Mount Rushmore Road will never be the prettiest drive in Rapid City. Debra Jensen knows that.

But she and other business owners in the Mount Rushmore Road Group hope the frenetic thoroughfare - which carries traffic briskly past Jensen's front door at Black Hills Bagels - can one day be a safer, saner, more attractive route through the heart of the city.

"We're trying to bring some identity to that corridor," Jensen said Sunday. "We want it to be a more beautiful place."

The wishes and work of the Mount Rushmore Road Group will take a public turn this week when the Rapid City Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) has a meeting to discuss the future of Mount Rushmore Road from Omaha Street to Cathedral Drive. MPO officials will outline the goals of the Mount Rushmore Road Corridor Study and ask for public comments on what should be done with the route in the future.

The MPO, which includes representatives from Rapid City, Box Elder, Pennington County, the school districts and Ellsworth Air Force Base, is responsible for transportation planning within the Rapid City urban area. It is beginning work with the state Department of Transportation on plans to reconstruct Mount Rushmore Road in a way that will do more than just replace the aging infrastructure.

Rapid City planning coordinator Monica Heller said it will be five to 10 years before the state has funding available for the Mount Rushmore Road reconstruction work. The study will help plan the overall restoration of the corridor long before the construction crews begin their work, she said.

"We're trying to be a little proactive and say, 'What is the community's vision for this corridor?'" Heller said. "We want it to be a sort of destination, and have people drive it for its own right, not just passing through."

Right now, it's anything but a destination. Homely in appearance and hectic in pace, Mount Rushmore Road is an urbanized stretch Highway 16 that runs for almost two miles between the downtown area and base of the south hill, where the popular tourist route begins its climb into the hills.

Along the way, it curves past Jensen's place, passes a dozen or so residential houses left among the clusters of roadside businesses and hurries past Wilson Park - a rare bit of green space in the blur of lights and signs and commerce.

The right-of-way ranges from 95 feet to 66 feet wide, from a barely comfortable six traffic lanes downtown to the narrow, waterless sluice of speed and sound between St. Patrick Street and Highland Park Drive. On most of its route it is unfriendly to motorists, dangerous to cyclists and baffling to pedestrians.

Jensen hopes to see those roadway demerits improved with a well-planned reconstruction.

"The whole idea is to make it not only friendly to businesses and residents and tourists but to make it a pedestrian-friendly place, which is going to be quite a challenge," she said. "We want people to be able to ride bikes and basically not risk their lives when they try to cross the street."

Mount Rushmore Road continues to be among the busiest streets in Rapid City. That hasn't changed since the opening of the bypass from Exit 61 on Interstate 90 to Catron Boulevard and Highway 16 south, Heller said.

"The connector hasn't been open that long. And Exit 61 has been under construction and will be next year," she said. "The counts have not dropped significantly on Mount Rushmore Road. We probably won't get a feel for the impact for some time."

Even with the connector, Mount Rushmore road will remain a busy traffic corridor.

Jensen said it might make sense at some point to consider "slowing traffic down just a little," as well as adding medians where space is available and foliage where it's appropriate.

"Looking down from Tower Road, it can be pretty grim with no foliage or anything," she said.

The study will include ways to use landscape and "streetscape" principles to make the route more attractive and easier for pedestrians to use. That could include new crossing lights, decorative lighting, banners and the possibility of bus-stop benches and shelters.

The limited width of the right-of-way in some areas will make it especially difficult to accomplish dramatic changes, Heller said.

"The corridor changes quite a bit," she said. "There are some places where there's some room and some places where there's not even really enough room for five lanes there now."

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com

What: Public meeting on Mount Rushmore Road Corridor Study

Who: Rapid City Area Metropolitan Planning Organization

When: 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: City/school administration building, council chambers.