GARDEN CITY, Idaho — Crossing Chinden Boulevard at 43rd Street in Garden City can feel difficult for pedestrians, especially families and children who live and attend school nearby. Ada County Highway District officials say a new crossing signal is expected to improve safety at the busy intersection later this year.

The intersection sits along a heavily traveled stretch of Chinden Boulevard near homes, schools and the Boys and Girls Club, with children and cyclists frequently crossing between neighborhoods.

ACHD says the location has been identified as a priority due to the number of people who rely on the corridor each day.

WATCH: A risky Chinden crossing is finally getting a safety upgrade

Safety upgrade planned for busy Chinden crossing in Garden City

“We’ve done quite a bit of outreach to the community and got their feedback. And people are really excited about seeing this be constructed,” said Tawnya Converse, a senior project manager with ACHD.

When Idaho News 6 first reported on the proposed improvements in 2024, Paul Johnson – a teacher at Future Public School and a father who bikes with his children around Garden City – said the need for a safer crossing was clear.

RELATED | Have concerns about the proposed Chinden crossing? So does Garden City Police

“There are so many kids who come to this section of Garden City. There are two schools here, there’s the Boys and Girls Club and there are so many kids that live adjacent to Chinden,” Johnson said.

ACHD officials say concerns raised by families and community members helped push the project forward.

Construction is expected to begin later this spring on a pedestrian hybrid beacon, or PHB – a type of signal designed to stop traffic and provide a protected crossing for pedestrians and cyclists.

“We’re going to be putting in a pedestrian hybrid beacon, which is a PHB, which will allow safe travel for our pedestrians and bicyclists across this busy intersection,” Converse said.

ACHD says construction is expected to start at the end of March and wrap up around July. The roadway will remain open during construction, though drivers should expect lane restrictions and possible delays.

Idaho surveys show public cares about water

Published 8:30 am Tuesday, February 10, 2026

The water-focused survey that Bob Mahler began mailing to about 3,000 randomly selected Idaho residents every four to five years starting in 1988 generated an approximately 50% response rate, around twice what was expected.

“To me that means the public really cares about water,” the University of Idaho professor of soil and water systems said.

Survey respondents have long valued water quality and recently pay closer attention to how much is available year to year. Respondents consistently identified soil and water as the state’s most important natural resources.

Mahler kept mailing the survey through its most recent iteration in 2023.

“We stayed with it because we wanted to compare year to year,” he said.

And the method — copied by officials in 42 states and U.S. territories, according to UI — produced a reliable cross-section of respondents and a 2-3% margin of error.

Future surveys

Mahler, who is nearing retirement, expects the next version to be conducted online due to factors such as cost and time, and to include some updated questions.

“We are not going back to mail simply because it’s harder to get addresses nowadays,” he said.

Surveyors in moving the longtime project online would have to take into account desired sample size and audience composition given that an Internet-based survey could generate a much lower response rate and participation weighted toward technology savvy people, Mahler said.

Findings

The state’s population more than doubled since he started the survey. And the population mix changed to include more people who are from elsewhere and “bring perspectives from their states of origin,” he said.

Agriculture “was very important in ’88,” Mahler said. “It is still important to the audience, but not as important because a lot of people that have moved into the state are not very familiar with it and they don’t depend on ag for their jobs or the community they live in.”

Irrigated agriculture is an important cultural aspect of the state according to more than 63% of respondents in 2003, down from 93% in 1988. In-migration by people who lack an ag heritage, and rapid urbanization, are primary factors, he said.

Other findings include that while the typical resident dislikes governmental regulation, he or she approves of voluntary actions that can help improve water quality, including university extension education. Residents who reported taking voluntary steps to improve water quality increased from 26% in 1988 to 80% in 2023. Those who reported taking steps to improve water quantity increased from 16% to 73%.

Between 1988 and 2007, more than 90% of participants considered their drinking water to be safe, compared to about 82% in 2023. Factors in the decline likely include increased awareness of problems such as the Flint, Mich., water crisis, marketing of in-home water filtration systems, and population growth, Mahler said.

Well over 80% of respondents in 2023 said population growth harms water resources, up from over half in 2007 and over 20% in 1988. Growth in the Boise-Meridian area accelerated around 2010, “so there is more concern about population and its impact on our water resources,” he said.

Value

Mahler, who has written about the findings, would like UI Extension to continue surveying the public about water perceptions, he said in a news release.

“Our legislators are interested in anything that improves the quality of water in the state,” he said. “They’re not interested in regulating things more to do that, but they’re interested in programs that give people the ability to take voluntary actions to improve and protect our water resources.”

Name: Robert (Bob) Mahler

Title: University of Idaho professor of soil, water and environmental sciences

Education: B.S. (1976) and M.S. (1978), soils, Washington State University; Ph.D., (1978), soil microbiology, North Carolina State University

Home: Boise

Family: Daughter Claudia teaches math and statistics at the University of Calgary

Hobbies: Hiking, travel