Proposal to widen Waller Avenue for more cars is the worst kind of city planning | Opinion

The Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the body that oversees federal transportation dollars for Fayette and Jessamine counties, has proposed to widen Waller Avenue between Elizabeth St and Limestone, adding bike lanes and two car lanes.

This has been proposed to improve traffic capacity and congestion, provide transportation options, and “make room for” increased traffic from University of Kentucky projects, i.e. the new cancer center. This is a terrible idea, endemic of the kind of backwards urban planning that led to much of the city requiring a car for access.

Widening roads to ease congestion has been proven, time and time again, to not work. There is a brief reprieve, as existing drivers take advantage of the increased space, but within a few weeks or months, traffic congestion goes right back to where it was, if not worse. This is because people who were previously choosing not to drive, whether car pooling, driving in off peak hours, or using other forms of transport, change their behavior to use that new space that has been added. We’ve known this for decades, with Lewis Mumford often being credited with the quote “widening roads to prevent congestion is like a fat man loosening his belt to prevent obesity” in the 1950s or 60s. It might increase traffic capacity, but I question if a small 400-700ft section would really add that much. Any increased capacity would also mean more noise and air pollution for nearby residents.

Claiming that this would “provide transportation options” is naive at best, insulting at worst. Yes, it says they will add bike lanes, but only for this small section of Waller. After Elizabeth Street, bikes would then be forced to merge with car traffic again. Wide streets also encourage speeding and there is no mention of what kind of bike lanes would be installed. It’s very likely to result in bicycle gutters without protection right up against 35+mph car traffic. Add in that this would double the distance required for pedestrians to cross the street and any claim that this promotes “transportation options” is laughable. This is just another example of putting car convenience over bicycle and pedestrian safety.

I’m not sure this would even be all that more convenient for drivers either. Multiple lanes encourages jockeying, where cars change lanes to get ahead of one another. So it increases the amount of things drivers need to pay attention to while also significantly increasing the opportunities for conflict. This is also only a small section of Waller, with it going back to two lanes after Elizabeth St, so rather than it being consistent throughout, you will have all that traffic having to merge back together.

This proposal is antithetical to the city’s stated goals of making our city more bike and pedestrian friendly. We should not be building more stroads, especially close to downtown and campus. It’s egregious that this was proposed when the MPO has a recently finished study that recommends removing car lanes from Virginia Avenue and it’s outright insulting that it was proposed after last year was our deadliest year for bike and pedestrian deaths, with a pedestrian killed by a red light runner less than a mile away.

The MPO is taking public comment for this proposal until Dec. 4. You can send your comments to lexareampo@lexingtonky.gov or 859-258-3167. I encourage anyone who cares about bike and pedestrian safety to write or call in and tell them how backwards and terrible this proposal is.

Blake Hall is an advocate for safe streets who primarily gets around by bike or by foot.