Residents raised concerns and support for major changes to streets between Seventh and Central avenues during an open house hosted by the Phoenix Street Transportation Department at the Irish Cultural Center on Thursday.
The proposed changes add bike lanes to Roosevelt Street from Seventh to Central avenues and change Third and Fifth avenues from one-way streets to two-way, which received a mixed reaction.
Some residents said they worried the Transportation Department would have to expand Third and Fifth avenues to make room for the change. Eileen Yazzie, the department’s special projects administrator, assured them there would be no expansion of the right of way.
“The proposal that the City Council approved and the alternatives that we are starting to pencil out are all within the existing roadway,” Yazzie said.
Barbara Thompson, who lives on Fifth Avenue, said she was against the proposed changes. She said she worries about the safety of the students at the nearby elementary school and the increase in traffic by her home.
“I feel it is more dangerous for the children at Kenilworth Elementary School to all of the sudden have two-way traffic,” Thompson said. “So what we’ll have is traffic exiting off that HOV lane, off the freeway coming north — right now it is going south — and I don’t want two-way traffic all day long.”
Yazzie said that the opposite is true in the case of danger to children because the switch lowers speeds and reduces the number and severity of accidents. Wrong-way drivers and cars turning onto side streets through other lanes are some of the highest causes of accidents on Third and Fifth avenues, she said.
Posters at the meeting also indicated that crime drops on streets that are switched from one-way to two-way due to more “eyes on the streets” and increased traffic.
The proposal to create bike lanes on Roosevelt between Central and Seventh avenues was not as controversial. The idea is to connect Phoenix residents who may have had limited access to Roosevelt Row in an easier and safer way so they can experience all that Roosevelt Row has to offer, Yazzie said.
Jim Nissen, a bike lover whose business, SWITCH Studio, recently moved downtown after 23 years in Tempe, was happy about the expansion of bike lanes and fully supported growing the area’s bike culture.
“I am all about bringing bikes to downtown,” he said. “I’ve wanted to come to downtown for years. Downtown has had three revivals since I’ve lived here. Phoenix is the perfect place for us to install bicycle infrastructure, because bicycles will create businesses.”
Contact the reporter at Kmlane5@asu.edu.
