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Speeding is common on a parallel one-way street passing a large electronics factory Indianapolis Residents used to refer to the pair of tracks as “the Speedway,” similar to the famous motorsport a few miles west of the city.
It was originally a two-way traffic thoroughfare. michigan and New York In the 1970s, streets were changed to reverse one-way routes to help thousands of people RCA Workers commute quickly to make televisions or press vinyl records. But after the RCA plant closed in 1995, the suddenly deserted roads became more attractive to slow-footed drivers until last year, when city officials finally converted them back to two-way streets.
“The opening and transformation of these streets changes the way people think about this corridor,” said James Taylorwho runs a nearby community center.
True to the oft-repeated mantra of “paint is cheap,” transportation planners across the United States, especially in mid-sized cities, have been restoring one-way streets to multi-way streets. They see the move as one of the easiest ways to improve safety and make downtown more attractive to shoppers, restaurant patrons and potential residents.
Street design U-turn
Dave Amos, assistant professor of urban and regional planning at California Polytechnic State University, said almost no major street in the United States was originally a one-way route. Before mass migration to the suburbs, two-way streets were the norm, prioritizing faster commutes over downtown walkability.
“One-way streets are designed to move cars quickly and efficiently,” Amos said. “So when you target that, pedestrians and cyclists are almost by design taking a backseat, which makes them more vulnerable.”
But the tendency to speed is not the only reason one-way streets are considered less safe.
Wade Walker, an engineer with Kittelson & Associates who has worked on street improvement projects in Lakeland, Fla.; Lynchburg, Va.; and Chattanooga, Tenn., said there is a misconception that one-way streets are safer because people on foot only need to look in one direction to see oncoming traffic. Chaos occurs when one-way streets combine with two-way streets to form an urban grid, he said.
When pedestrians cross a signalized intersection on a two-way street, they may encounter vehicles in a certain sequence: turn left on green, go straight, and turn right on red. But when one-way streets are included, 16 sequences are possible, depending on the type and direction of intersecting roads, Walker said.
“The problem is not the number of conflicts, but the way in which they occur,” he said.
A way to divide communities
Louisville, Kentucky, about two hours south of Indianapolis, has been restoring one-way streets to their original two-way counterparts. The state is leading an ongoing project to redevelop a stretch of Main Street that passes by landmarks such as the Louisville Slugger Museum and KFC Yum Restaurant. Center Arena and a minor league baseball field.
One of the city’s biggest redesigns occurred this year in the city’s predominantly black west side, where many roads were converted to one-way routes in the 1970s to feed a new interstate bridge over the Ohio River. However, it destroyed neighborhoods and severed once-thriving neighborhoods from their downtown core.
“Over time, all these mom-and-pop stores and local businesses declined because connectivity was taken away,” said Michael King, the city’s assistant director of transportation planning. “It’s more like, ‘This is a road that will get me through here quickly.'”
Walker said business job openings soared in the three years after some of Chattanooga’s two-way streets became one-way and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga became “landlocked” to prevent students from having to cross dangerous roads.
In 2022, nearly two decades after the road redesign, he returned to find that the college campus had expanded and commercial construction had surged.
Change Streets and Skeptics
When Lynchburg, Virginia, launched a long-discussed plan to make downtown’s Main Street two-way, Rodney Taylor expressed concern that the plan would bankrupt his restaurant by blocking delivery vehicles. After the city completes the section in 2021, he acknowledged that concern is unfounded.
“One important thing is to admit your mistakes,” he said. “And I was totally wrong.”
When the city of Austin, Texas, began redeveloping some of its one-way streets downtown, many residents also changed their attitudes, said Adam Greenfield, executive director of Austin Safe Streets.
“It really works,” said Greenfield, who is now lobbying the city to eliminate all one-way streets. “That’s what you’ll find with these transformations – as soon as they’re done, people will ask, ‘Why didn’t we do this 20 years ago?'”
After Chicago went the other way last year and suddenly converted some two-way streets in the busy West Loop restaurant district to one-way streets, a politician representing a neighboring district received dozens of calls from confused constituents.
“Even if this is the right move to make these streets one-way, it certainly doesn’t make sense to not consult with neighbors,” said City Councilman Bill Conway.
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Mark St. John, chief engineer for the Indianapolis Department of Public Works, said that now that Indianapolis has completed the redesign of Michigan and New York streets, 10 other improvements are in the works. The total cost of the projects is estimated at $60 million, with about $25 million coming from a 2023 federal grant.
James Taylor, who runs a community center near the old RCA factory, said it was too early to know the full impact. However, some business owners have signaled construction plans on the redesigned streets, which Taylor said still feels a little strange.
“I’ve been driving in that neighborhood for 30 years,” he said. “It’s all very familiar, but you see it from a completely different perspective.”