(Note: Also check out this alternative plan for the corridor proposed by Bicycling for Louisville.)
Louisville Metro Public Works is proposing reconfiguring West Broadway between 22nd Street and Louis Coleman, Jr. Drive with a central turning lane in an effort to improve safety through the corridor. And now they want to hear from you at two public meetings (details below).
The street is already scheduled to be repaved between 22nd and Shawnee Park in early August, according to the city, and this project would involve a restriping for the reconfigured lanes. The area west of Louis Coleman, Jr. Drive narrows and would simply be repaved.
“The main goal is to make this area safer for everyone who uses West Broadway from Shawnee Park to 22nd Street whether a pedestrian, bicyclist or motorist,” Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton (D-5) said in a statement.
According to Hamilton, the intersections of 26th, 27th, 28th, and Louis Coleman, Jr. Drive are especially problematic in the area. The reconfiguration would eliminate one lane of parallel parking throughout its bounds.
Here’s the info on the two scheduled West Broadway Open Houses:
- Tuesday, July 19 — Oak & Acorn Intergenerational Center, 631 South 28th Street, from 5:30 to 6:30p.m.
- Wednesday, July 27 — Shawnee Library, 3912 West Broadway, from 5:30 to 6:30p.m.
If you’d like more information but cannot attend a meeting, please contact Dirk Gowin, Louisville Metro Public Works, at 502-574-5925 or Dirk.Gowin@louisvilleky.gov.
What’s the ADT here? Could this, instead, be a road diet situation? Won’t the removal of on-street parking potentially make the stretch more dangerous? Isn’t Broadway supposed to be addressed with a major overhaul through Move Louisville?
The AADT count is about 19,000 on this stretch of West Broadway. By comparison, lower Brownsboro and Grinstead both have AADT counts of about 14,000 where the road was converted from 2 way, 2 lanes each way to 2 way, 1 lane each way with turning lane. I’d be interested to see average speed and a traffic incident map for each stretch. But regardless, this is a suburban traffic pattern proposed for an urban area with many pedestrians. With suburban developments like Kroger and Broadway Village (28th & Broadway) and Dollar General (31st & Broadway), this proposal would further erode the urban character of the corridor.