Downtown makeover
By Dan McKay
Journal Staff Writer
Jeff Speck spent hours looking at traffic counts and walking around Downtown Albuquerque this year.
Civic Plaza is way too big, he says, and so are the traffic lanes on some streets – overbuilt for the volume of cars that actually travel on them.
Downtown could do without 19 of its traffic lights, he said, which can be replaced by all-way stop signs. The one-way streets of Marquette and Tijeras, meanwhile, should be converted to allow traffic in both directions.
And the city shouldn’t let the fear of attracting homeless people scare it away from creating “green” space Downtown.
These are just some of the ideas Speck – a Washington, D.C.-based planner and designer – has for making Downtown a more “walkable” and bicycle-friendly environment. He evaluated the city’s core under a $50,000 contract paid for through the discretionary fund set aside for City Councilor Isaac Benton’s district.
Speck, a former director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts, is still compiling his final report, but he delivered a two-hour talk earlier this summer to planners, neighborhood leaders and others. The full report is expected next month.
Downtown could use some “green” space and similar urban amenities, Speck said, despite concerns about attracting homeless people.
“Any nice place you make, homeless people will come, and the way to get around that is just to have them outnumbered by” other people out walking, Speck said. “… The reason homelessness seems like such a problem here is because you have so few non-homeless people walking.”
He also contends that many Downtown streets have a lane or two more than necessary, given their traffic volume. The lanes are often too wide, as well, encouraging higher speeds, he said.
http://www.abqjournal.com/452575/new...ver-ideas.html