City to put Wichita on another road diet with pilot project to narrow Douglas

In the city’s latest effort to put Wichitans on a road diet, the City Council on Tuesday voted 6-1 to approve a six-month pilot project to test narrowing Douglas to three lanes — one in each direction plus a turn lane — from Washington to Grove.

“I think this is the right thing to do,” said Council member Brandon Johnson, whose district includes this stretch.

Mayor Lily Wu, the lone dissenter, said she went for a run along Douglas in 24 degrees on Sunday after seeing hundreds of social media comments on the issue and receiving 40 e-mails about it, the majority of which were from people opposed to the plan.

“I actually was disappointed in what I saw,” Wu said.

She said she found a lot of broken sidewalks along Douglas.

When Wu campaigned for office, she said she wanted to make the city more walkable, which is something a member of the public noted on Tuesday.

Even though she would like to see the sidewalks fixed, Wu made it clear even before the vote that she was not in favor of narrowing Douglas.

“I believe the city has much more pressing street issues first.”

The pilot project, and the possible permanent narrowing of the street, is about slowing down cars and making that stretch safer for pedestrians, its proponents said.

Like many diets, some people have taken to the idea and want to try it while others are staunchly opposed.

“I think it gives us an opportunity to look at safety,” said Council member Becky Tuttle.

Some who are opposed to the plan, including some business owners along Douglas, told the council that they feel they have not received enough notice about the changes or had enough of an opportunity to give input.

Tuttle noted that the city has been talking about this since 2018 and stopped only due to the pandemic.

“I’m not sure I feel this is rushed.”

City staff has been meeting with some business owners and others in the area who have or had concerns about the plan.

For instance, a number of bicyclists were upset that bike lanes weren’t in the plan, but now they are, and the Wichita Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board voted unanimously Monday night in favor of the plan.

Council and city staff clarified that the plan to permanently reduce lanes on Douglas would cost less than original projections of $7 million or $8 million. Staff verified it would be $4.77 million.

The pilot project will start sometime this spring.

The test will be conducted through some re-striping with paint and also with flexible posts to narrow traffic.

Diagonal parking will remain on the south side of the street east of Washington, and there will be parallel parking in some spots, too, including on the north side of the street.

City staff said their research shows narrowing Douglas to three lanes will reduce crashes by 40% and still be able to maintain the same level of traffic and accommodate additional traffic the new Wichita Biomedical Campus will attract.

They also say new curb extensions, raised crosswalks and medians will offer pedestrians safer passage across the street.

One speaker at Council, Jeff Breault of RJ Discount Liquor, cited other studies that show that this kind of road diet works only in areas with fewer than 10,000 cars a day.

According to the city’s numbers, the number of cars regularly averages more like 13,000 to 13,500.

Breault cited a study by Michigan State University that said these kinds of street “conversions result in significant delay.”

After the Council discussion, city spokeswoman Megan Lovely said the city will assess the pilot program’s success through traffic counts, signal timings, accidents and feedback from stakeholders.

This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 5:21 PM.