CHANGING DIRECTIONS - Streets may return to two-way to ease traffic

Columbus Dispatch, The (OH) - June 18, 2001

Author: Brian Williams; Dispatch Staff Reporter

Favorite one-way commuting routes of thousands of North Side residents could revert to their long-ago status as two-way neighborhood
streets.
Traffic patterns on Summit and 4th streets won't be changed anytime soon, said city traffic engineers studying the idea. But a Florida
traffic-planning company hired to do a related study says the trend nationwide is to move away from one-way street pairings.
To commuters such as Don DeVere, Summit resembles a highway every weekday morning. But he'd be willing to make a longer
commute, he said, if both Summit and 4th became two-way routes.
Andy Klein, who lives near Summit in Italian Village, would like to see calmer streets in the area -- the way it was until the 1950s, when
Summit was made one-way south and 4th was made one-way north.
But Klein and some of his neighbors think that the best way to accomplish that is to narrow Summit and 4th and keep them one-way.
Regardless, neither DeVere nor Klein wants to see the traffic worsen. They don't want neighborhood streets becoming highway ramps or
thruways when I-670 is widened.
City traffic engineers are examining the possible effects of restoring two-way traffic on Summit and 4th.
At the same time, Glatting, Jackson, Kercher, a transportation-planning firm based in Orlando, Fla., is preparing some recommendations
for managing traffic throughout the Victorian Village, Italian Village and Harrison West districts.
The company was hired last year after an agreement among the neighborhoods, the city, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the
Federal Highway Administration to study the effects of building the Spring-Sandusky interchange and widening I-670.
The final report is expected to include a plan to phase in components over 20 years. An early draft shows 4th and Summit as "one-way
and convertible to two-way in the future."
"The idea is to define an appropriate role for these streets," said Ian Lockwood, a transportation planner for Glatting, Jackson, Kercher.
The final recommendations, to be released to neighborhood groups on Wednesday, will outline a mix of traffic-calming proposals,
including paving streets with bricks and narrowing intersections throughout the area.
Lockwood also will give a community presentation on Thursday, at which he will explain that traffic calming can include parked cars,
narrow intersections, trees and other ideas beyond speed bumps.
City Councilwoman Maryellen O'Shaughnessy, chairwoman of the transportation and public works committee, has long been concerned
about vehicles speeding past schools and through dense neighborhoods along 4th and Summit streets.
She and some commuters who use the roads every day would like to see two-way traffic restored.
"Knowing the damage those one-way streets do to those neighborhoods, I support turning them back to two-way streets," said DeVere, a
Downtown developer who lives near Ohio State University. "It's a good way to move traffic but a real sacrifice those neighborhoods make.
It's a freeway."
Pieter Wykoff, who also lives near campus, drives on 4th and Summit streets to and from his job at Columbus State Community College.
"I live in the University District because it takes me eight minutes to get to work," he said. "So what if it takes me 12? My commute's not
that long anyway."
He said his primary concern is what effect two-way streets might have on the Central Ohio Transit Authority's proposed light-rail line,
which may use 4th or Summit, a proposal he supports.
But COTA President Ronald L. Barnes said that the rail line could be accommodated on one- or two- way streets and that the agency will
continue to consult with city traffic engineers.
The rail line "fits in perfectly with traffic calming in the area," he said. "The whole idea is about creating a neighborhood. As long as there
are expressways through it, it won't be a neighborhood."

Wade Walker, another Glatting, Jackson, Kercher transportation planner, said Cincinnati and Toledo are among cities that have returned
two-way traffic to downtown streets.
"Very rarely in our work do we see people proposing new one-way streets," he said.
City officials aren't yet ready to make such changes.
"We've been asked to look at that possibility," said Chuck Mayeres, acting traffic administrator. "We're still gathering data and have looked
at other cities and what kind of experience they've had to converting back to two-way operations from one-way."
The biggest challenge, he said, likely would be connecting the converted streets with I-670 and one-way streets Downtown.
The study should be completed later this year.
Meanwhile, city and neighborhood leaders will examine the traffic consultant's other recommendations and seek ways to pay for them.
Lockwood offered no cost estimate, but O'Shaughnessy said the plan is likely to be expensive.
"We're committed to making sure it happens, but it won't happen overnight," she said of the recommendations, adding that the city would
look at ways to phase in the construction.
Keith Dimoff of the Harrison West Society said that if the proposed plan is phased in, he would prefer starting with residential streets.
Gavin Armstrong of the Victorian Village Society said he is comfortable with the idea of phasing in the plan but worries how long that
would take.
"I think we'd all like to see it phased in," he said. "But the whole road construction and resurfacing budget for entire city next year is $3
million."
bwilliam@dispatch.com
Caption: Photo, Graphic with Map(1) Craig Holman / Dispatch Since the 1950s, traffic on Summit Street has moved only south into
Downtown. That could change if the city moves to enhance the neighborhood environment by returning it to two-way traffic. (2) Graphic
with Map Memo: Plan unveiling
Transportation planner Ian Lockwood will present final recommendations for the North Side traffic-management plan at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday at the Westminster-Thurber conference room, 717 Neil Ave.
Lockwood also will conduct a seminar on traffic calming and livable communities at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Clintonville Woman's Club,
3951 N. High St.
For information, call 614-645-7790.
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