I went to the Marty Theater at Bradley University’s Student Center Thursday night, July 10, to hear the latest on the Main Street traffic study the city is doing. The purpose of the meetings was simply to present the findings of the traffic volume study and solicit input from neighbors on how to proceed.
Here are the traffic counts (ADT):
| Main at Washington | 8,750 |
| Main at Glen Oak | 12,300 |
| Main at Garfield | 17,700 |
| Main at Glenwood | 26,400 |
| Western at Callender | 19,300 |
| Western at MLK | 20,200 |
Public Works Director Dave Barber was asked what the traffic counts were before Main was widened. Barber didn’t know the answer to that off the top of his head, but he later told me that city traffic engineer Nick Stoffer looked at the figures from the ’70s and they were roughly the same.
The next step is to consider alternatives for reducing traffic volume, calming/slowing traffic, and making the area more walkable/pedestrian-friendly. Here are some of the ideas presented that night:
- Change Martin Luther King Dr. from one-way to two-way, allowing more traffic to travel below the bluff between downtown and the south side.
- Narrow Main from University to downtown to one travel lane in each direction.
- Install left turn restrictions on Main from University to Farmington road and eliminate the center lane.
They also welcome suggestions from the public. Once the alternatives are determined, they will be reviewed using a computerized traffic simulation. Then they will report the results to the community (estimated to be late August or early September) and finalize their recommendations.
Check your table again CJ… methinks there is an error.
O-kaayyyy….. I’ve looked at the information again, and I don’t see the error. I guess you’re just going to have to tell me.
I don’t understand. This town has few major thoroughfares and yet some want to restrict the few we have. Main and University has grown into a major one and that happened from bad planning years ago if you wanted pedestrian friendly streets. Now some want to restrict and reduce the lanes? Sounds like we are bowing to the influence of a neighborhood organization to me. Where does this end? When all streets are 15 mph and one lane?
It’s hard enough to get around this town in some places as it is. Maybe if the police would step up traffic enforcement and crack down on speeders and red light runners, things would be safer on the streets. I know, it takes a grant or other money to do this but I remember a time when it was the police’s job to enforce traffic….without grants.
Making Main Street two lanes will only increase the traffic from the long lines waiting at the untimed and ill place traffic lights and encourage people to run them just to get through the area. Much like now?
Looked at the map again… I am the bonehead… ignore me. The mind was thinking Main-University and Main-Sheridan, the stretches being studied not where the red line was placed.