Many cities changing one-way streets back

Will F. sends us notice about this article from USA Today. From the article:

"The driving force behind it is economic development," says city engineer David Schnelle, who expects to reprogram signals, change pavement markings and change signs by November 2007. He says motorists tend to drive faster on one-way streets and go past their destinations, then lose time and patience backtracking.

Danville [Illinois] is one of hundreds of cities — from Berkeley, Calif., to Charleston, S.C. — switching one-way streets to two-way to improve commerce downtown, according to the American Planning Association in Chicago. The trend got rolling in the early 1990s and has expanded this year to bigger cities such as Miami, Dallas and Minneapolis. It's part of the reinvention of former industrial cities, which are converting empty factories into loft housing and trying to convince suburbanites that downtowns are livable...

In Danville, 170 miles south of Chicago, two-way streets are meant to speed an economic revival after 15 years of plant closings left downtown streets quiet. The city set up a small-business loan program to attract stores and restaurants.

Now Danville wants to make it easier for customers to find them, especially the shops on Vermilion Street. Marie Pribble, co-owner of the Java Hut coffee shop and cafe, looks forward to the change. "The slower people go, the more likely they are to pay attention to your business or your storefront, and the more likely they are to stop in," she says.

This is something I have been advocating for certain streets in northeast DC, especially G and I Streets-- G is one way going west, and I Street is one way going east. Each has negligible traffic, and lack of much in the way of movement and activity (and the ability of people to stop cars on the street in ways that don't significantly hinder movement) affords too ample opportunities for negative behavior--drug dealing and the like. For many years those streets, and blocks abutting them, have been the primary loci for problems within the neighborhood.

Cities need people and some amount of congestion. Because cities are supposed to be for people, not cars. One way streets to promote automobility tend to speed traffic at the expense of quality communities and neighborhoods.

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking