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Originally Posted by deja vu
The new Public Safety Building rendering looks really good.
I can't say I'm surprised that the Mayor's 2-way streets proposal was met with heavy opposition, but the reasoning is surprising, to me. I would think that two-way streets would be safer for senior citizens than one-way streets. Two way streets usually come with a reduced speed limit. And even if they don't, they inherently require drivers to slow down and be more aware of their surroundings. They sometimes result in narrower streets too, so less crossing distance. Sure, pedestrians would have to adapt to the new traffic patterns (look both ways, and all of that) but - sheesh. What a strange battle cry to rally around.
I'm interested in smaller cities that try to reverse the one-way streets mentality that proliferated in the 60s and 70s. I think it makes more sense in bigger places to stick with one-ways, but more sense to maintain two-ways (in most instances) in cities with less than 100K population. Kalamazoo is going through the same thing and it's a similar story. The downtown businesses are largely in support of it; local commuters are not. Their reasoning is that it will create huge traffic backups downtown. Never heard the senior citizen argument here though.
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Yes, the senior citizen argument is terrible and basically rooted in them having to look two ways when crossing now.... The mayor even brought in some people to give detailed presentations on how 2 lane roads are actually safer, but in the end it didn't matter. There is a traffic argument too, but it didn't get brought up until later on. The original movement started with some lady collecting signatures from senior citizens living in the city and basically fear mongering about how apparently wild the traffic would be if it's two lanes.