ByeByeBaby
Active Member
I think 4th is an ideal candidate for 1-way to 2-way conversion north of 12th Avenue.
- Drivers don't have to give up anything, 2-way conversion is a free lunch - it currently is impossible to use the capacity created from the 1-way as their isn't enough input lanes to create 4 lanes of demand northbound at 10th Avenue (5 lanes northbound in some areas around 8th Avenue). Probably in my "Top 3" of example of how our insane road design choices were arbitrarily applied and never revisited in the decades since despite no evidence of traffic demand ever requiring such a design.
- The mighty Route 3 does an unneeded jog to 5th jog over to 5th Street and back as a result. Keep the mainline bus route on the main street like all other major cities do with main streets. Will improve travel times and route consistency.
- North of 12th Avenue sidewalks get rocky - random narrowing from weird bus turn outs and extra wide outside lanes, extra lanes for turns for some reason, same old story - two-way to a 4 lane standard with no turning lanes would allow for more consistent sidewalks
Not only that, but the block of 4th St between 11th and 10th Ave has the easternmost lane closed to cars to allow for patio space at Rodney's Oyster House, then the block between 10th and 8th Ave (it passes under 9th of course) has the westernmost lane closed to cars to allow for patio space at Barcelona Tavern. Given that you can't cross the middle lanes in the underpass, it's already effectively a two-lane northbound road, has been for a little while and I don't recall hearing that the universe has ended.