Day #037: Turn Cary Street and Main Street into two-way streets
Two-way reversion is a cheap tool for promoting commerce.
Inspired by Michael Bierut’s 100 Day Project, 100 Days to a Better RVA strives to introduce and investigate unique ideas to improving the city of Richmond. View the entire project here and the intro here.
- Idea: Use “two-way reversion” to tap into the economic potential of Cary Street and Main Street.
- Difficulty: 2 — The reversion would be relatively cheap. Making an articulate argument to the public would be the key in gaining support for an idea that could undoubtedly ruffle the feathers of some commuters.
Roads are designed to get people from Point A to Point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. Streets are designed to be places of commerce. America is plagued with what Charles Marohn has dubbed “STROADS” — the futon (bad couches + bad sofas) of transportation options.
Broad Street is the most egregious offender in Richmond. Frustratingly slow automobile transportation flows through a landscape dominated by surface parking lots, ugly signs, and a total lack of safe walking and biking spaces. Changing Broad Street is an uphill battle that will take decades to win, but there’s lower hanging fruit in the quest for building a better city.
The failure of the parallel one-way pair of Cary Street and Main Street to promote commerce is only topped by its inadequacy of quickly transporting people from Point A to Point B.
Last October, Jeff Speck spoke at VCU and met with the city. The exact details of his suggestions are still unknown, but he clearly favors turning one-ways streets into two-way streets as can be seen in this great interview with Style Weekly.
Speck’s report on Boise, Idaho catalogs successes in Oklahoma City, Miami, Dallas, Minneapolis, Charleston, Savannah, and Vancouver. “In many of these places, the two-way reversion has been credited with the resuscitation of struggling retail districts.”
After losing two-thirds of its active tax paying addresses, a reversion in 1990 in Savannah, Georgia led to a 50% increase in tax-paying addresses. A reversion in Vancouver, Washington in 2008 is credited with doubling business traffic without boosting congestion. The head of the Downtown Association, Rebecca Ocken, went as far as to say “One-way streets should not be allowed in prime downtown retail
areas. We’ve proven that.”
Two-way streets force cars to slow down which makes pedestrians feel safer and promotes easier access to specific stores. Slower speeds and the elimination of rapid-fire lane changes would force commuters to the Downtown Expressway and Monument Avenue. Two-way streets also increase the visibility of stores.
Outside of the VCU Monroe Park Campus, what area in Richmond has more potential as a walkable neighborhood than Carytown and the restaurants and bars on Main Street? What obligation does Cary Street have to commuters? Two-way reversion is already part of the Richmond master plan downtown, and now it’s time to move this strategy west to the retail district with the most character and potential in the entire metro-region.
Two-way reversion isn’t a magic bullet that will fix an entire neighborhood’s struggles, but the return on investment is too good to ignore.
Photo by: jimmy_ray
Love this idea? Think it’s terrible? Have one that’s ten times better? Head over to the 100 Days to a Better RVA Facebook page and join in the conversation.
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Aaron Williams
Aaron Williams loves music, basketball (follow @rvaramnews!), family, learning, and barbecue sauce.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Not cheap. Every signalized intersection would probably cost $250,000. You’re talking at least 20 intersections, maybe 40+ if you talking all the way from downtown to carytown. That’s $5 million at least if not double that for just the signals. Then you need signage and paint which are cheaper but not free. Carytown seems to be fine even though Cary Street is one-way. We could do a lot more good with that $5 to $10 million elsewhere.
this is by far the stupidest thing I’ve ever read
“The failure of the parallel one-way pair of Cary Street and Main Street to promote commerce…”
I half-wondered if this series was really just an elaborate troll-job. Now I know for certain that it is.
Lowell, MA did it on four streets for $970,000 including $130,000 in design that was financed by federal funds.
http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_26353079/watch-those-signs-and-look-both-ways?source=rss_viewed
Um yeah, the Lowell example. What is that 6-7 city blocks. Maybe 5 or 6 signal upgrades. Much smaller project. If you’re talking all of Main and Cary from downtown to Thompson that would be 40-50 city blocks for each street, 80-100 total. So let’s assume Lowell is $1 million for 10 city blocks. That would mean that this conversion could cost $8 million easily.
Let’s not get carried away. It’s 17 blocks from Thompson to Meadow. That’d be 34 total blocks which is a far cry from 80-100.
Also, as Chris Crowley pointed out, many intersections could remain as or revert back to 4-way stop signs – which could result in quicker trips at slower speeds.
I also read Jeff’s Specks book where he talks about two-way streets. I think you bring up a good point but it’s also important to note that in his book he describes some exceptions to the rule. I always thought Cary town might be an exception to the rule because it seems to be doing fairly well with the one-way street. It’s kind of like the pedestrian mall where he says that they should not be done but then there are exceptions like in Charlottesville or other cities with a strong college presence. I’m not sure if going to a two-way street on Cary Street would help it or hurt it but maybe on main street it could be done since there’s less traffic there
You obviously don’t visit Carytown often. We need both lanes to be one way to allow for all of the deliveries made to various restaurants throughout the day. Also, I’m not convinced 4 way stops would be faster than lights. And with all of the giant SUVs that parallel park there, a stop sign could be easily hidden. This is just a terrible idea all around.
Thanks for the insightful comment. He undoubtedly makes exceptions – this can be seen in his plan for Boise, Idaho.
This comment from his Style Weekly interview resonated with me:
“One is to convert one-way streets to two-way. This is safer because vehicles aren’t racing in the other lane. The best retail streets are always two-way — although there are exceptions like New York’s Fifth Avenue.”
Interesting idea, though not convinced either way. I’d like to know what the shop owners prefer. How many are hurting for business? The four way stop sign is questionable, given the modern trend of drivers for the most part running through them. I believe that would have the opposite effect on pedestrian safety.
Traffic is already bad enough with two lanes going the same direction, break that down to one each way and you’ve just choked the life out of Carytown with one person trying to make a left hand turn.
If they could build more parking decks, removing on street parking would open up the street. Even if they didn’t turn those areas into through lanes, creating turning lanes, bike paths and opportunities to widen the sidewalks to allow greater foot traffic and the use of outdoor space by businesses would make the entire area more inviting.
Yes, but Main Street would also be a two-way street.
I don’t think either street should be used as a thoroughfare. Commuters can go on the Downtown Expressway or Monument Avenue.
Jason – I don’t think we should remove on-street parking in Carytown. Parked cars give pedestrians on the sidewalk a buffer – if you turn them into traffic lanes, you lose that. On-street parking is part of urban spaces, and we should keep that in Carytown. I do agree with using space for bike lanes and sidewalk bumpouts or extensions.
If structured parking gets built anywhere, it should be on top of places where parking already exists – the two-level city garage at colonial, or any of the numerous asphalt lots in the alleys. I also think sharing the existing spaces would go a long way, before needing to build additional parking. How many cars do you notice trying to cram into the free garage, when the Martin’s parking lot is basically empty?
1) people use to one way traffic are going to get hit by cars when they don’t look both ways. Especially late night people.
2) redoing all traffic lights will be very expensive.
3) traffic will be backed up for miles in Carytown as people hold up their lane while parallel parking.
4) make sense for most Shockoe bottom streets but not Carytown/Fan.
It’s not a stupid idea at all. It may be impractical for Carytown because of the reasons already stated – left turns and delivery trucks. The street also seems narrower than some of the other examples, but it might just appear that way because the storefronts are so much closer to the curbs.
But it likely would benefit the businesses on Main and Cary between Boulevard and the VCU campus. Carytown ends at Boulevard, and it could remain a one-way street, with the rest of the corridor converted back to 2-way traffic over time.
I still think the best strategy would be to restore trolley cars (probably trolley shaped buses) to Main and Cary. We’re not as far away from the density we need as you might think. Shockoe Bottom is going rapidly and a high proportion of those residents won’t have cars.
As a resident of Main St I love this idea. Too many drivers (including me) treat Main and Cary as expressways.
I like the idea of two way traffic. I am looking forward to it.
My more detailed comment got deleted, but for those excited about two-way traffic I have one question;
Are you excited about the increase in bike and pedestrian crashes that will come with it? Despite what Jeff Speck claims about perceived safety improvements, the research and data shows two-way streets have higher crash rates. Watch for those turning vehicles kids. And no, one-way streets don’t always have higher traffic as he claims either.
JCH,
Can you share this research and data? I’m always trying to better understand. The increase could be attributed to the fact that more people are walking and biking because 2-way streets are more hospitable.
As a side note, I think it is unfair to assume that # of accidents is the only metric. If drivers are forced to slow down, then the accidents will be significantly less severe.