Jay Walljasper: Don't let a five-lane road stunt Lake Street
"The city of Minneapolis is about to undertake a huge move on Lake Street, which will affect life in the city for the next 50 years. Lake Street is more than simply a street, it is the most definable place in Minneapolis with the exception of downtown. And its vitality is crucial to the vitality of the city as a whole.
That is why I am alarmed by plans to turn Lake Street into essentially a five-lane road in the vicinity of Chicago Avenue. The hope is that more traffic lanes will ease congestion and pollution problems in this struggling inner-city neighborhood. But the reality will be something far different: A neighborhood that shows great potential for revitalization will have the life sucked out of it.
Widening the traffic lanes to accommodate more and faster traffic on Lake Street will stunt local businesses, increase crime, worsen road safety and send a message to the predominantly immigrant, minority and working-class residents of the area that the convenience of commuters passing through is more important than the future of their community.
It will also increase traffic and pollution; numerous studies have shown that increasing road capacity only increases the number of cars using that road. And in the case of Lake Street, much of that new traffic will be people only passing through.
Stretches of Lake Street have seen a remarkable turnaround recently, thanks largely to immigrant business owners willing to invest in the area. This renaissance is heading in the direction of Lake and Chicago from both sides. The development of the old Sears building is another positive note for the area.
Yet these trends are imperiled by the highway engineers' plan to strip away parking along Lake Street to make way for more traffic. This will not only make it harder for passing drivers to patronize these businesses, but it will stymie the public street life so essential to any lively business district.
The lack of a parking lane not only means less parking, it also means there is no buffer zone between pedestrians on the sidewalk and the traffic roaring by on the new five-lane road. The experience of Lake Street will be less like strolling a city street and more like walking alongside a busy highway. This will dampen foot traffic in the area, which is not only bad for business but bad for public safety. People on the street are the single best deterrent to crime."
"It's important to note that traffic volumes on Lake Street projected for the year 2025 (and traffic engineers are notoriously inclined to exaggerate these figures) still don't equal those of 1964, when the street was under the present configuration. This is not a crisis that needs to be drastically and immediately fixed."
*/Jay Walljasper, who writes frequently on urbanism, is executive editor of Ode magazine -- an independent international magazine published from the Netherlands in English and Dutch editions. He lives in Minneapolis.
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I believe Mr. Walljasper is right on the money. Providing more room for traffic will only result in more traffic using the street to pass through town. It will not help the community or local businesses, but will instead hurt them. It's particularly egregious to be planning on making such a change when current traffic levels, and traffic levels projected out to 2025, are less than the actual traffic levels in 1964.
I believe the 35W Excess Project and widening the traffic lanes on Lake are exactly the wrong thing to do. Instead, provide ample pedestrian space, parking and bus stop room, have one through lane and a turn lane, and be done with it. It will be harder on the commuters who want to pass through -- and they will eventually figure it out and stop using our city as a highway and avoid it. The freeways will be more clogged, but that's another problem to be solve, on a bigger scale.
Chris Johnson, Fulton
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