The traffic improvements planned as part of the Brownboro Road Diet again need your help! CART, the Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation, has learned that some businesses along Brownsboro Road in Clifton Heights are organizing to fight the street-design improvements that calm traffic, increase pedestrian and bike safety, and generally improve the quality of streets in walkable neighborhoods. (Check out expert Dan Burden explain the importance of road diets.)
Come out this evening to a community forum running from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Kentucky School for the Blind Auditorium at 1867 Frankfort Avenue to voice your support for the road diet. A group of transportation advocates will be handing out stickers and voicing support for the plan.
You can check out the full plans for the Brownsboro Road Diet here, but in a nutshell, it will add a sidewalk and a center turn lane after removing a redundant travel lane for about 3,000 feet of roadway between Ewing Avenue and Drescher Bridge Road. Additional info is available from Metro Louisville.
Other topics to be discussed at the public forum are updates on Breslin Park and a discussion of new crime and safety figures for District 9.
I travel Brownsboro Road everyday and though this new plan will surely slow down my daily commute I would gladly sacrifice a few extra minutes for a more pleasant pedestrian friendly drive. My only issue is the fact that this plan does not allow for a bicycle lane. It seems that this is an awfully extensive renovation to not push the future of alternative transportation of bicycles and pedestrians. Brownsboro road has always been a bicycle friendly road, and this plan seems as if it could be taking a step backwards rather than forwards, blocking the possibility for a bike lane in the future.
I think maybe Brownsboro needs our help, not too make sure this project happens but to make sure it doesn’t happen! Putting a bottleneck in the middle of a four lane road makes absolutely no sense, never has, never will! Even some of the blind people who it is supposed to help are against it.
@Mark Why doesn’t it make sense? If the only reason is that it’ll slow traffic down, well, that’s kind of the point.
I’m a resident of Clifton and I support the Brownsboro Rd sidewalk project. I have seen the traffic engineering analysis and I accept its’ validity. As is traffic already bottlenecks, around the stores from Ewing to Clifton Ave, blocking flow in the left lane,forcing through traffic to the right and reducing speed. The main effect this project has on traffic is to reduce speed in the section where Brownsboro Rd opens up, from down under Clifton Ave to Pope/William St.s The creation of the through-lane promotes consistent flow, albeit at a lower speed. Travel time comes out even. And essentially, this project is an extension of the one-lane portion of U.S.42 from Mellwood & Brownsboro to Frankfort & Story. The pedestrian benefit: safe walkway space. The retailer benefit: additional people into proximity. Pedestrians come out when there’s a place for them to walk. This project has the potential to transform lower Brownsboro Rd into a pedestrian & vehicle corridor more like Frankfort Ave & Bardstown Rd. What’s business like there?
Why does there need to be a sidewalk up against that cliff? Anyone wanting to utilize the business across the street could use existing traffic signals to cross right? Doesn’t seem necessary to have a sidewalk just to go past that cliff.
This will be an expensive disaster. If you really want to see what’s going to happen, wait a few months and look at the sidewalk over Beargrass Creek on Brownsboro right at the curve into Story Avenue. During late Spring/ Summer, the sidewalk is often unusable, as the city rarely trims the limbs that hang over the sidewalk. The Pedestrians have to step out into the street to avoid the trees. Now look at the cliff area where they’re going to build the new sidewalk. There are many times that drivers have to edge over into the other lane to avoid limbs sticking out into the roadway. When it becomes a sidewalk, the city will neglect it just as it neglects the other area I mentioned before. We will have spent $400000 on a sidewalk that we won’t be able to use, and we will have eliminated a lane of traffic.
The name of this plan is Orwellian. We’re not narrowing the road. We’re putting it on a “diet”. LOL.
And they’re talking out of both sides of their mouths. They say they WANT to slow down traffic, but then they promise that traffic won’t be slowed down. (4 to 10 seconds tops. I promise!) Yeah. I’ll believe Ms. Pugh’s promises when we get that Splash Park at Breslin Park.
This whole business of “Road Diet” seems to be the latest fad for geeks in the urban planning business. It’s usually met with skepticism or hostility from the realistic people who reside or try to do business in the area. It’s a bad idea, and we don’t need to waste money on it.
The project will move forward! Thank you, Mayor.
http://louisvilleky.gov/PublicWorks/News/2012/6-1-12brownsbororddietproject.htm
@Ben –
Yet another thing the mayor has made the wrong decision on! The majority of public opinion is against it and its spending money metro government doesn’t have. Not sure why doing it is a good decision.
@Mark – I’m afraid your going to have to be more specific. Just who is against it, other than East End residents worried about their commute time?
@Porter Stevens –
Many of the residents of the area were opposed, any local business that expressed an opinion was opposed. Even any of the blind residents of the area who came forward said it wouldn’t help them. It appears that the only people in favor of it are the mayor and the councilwoman for that area.
The project won’t affect me one way or the other, other than spending tax money to do something that the majority doesn’t want! Certainly sounds like a typical governments project.
@Mark – I’m a resident of the area. I support it. Most of the other residents I’ve talked to support it as well, once they understand what it is. I commute through there every day and I can’t imagine it slowing down my commute appreciably.