Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Return of the Two-Way Street | GOVERNING

The Return of the Two-Way Street | GOVERNING

The Return of the Two-Way Street

6 comments:

James Shanley said...

Great post, Ed!

For those interested in the issue, ContextSensitiveSolutions.org has some good reading.

Another good site is pps.org

James Shanley said...

I forgot one other site: streetfilms.org

Anonymous said...

Ed,
Excellent article. State and Green are so often blocked by delivery trucks it is like they only have one lane of traffic anyway. This has great potential. Maybe the old days weren's so bad after all. I cannot imaging that the police or fire department could present a valid argument against this. What do you plan to do about it?

Anonymous said...

Ed,
Excellent article. I think that two way streets downtown would be a great idea. State and Green Streets are so often blocked by delivery trucks they only have one lane anyway. I cannot imagine that the police and fire department could present a valid argument against this. What do you plan to do about this?

ECC said...

Anon,

hmmmm, I was hoping you'd take the lead on this;-).

Since the City is on the verge of taking a plunge on a parking garage, this is also the time to be talking about transportation into and around downtown.

So now's a good time to look into the traffic flow. Maybe it's just me but I think we spend a lot of time driving the big rectangle of Green Street (one way), Merrimac St (two ways), State St (one way), Pleasant St (one way).

So what do you all (my 23 readers per day) think? Do you like it the way it is now? Do you remember what the reasons were for changes in the past: Green Street, Harris, State Street, Pleasant? Will I get run out of town if I bring it up?

Here are some general links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-way_traffic

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-12-20-twoway_x.htm

http://richmondva.wordpress.com/2007/07/29/one-way-vs-two-way-streets-let-the-debate-begin/
Reasons for converting to 2-way streets:
Slower traffic speeds.
Decrease “Vehicle Miles Traveled” by eliminating indirect routes (driving around the block to get to your destination).
Increased access to businesses.
Possibly: safer for pedestrians.

Reasons for maintaining 1-way streets:
Conversion is very costly.
1- way streets allow for more cars, thereby decreasing congestion.
Easier than 2-way streets to time stoplights (timed lights improve traffic flow and decrease idling (& therefore pollution)).
Fewer turn prohibitions.
More on-street parking.
Possibly: safer for pedestrians.

Bob Cronin said...

Great post Ed...most people do not realise that Green Street is one of the widesst streets in Newburyport.
Speeds on one-way streets is usually a bit higher (5-7% seems to ring a bell; although I don't think that factor would apply to State Street.
You would have to look at State Street near the bullnose for some alteration.
Green Street would assist the PD in responding to calls from the station as cruisers could now use Green in either direction. It would also make City Hall more accessible. Green Street already has trafic signals at the major intersections so only modernization would be needed.
I think its worth serious discussion.

Bob Cronin
Ward 3 elect