Downtown streets are too efficient, so Wichita City Hall is working to change that | Opinion
With all the construction going on in downtown Wichita and the resulting street-lane closures, we’ve gotten a preview in recent weeks of what it will be like when City Hall reduces lanes on key streets permanently.
If you work downtown, you probably already know the coming “road diet” won’t be all that appetizing.
Last week, I came in a little earlier than usual and hit rush hour. I drove my usual route — the Kellogg Freeway from Maize Road to the downtown exit, then to Market to Second and into the Epic Center garage.
It usually takes about 15 minutes, 20 minutes tops. But a week ago Wednesday, Market was skinnied down for a work project, and it took 10 minutes just to get from the freeway to Douglas.
Then on Wednesday of this week, I noticed out my window from the 15th floor of the Epic Center that the southbound evening traffic was backed up on Main Street all the way from Douglas to Central.
I suspect we’ll have to get used to more of this, as City Hall remakes the street system to change from one-way traffic to two-way and reduces lanes to make driving downtown less efficient and more time-consuming.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what I got in an e mail from a city spokeswoman after I raised questions about the street plan during City Hall’s weekly Thursday morning media gaggle:
“Nearly all one-way streets were made that way for more efficient (and faster) movement of traffic. That model no longer fits what our downtown has become.”
Making streets less efficient and slower is the goal here? That seems like a weird flex, since literally our only municipal advantage over larger cities is that Wichita is easier get around in.
But apparently, traffic jams are good for business.
The city spokeswoman continues: “Studies show that two-way streets slow traffic down and are safer for pedestrian crossings. Additionally, exposure to properties and businesses from both directions will have a positive economic impact, and limit confusion on accessibility.”
I’ve been downtown five days a week for the past 26 years and can’t say I was ever confused by the streets.
I will say I have been and frequently remain confused as to why City Hall always seems to want to argue with success.
About all I can conjecture is city officials enjoy seeing you backed up in traffic, because it makes them feel like we have a “real” downtown, complete with big-city fun features like bumper-to-bumper rush hours and (soon to come) paid parking everywhere.
I also asked what you’re supposed to do when there’s only one lane in the direction you’re going and it’s blocked by a stalled car or a fender-bender.
The spokeswoman suggested carefully edging around it in a bike or parking lane, if possible, but also offered this assurance: “Sometimes wrecks do create a little bit more of a backlog of traffic. But usually our folks are pretty good and they get those cleared in record time . . . again, these are very infrequent incidents, too.”
So, not 20 minutes later, I’m driving down Main where two of the four lanes are currently closed.
An emergency vehicle with its lights and siren on, responding to an infrequent incident, had to wait for the traffic signal at Douglas to change and the street to clear before it could get through the intersection.
Main was clogged with cars and there was nowhere those drivers could pull over out of the way. I doubt that the emergency crew got to its infrequent incident in record time.
But it’s kind of a city maxim that progress must be served, even when it doesn’t make any sense or work as well as what you’ve got.
A regular feature of the City Hall Thursday gaggle is a mental health moment, offering professional advice on how to avoid going crazy living here.
I’d suggest they plan for a future one on how not to get all road-ragey when you’re stuck in traffic because the city messed up the streets.
