Steve Mensing, Editor
♦Motorists and businesses alike strongly oppose any thought of raising artificial havoc with traffic on East Innes and Long Streets with “traffic calming”, road diets, medians, and bicycle lanes. The plans for making streets allegedly safer for cyclists and pedestrians ran into resistance from Mayor Paul Woodson and neighborhoods advocate William Peoples along with folks from First Calvary Baptist Church on South Long Street.
East Innes crawls as it is and is in competition for the worst traffic light system for a thousand miles in any direction. That some bureaucrats and $120,00 ”study” group even suggested reducing the lanes on East Innes to a “crawlspace” should make city dwellers wonder.
Thank you William Peoples and First Calvary Baptist Church for wanting to put a halt to the possible South Long Street “road diet” that would reduce the street to a highly problematic two lanes with a median and a left turn.
Can you visualize the effects of medians and less lanes on East Innes Street businesses and the motorists encountering the misfortune of ”Complete Street’s” ideas in real time? Can you picture backed up traffic and bicyclists crumpled on the curbs? Who wants to slow traffic where traffic is already poking along? Why would anyone want to harm the East Innes Street businesses, major contributors to our city’s tax base and to our city’s livability?
Businesses don’t grow and prosper from bicycles. They grow from motorists.
Motorists and businesses should salute Mayor Paul Woodson for standing against traffic calming measures on East Innes and recognizing how they slow traffic and hurt businesses.
Traffic calming readings:
http://rowanfreepress.com/2014/01/11/letter-to-the-editor-traffic-calming-get-wildstein/
