyclists & pedestrians second, Legislature tells ACHD and cities

Max Wyatt was in kindergarten when the van hit him.

He was riding his bike home from school on Kootenai Street on the Boise Bench with his father in 2015. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital with tubes coming out of his nose.

The van had paused at a four-way stop, then gone forward while Wyatt was still in the intersection. It swept the 5-year-old under the vehicle and dragged him several yards before rolling to a stop, said his mother, Courtney Madigan. The crash left him with second- and third-degree burns across his body from the road rash. Airlifted to Salt Lake City, he spent the next 2½ months in the hospital and underwent 13 surgeries, leaving his body covered in skin grafts. According to Madigan, every physician the family saw said he shouldn’t have survived.

The two-lane Kootenai Street, Madigan said, didn’t have any sidewalks, and the bike lanes were barely wider than bicycle handlebars. It took eight years before the Ada County Highway District added sidewalks and widened the bike lane. ACHD accomplished that by narrowing a lane of travel and removing parking on one side of the street.

Those improvements and safety measures, Madigan said, would be impossible if Gov. Brad Little signs two bills that the Senate and House voted to approve.

The bills, sponsored by Sen. Mark Harris, R-Soda Springs, and Rep. Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, would force highway districts across the state to prioritize vehicle traffic and bar them from narrowing streets to less than 50 feet wide.

The penalty for violating these statutes? Any elected official, officer or person who aids in violating them could be found guilty of a misdemeanor, a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to 90 days in prison.

ACHD Commissioner Kent Goldthorpe took to social media after the Senate vote, saying he would be first in line for the charges.

“Even the now hypocrites who always tout their supposed belief in local government, voted for it,” said Goldthorpe, who represents ACHD’s District 4, which includes Meridian south of Interstate 84, Kuna and unincorporated Ada County. “They voted to make the construction of sidewalks for your kids to get safely to school, A CRIME.”

Harris and Palmer, the chair of the House Transportation and Defense Committee, said the bills wouldn’t prevent ACHD, other highway districts or city street departments from making pedestrian or bicycle improvements – just that those could not be the primary focus of roadway projects.

However, in response to a question from Sen. Carrie Semmelroth, D-Boise, Harris said he didn’t think a project such as the one on Kootenai after Wyatt’s crash could be done under the bills.

“Roads are for cars,” Harris said on the Senate floor. “Wide, straight roads are safe because they’re less prone to be crowded. And for those worried about speed, that’s why we have speed limits … Wide roads are a necessity. They need to be built to move traffic efficiently.”

Palmer said during a House committee hearing that narrowing roads creates traffic jams and that some recent pedestrian and bike upgrades have made things more hazardous.

“Narrowing up the streets is dangerous,” he said.

The bills restrict the use of state highway funds, with Senate Bill 1144 amending and adding a new section to Idaho code that building, widening or straightening new highways must be for the primary benefit of motor vehicles and that they must not be less than 50 feet wide. According to the bill, “existing or new pedestrian and bicycle facilities may only be improved as a secondary or collateral benefit to any highway project or as necessary to improve the safety of pedestrian and bicycle facilities near schools, parks or other designated pedestrian or bicycle areas.”

According to existing Idaho code, “highways” means “roads, streets, alleys and bridges laid out or established for the public or dedicated or abandoned to the public.”

The companion bill, Senate Bill 1140, defines the terms, saying that “primary benefit of motor vehicles” means that road projects must be designed and constructed to reduce congestion, travel delays, engine idle time, unproductive fuel consumption, expanding travel lanes, adding turn lanes and “improving intersection efficiency.”

The bill also increases the penalty for violating the statutes from $500 to $1,000 and adds the terms “elected official or officer” to those who could face penalties.

Neither Palmer nor Harris immediately responded to calls Thursday requesting clarification about which pedestrian/bike projects or road narrowings have made things more hazardous.

Devin McComas, the executive director of Boise Bicycle Project, said the language in the bills is vague, and that having highway districts read between the lines on vague language could have a “chilling” effect on safety – especially if highway commissioners could face imprisonment for misreading it.

“The legislation is pretty flawed,” McComas said by phone. “I would be deeply skeptical about how it would affect pedestrian safety improvements.”

Learning from Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle

Chris Danley, chair of Boise’s Planning and Zoning Commission and principal of Boise’s Vitruvian Planning, said that while every road project is different, there is nothing unsafe about narrowing roads.

Narrowing roads could at times cause a little congestion, such as during rush hour, but “that doesn’t mean it’s unsafe,” Danley said by phone. “In fact, it’s the opposite.”

In some cases, he said, road narrowing could also improve traffic flow. For instance, if a city has a four-lane road, drivers will often block the flow of traffic by pausing in the left driving lane to await a chance to turn left – a common problem on busy commuter roads such as State Street. By turning such a street into a three-lane road, with the center lane a dedicated turn lane, traffic can continue to flow, he said.

Widening a road, Danley said, can create more traffic as people change their behavior. For instance, once a highway district widens a road, it may initially make driving quicker or easier, persuading more people to drive and ultimately adding back the congestion.

The benefit of widening a road is fleeting, he said, and in some places it can take as little as a couple of days before congestion reappears.

“Some people think traffic works like water in a pipe,” Danley said. “That’s not true. It’s more like gas in a pipe … When we have more space, we take up more space.”

If widening a road solved all traffic problems, Danley said, cities like Houston, Los Angeles or Seattle that have carried out large-scale widening would have no traffic jams.

“In many of these places, congestion is actually worse,” he said. “It’s kind of like asking someone to eat better and more nutritious, then placing a slice of cake in front of them.”

Would transportation bills affect Idaho business?

Developers also challenged the bills, saying they could have wide-ranging economic impacts.

“As a developer here in Idaho who’s invested tens of millions of dollars, I think there’s a serious flaw in the way this is written,” said Matt Neilsen, director of development with Eugene, Oregon, developer deChase Miksis, which has a Boise office. Neilsen said he spoke as an individual, not for deChase Miksis, during the House committee hearing.

Neilsen said the bills could make land values around developments less attractive and could make it harder to bring in investment from out-of-state and local groups.

“There is a concerted effort to deploy capital in the state of Idaho,” he said, “and safe pedestrian, bike and road facilities are paramount to the success of those projects.”

Neilsen said an example of the damage the bills could cause could be found in Caldwell. Elected officials and business owners there have supported turning part of 7th Avenue by Indian Creek Plaza into something akin to Boise’s popular 8th Street pedestrian and bike corridor. That plan would require narrowing the street, he said.

“My colleagues and I have invested tens of millions of dollars in the area, in part because of the city’s commitment to prioritizing families, safety and success in support of small businesses,” Neilsen said. “This bill would kill that project.”

Scott Schoenherr, a developer with Boise’s Rafanelli and Nahas whose downtown properties include Boise Plaza and the 11th and Idaho building, said he couldn’t understand the reasons behind the bill. Schoenherr is on the board of directors of the Mountain States Policy Center, a conservative think tank, but said he spoke for himself.

“Should we prioritize cars? Absolutely,” Schoenherr said. “I drive a car every day. Most of us drive cars. But there are instances where we don’t. And why would we take that ability away from the municipalities?”

Schoenherr said one of the best things in downtown Boise is 8th Street, which doesn’t prioritize car traffic. The bills, he said, would scrap such initiatives.

“Everything shows narrower streets do not cause congestion,” Schoenherr said. “Narrower streets are safer streets for cars, bikes and pedestrians. Do they belong everywhere? No. Are there some streets we’ve narrowed that we shouldn’t have? Yes, absolutely … but to say that you can’t narrow a street in the whole state, one of the fastest-growing states in the country, I don’t understand why we would do that.”

Would the bills affect local control over Idaho roads?

Much of the criticism for the bills came down to concerns that they could impede local control.

“The last federal election demonstrated strong national and state public support for deregulation and smaller government,” Neilsen said. “This goes against that desire.”

Danley, the Boise Planning and Zoning Commission chair, said the bills would mostly affect development in urban areas in the Treasure Valley but could hamstring cities across the state.

“I’ve worked with cities all over the state of Idaho, and the fact of the matter is that this bill undermines local decision making completely,” he said. “It strips it away.”

McComas, the executive director of the Boise Bicycle Project, said the state is trying to accommodate five years of growth and at some point would have to retrofit its infrastructure to adapt to that growth.

“It cuts a community off at the knees if they can’t dictate their own growth,” McComas said. “That lack of control would make some areas of Idaho less livable.”

Harris said highway districts could still decide which projects they undertake and where.

“But remember, highway districts are a creature of the Legislature,” Harris said. “The Legislature is what tells them what to do.”

Asked if the bills would impede local control, Harris said, “to be candid, honestly, maybe. With the state funds, yeah.”

Palmer dismissed the concerns of the developers, saying they were more interested in making money than in public safety.

“This bill is 99% perfect,” Palmer said. “That makes me really proud, because I don’t think I’ve done any bills in the 17 years I’ve been here that have been 99% perfect.”

Senate Bill 1140 passed the Senate Monday 28-6 with Sen. Phil Hart, R-Kellogg, the lone Republican to join five Democrats who opposed the bill. Senate Bill 1144 passed 26-7 with Sen. Treg Bernt, R-Meridian, joining Hart in opposition.

The House passed Senate Bill 1140 Thursday 59-9 with only Democrats in opposition. The House sent the bill back to the Senate with amendments. Senate Bill 1144 passed 58-10 with Rep. Rick Cheatum, R-Pocatello, the only Republican to vote against it.

Roads take center stage in ACHD, Legislature battle

The bills come after the Boise area saw an “alarming increase” in pedestrian deaths in 2023, followed by similarly high tallies in 2024. At one intersection in Boise alone, five pedestrians and cyclists were killed in 2023.

ACHD vowed to fix that intersection at 11th and State Street, next to the downtown Boise YMCA, and address other unsafe areas. The district added more signals and re-made plans for a stretch of State Street between 8th and 14th streets that would decrease the number of lanes from four to three, with a turn lane in the middle.

Ada County Assessor Rebecca Arnold, a former ACHD commissioner who has historically championed car-centric design, told the Statesman that lawmakers encouraged her to reclaim her seat on the board in 2024 after she’d lost to Alexis Pickering in 2020 by four votes.

Pickering, who favors increasing bike and pedestrian infrastructure, retained her seat in 2024 and widened her margin of victory by nearly 4,500 votes, according to Ada County election data. Pickering represents District 2, which covers West Boise, most of Garden City and a chunk of the Bench south of Interstate 184.

Arnold told the Statesman during the election that lawmakers in both parties were upset with how ACHD was spending money and how it had redesigned projects such as the State Street project. That project, she said, was a motivating force behind her campaign.

“There’s a lot of frustrations out there,” Arnold said then. “Traffic congestion has gotten worse instead of better.”

For Madigan, the new bills are frustrating, too. Narrowing the road “was how they could make the street safer within the existing footprint,” she said. “The way I read those laws is it’s going to make it much harder for our highway districts to implement bicycle and pedestrian improvements.”

According to Madigan, the bills could put others at risk, including those who can’t drive such as children, seniors, those with disabilities, visual impairments or who use wheelchairs.

“The roads should be designed for everybody, not just cars,” she said. “It just feels like an attack on people who don’t have the privilege of driving a car every day … It feels like an attack on vulnerable road users.”

Despite the crash, it didn’t take Wyatt long to get back on a bike. While he was still in the burn unit at the hospital with casts on his legs, he met another kid with burns named Mason, and they would whip around the emergency-care area on tricycles, he said. He wasn’t nervous hopping back on a bike, even if his parents had concerns at first.

“It feels like freedom,” he said.