It’s hard to think of a more important street to the City of Spokane than North Division.

The street-road-highway hybrid connects downtown with the city’s northern reaches, and links key destinations and employment centers, including universities, parks, malls, and commercial businesses. At more than 50,000 vehicle trips and millions of dollars in freight shipped each day, it’s almost certainly Spokane’s busiest thoroughfare. 

Decades of engineering-first thinking, increasing freight volume and private vehicle traffic (particularly to growing suburban subdivisions in Wandermere and North Indian Trail), and a general aversion to change have allowed its design to escape important questions. 

First, although Division carries Spokane Transit’s second-most popular bus route, with more than one million annual rides, it has only limited transit-centric infrastructure. Similarly high-performing routes in other cities feature rider-friendly amenities, like well-developed stations, real-time arrival information, off-board ticketing, all-door boarding, signal priority, and dedicated bus lanes. Many of these features will be integrated into STA’s east-west City Line. Given the high proportion of vulnerable populations with mobility challenges around Division and the existing high ridership, this is a prime route for transit-oriented investment.

Second, with three to four lanes in each direction along much of the corridor, and discontinuous narrow sidewalks, the street’s existing design endangers pedestrians and bicyclists. Over the last five years, more than 2,000 crashes occurred along Division, including 39 involving severe injuries or fatalities. Of these severe injuries, 64 percent involved pedestrians or bicyclists. The current driving-first layout makes walking along the corridor a risky and uncomfortable proposition, despite the great wealth of destinations and housing nearby. 

Third, the corridor’s frequent transit and role as a connective thread between downtown and other city destinations make it a prime locale for dense, transit-oriented development. But without the zoning support or infrastructure changes to support such projects, developers have instead continued suburban-style shopping center development. The Kennedy Apartments and 940 North buildings near Gonzaga offer a glimpse of the full corridor’s potential for multi-story housing, with ground-floor retail and hidden or structured parking.

Historically, these problems and others have been thought difficult to address as long as Division remains in the national highway system. But other cities have seen some success revitalizing and improving similarly positioned corridors, including parts of Aurora/SR-99 in Seattle and El Camino Real/CA-82 in northern California. And the construction of the U.S. 395 North Spokane Corridor offers an opportunity for us to rethink the role Division plays here in Spokane.

Fortunately, the Spokane Regional Transportation Commission, our regional transportation planning organization, is in the midst of a key study that will determine the future of the corridor. Residents, workers, and businesses can find more information at divisionconnects.org. 

As we look to the future of our city’s most important street, let’s explore ways to make it safer to walk or roll, faster and easier to ride transit, and more attractive for new development. The resulting improvements could reshape not just Division, but our entire city for decades to come.