The Journal Star reported on the last public meeting about changing Adams and Jefferson streets downtown from one-way to two-way. It’s clear that Public Works Director Steve Van Winkle doesn’t want to change them (why, I don’t know). He had an engineer from IDOT figure out the cost of switching, and supposedly it’s over $10 million.
I’d like to see the itemized bill for that one. Methinks the price is a bit inflated, perhaps because of the part of this quote I’ve emphasized:
Traffic officials also talked about the possibility of having one-way streets Downtown but having traffic going two-way just outside of Downtown. IDOT estimated the cost, which included changing traffic signals, changing signs and buying land, at more than $10 million.
“Buying land”? And just why would we need to buy land when Peoria already owns a right-of-way that handled two-way traffic in the first place?
But that’s not all — if their prices don’t scare you, perhaps their accident statistics will:
According to statistics from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the one-mile stretch of Adams Street that is two way south of U.S. Route 150 has a higher accident rate than the one-way sections of Adams and Jefferson Avenue that are just south of it.
The two-way stretch of road had 8.5 crashes per million vehicle miles driven, compared to 5 and 5.2 crashes per million vehicle miles on the one-way streets.
“There’s more crashes on the two-way section,” said Eric Therkildsen, a program development engineer with IDOT.
Ah, statistics. How do you suppose they were able to prove causality based on this correlation? How were they able to isolate the traffic-direction variable and determine this was the one and only reason crashes were up on one-way streets? Do you think things like visibility; the number of intersections, business entrances, employees; or the amount of traffic volume varied at all between these two stretches? And what was the time period for these data? The two-way section includes the intersection of routes 150 and 24 — are there a disproportionate number of accidents at that major intersection that could skew the results?
When the Public Works director is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at an idea to make it go away, it’s probably not going to happen. You can’t fight city hall, and I doubt there is anyone obsessed enough with converting streets to two-way that will fund his or her own feasibility study. So, it will likely die until such time as we get a Public Works director who is more open-minded.
The main reason that Van Winkle is against the idea?
Laziness.
First off, there has been a recent study done. IDOT had hired a consultant to evaluate moving the designated state routes. My understanding is they indicated two-way streets were possible in the downtown core WITHOUT acquiring additional land, just file a FOI request and ask them.
Secondly, “There’s more crashes on the two-way section,†8.5/mil versus 5.2/M. Unfortantly and most likely intentionally Mr. Therkildsen forgot to compare the likely severity of those crashes. One-way streets encoruage much higher speeds thus their accidents are ususally much more sever.
I’d take 8 minor fenderbenders over 5 mayor colllisions any day.
Volume, # of uncontrolled intersections, and character.
Volume: Remember the two way strecth through Averyville captures all the traffic carried by Jefferson and Adams. Once they split, they split traffic volumes as well.
Uncontrolled Intersections: There are a great number of intersections in Averyville w/o traffic signals. Only a stop sign on the minor roads. This will inflate accidents.
Character: THe buildings in Averyville are 5-10 feet from the corners and street edge. Sidewalks are narrower. Visibility is reduced, therefore, accidents can be expected to be higher.
Downtown is a different character, volume is spread, and traffic lights control cross traffic.
Land will need to be acquired for reconfiguration of intersections where Adams and Jefferson split.
Why? That’s a wide intersection — why couldn’t they configure it similar to the intersection of Adams and Lincoln on the south side of downtown?
You think the City would be better off with a new Public Works Director? No Kidding? What was your first clue?