BOISE, Idaho — For those who live on the Boise Bench, construction, either housing or road, has become a way of life. In a growing city like Boise, it's not surprising. But this morning there was a new phase of a year's long project that got the attention of drivers, one of them being Shawn Kimmell, who took the photo used for this story.
"Hey ACHD what is this latest abomination on our city streets? Did someone mis-read the plans? Two sets of these have been installed half a block apart on Kootenai, just East of Orchard," wrote Kimmel. "How are two cars going opposite directions supposed to get through this at the same time?"
Ada County Highway District (ACHD) told KTVB this is part of a $2.3 million project that goes back to 2017, when neighbors complained about the number of cars and the speeding on Kootenai, and they wanted something done about it.
Most people didn't want speed bumps because it would make it more difficult for emergency vehicles. So they went with chicanes, which coincidentally also means trickery.
A chicane is a curve in a road that is created by design instead of geography. It comes from the French word chicane, that means to quibble or create difficulties. A chicane used for speed control is traditionally a series of curbs that are placed alternatively on the street to make one car go through an area at a time.
ACHD did a traffic study on Kootenai back in 2015, to see how many cars use it and how fast they go on it. With a radar gun, they found the average speed on Kootenai was 27 miles an hour, two over the speed limit.
Talk about some chicanery.
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