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Show i Toast and Traffic Jam ' : " Commissioners view traffic first hand "The problem with these plans is that they are at least five years away," he said. "The commission is interested in making the right decision, but I think there is a great deal of resentment in the commission to the attitude of the University. I feel I could convince the city to rescind its actions if the University showed some affirmative actions in trying to solve the traffic problems. Penrose Drive deserves 1500 cars a day and Federal Way deserves 1500 cars a day and the rest should go to First South. If the University wants any more access then it should go to the state," Commissioner Harm-sen Harm-sen said. if by SUSAN MITCHELL j Chronicle Staff J, Seven a.m. and most of the ' residents of Federal Way are just J beginning to stir, but on the street outside their homes the traffic has already begun. Since Penrose Drive ; has been closed the amount of traffic has doubled on Federal - Way and from seven till nine in the morning the cars roar by. ; The residents on Federal Way f have complained to the com- mission about the traffic several . times, but they were beginning to 'I think their complaints were being ignored. "Toast and Traffic Jam," : given by Frances Farley and Mrs Diane Zoty, Monday morning showed the commissioners first-, first-, , hand how bad the traffic really is. ; The commissioners, city and ; University traffic engineers, - residents of Federal Way and the downtown news media gathered m the house and on the front lawn f the Farley's residence as the pall of carbon monoxide from the continuous flow of cars collected over the street. "We're going to have to do something about this problem. Perhaps on an expedient basis. The People here have a legitimate and valid complaint," said Commissioner Commis-sioner Jennings Philips Jr. "Exactly Standing around drinking coffee and eating sweet rolls, the commissioners com-missioners listened to the traffic and the complaints ot the residents. The commissioners' commments were limited to saying something had to be done about the Federal Way problem and that it was unfair for them to have so much traffic. The commission had an executive meeting Monday afternoon. af-ternoon. According to Streets Commissioner Stephen M. Harm-sen Harm-sen the commissioners agreed that Federal Way is being unduly subjected to an increase in traffic. "'Some restriction involving Federal Way will be imminently involved. in-volved. The situation will remain static for the next four weeks until . the shock wears off and the. traffic patterns are established. Then the city will take the facts from the studies and decide on the next step; what to do with Federal Way. The solutions can range anywhere from leaving it open to closing it." He didn't say whether Penrose would be reopened. Commissioner Harmsen believes three possible solutions to the problem involve the extension of First South to the Medical Center through the golf course. Another is the extension of First South behind the Kennecott building and running it into North Campus Drrive. This would necessitate the removal of two more fraternity houses. The third solution according ac-cording to Commissioner Harmsen would be to build a short portion of Bonneville Drive from Eleventh Avenue Av-enue down to the University. what will be done, I don't know." One of his suggestions was that more people be forced to use First South street by closing Federal Way and Virginia Street. It was only a suggestion, but the residents of the two streets are becoming angry an-gry enough to support the proposal. propo-sal. "My baby can't sleep in the morning and there's an elderly lady down the street who is ill and has to take sleeping pills in the morning to get some rest," said Mrs. Lynne Athay, who lives at 1414 Federal Way. "It's almost impossible to get out of your driveway." Mrs. Lucy Taylor lives in the avenues and works at the University.. She rarely used Penrose Drive to get to the campus, but the closing of it has increased traffic along the other access ac-cess roads has upset her. "It takes me an hour to calm down, after I get to work, because I'm so mad. Although I rarely used Penrose, it is convenient. I know my sons used it to get to the University quite often," she said. "I have a slight feeling of injustice in-justice when I drive over in the Penrose area. It's awfully pleasant there now with no traffic, quite a contrast from Federal Way," said Mrs. Allen E. Lindsay. A professor in the Department of Language at the University, Mrs. Lindsay has walked to school for the past 12 years. "It used to take me 12 minutes min-utes to walk up to Orson Spencer Hall from my house (1374 East South Temple), now it takes me 10 minutes just to cross the street in front of my house." The city traffic engineer Doug Ross believes a long range solution should be found. The planning should involve the University, city and state. "Part of the solution is in the University trying to discourage traffic rather than encouraging it by trying to build parking spaces for every car on the campus. There will have to be some short range solution though. Closing Penrose is probably something that had to be done to show people the problem, to show them how it would foul things up." O ..... ,f - - - V 'tf' -0"m C mJir - 1 1 W. j. uc ....... . (t r, Tirf -i-'"t Hi tli Tf -m Vr Vlr I -Tir i In wUHrnH & JtiirB 1 'jMrtai mtti;. n tr, .:?r .w t&iawmAKt-i City Commissioners met with Federal Way residents at "Toast and Traffic Jam"to resolve Penrose-Federal Way traffic problems Monday. |