Put that road on a DIET!

The concept of a road diet is pretty cool. It recognizes that improving congestion isn't always about adding more lanes (I'm fond of an old bumper sticker I've not been able to find in a while that read: "Adding lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like getting a longer belt to deal with obesity."). In short, the idea is to take a four-lane road and rearrange things so that there is one lane going each direction with a dedicated left turn lane between them. The extra width of pavement can then be used for on-street parking, or a couple of bike lanes, or add sidewalks, or be removed to add green space, depending on the location.

There are a couple of road diet ideas being tossed around in the area. One is the US42 corridor between Mellwood Avenue and Hillcrest Avenue. In this case, I expect road safety to improve quite a bit, since motorists who are not turning off Brownsboro Road (as it is called in that stretch--Brownsboro Road as a name is on KY22 in places, on KY1694{I think} in some spot...) are kept to one lane, and those turning left have a dedicated lane for doing so (having less chance for head-on collisions). The remaining width is going to be used for much-needed pedestrian facilities (sidewalks) and beautification.

Just coming onto the local radar is the idea of putting Grinstead Road on a road diet between Cherokee Road and Cherokee Parkway. I've had a chance to look at the Public Notice, and have a few thoughts. I'll be arranging my thoughts a bit here, planning to send them during the public comment phase which ends later this month.

Not being a computer guru, I'm not able to get the images from the .pdf of the Public Notice to show on here (any help with that? Give me some clues in the comment section). Having the .pdf as another tab in my browser, though, I can switch back and forth to refer to it as I make my notes. There is also an article in the Courier-Journal about this, but it may go away (or require passwords) soon.

In short, I love the idea. I don't know that it will slow traffic in the area enough, but it will change things a bit. There is talk of resurfacing the lanes with non-skid asphalt, which on the surface (pardon the pun) sounds like an extra-abrasive treatment to enhance lateral traction, especially when wet (the area sees inordinate numbers of crashes per year, partly due to rain water mismanagement, partly because people try to race through the turns as if they are in a timed slalom event). Highly abrasive asphalt sounds like a recipe for worse road rash for a cyclist, so I want to see a sample of such pavement and ride on it a bit before I make judgements. It may be safer for cyclists, if only because the car is less likely to slide into us, or it may be like grooved cement roads that disrupt a cyclist's directional control just a bit.

Part of the discussion at the moment is that there is no plan for bicycle-specific lane markings. Since it's a state route, one envisions the state ignoring the Louisville Metro Government "Complete Streets" policy somehow. Still, it would be good to recognize that cyclists make use of that road fairly often. Giving cyclists climbing lanes on the two uphill grades in that stretch of Grinstead would allow motorists to move at speed closer to the legal speed limit, and reduce temper flares. Of course, there will be those who begrudge every nickel spent on bicycle-specific infrastructure, but they need to get a life.

David Morse mentions that in the ten years he's lived in the area, he has never noted a car parked along Grinstead Drive east of Willow Avenue. I have seen mommywagons along the eastbound curb as the Collegiate Academy school day ends, of course, and there is the "kiss and zoom" alongside Collegiate every morning as parents drop off Child, Esquire before their morning tennis match or whatever it is that the idle rich parents do. I'm not sure what to do with that sort of traffic problem, aside from suggest that the parents teach their spawn to use public transit (gasp!) or ride bicycles (groan!) or carpool and park somewhere other than Grinstead Drive (oh, the inconvenience!).

I rarely travel that section of Grinstead in that direction--if I'm going to, say, Iroquois Park, I use Lexington Road, go through Cherokee Park, and use Eastern Parkway, and if I'm going to the Smoketown area I tend to use Frankfort Avenue to Payne Street (using whatever connector I find best at the moment), then south from Breckinridge Street. I have been known to go home from points west/southwest via Mid City Mall (the ValuMarket there has a better beer selection than some liquor stores), and I'll use Glenmary instead of Grinstead until I get to the eastern end of Glenmary where I rejoin Grinstead. Going westbound, the climb on Glenmary is a bit steeper, and turning left to get onto Glenmary is often problematic, so the ability to use Grinstead through there would help lots of folks.

Still, anyone who is at all connected to the various cycling list servers in town knows of this road diet discussion, and has opportunity to comment. It would really be cool to have a bajillion comments feed through Bicycling for Louisville so they can walk into any discussions with "we have so-and-so-many riders who think this, this many who think this other," and influence further planning.

We'll see.