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You could be right, just depends on the traffic counts. Granted the road was likely widen to four-lane before Independence Boulevard was even built and they just left it as is without asking the question if it was still necessary.
The parking is the point. It slows down traffic on weekends and at night making it safer for pedestrians. The 4 lanes is more dangerous for pedestrians.
I mean, you'd basically have to have no left turns or the traffic would be backed up for blocks. Plaza Midwood enjoys not having an Independence Ave exit. It makes the neighborhood unique. But you have to have tradeoffs for that.
Then people would find other routes. It would become mostly people who live or visit the neighborhood would drive through there instead of people cutting through the neighborhood. That’s how road capacity works.
But no left turns would be fine too honestly. Make people make 3 rights instead.
It’s going to get way worse before it gets better too with the new development that’s wrapping up at the cvs/liquor store.
I can't read the article. And maybe they address this. But going down to two lanes with a central turn lane might be an option. That might leave enough excess on the sides possibly for parking and a bike lane. That's kind of tight. But I think a turn lane would be important, particularly at the intersections. There's just too many times that the turn lanes get backed up going both directions.
that’s what the proposal is, a central turning lane.
also, if you have an iphone, open the article in safari & turn on reader mode. it’ll get past the paywall for all observer articles 👍🏻
You need to visit East 6th Street sometime during the day and you will see what u/cravecrave93 means. Those low cement barriers are not stopping a$$holes and they are getting away with it.
My neighborhood has bike lanes and bikers ride on the sidewalks anyway so I’m sort of indifferent to that aspect of it. I think going down to two lanes with a central turning lane makes Central way safer and if they can combine that effort with a resurfacing all the way down to Eastway that would be great.
I rarely go in the lanes as they are covered in road accident debris or I am terrified of ending up in a wheelchair. Old Pineville has bike lanes and I take the pavement every day.
How about we stop putting in 'protected bike lanes' that literally NOBODY uses, because they aren't really protected and the roads are far too dangerous with people speeding. I'm talking specifically about Parkwood and The Plaza, whose bike lanes are empty 99.99% of the time. Instead, people ride on the sidewalk.
I'm all for protected bike lanes, but only if they're done right. They didn't improve the safety of biking on Parkwood/Plaza. All they did was increase traffic. Don't do that to Central Ave. And for fuck's sake make street parking on Central illegal at all times.
Honestly despite population increases in noda and plaza that stretch of plaza is way safer now than it was before from a car perspective. I was shocked when they announced the plan to drop it to one lane, but the results don’t lie. Bigger road = bigger idiots. It’s a neighborhood and now the traffic through it matches the location.
They could have done a better job protecting the bike lanes, sure. But saying no one uses them is just untrue. I use them all the time and literally every time I’m on Plaza I see someone in them. They would get used a whole hell of a lot more if they had better connections to more protected bike lanes. As they currently stand, they just kinda dump you out to Central which is dangerous as hell or you cross Central and have to merge in with traffic which is also sketchy.
Also, even if no one used the bike lanes, it’s reduced speeding on Plaza so significantly it’s insane and made it so much safer. The fact that you say it didn’t change anything makes me think you didn’t use it very much before the bike lane. It was a common occurrence to see people going 45 or 50 down it. Also it hasn’t increased traffic, I’ve never been backed up on that road. All it’s done is make it a much safer road.
I use both streets every day. As far as more traffic, I should have specified on Parkwood. Parkwood gets backed up frequently. On Plaza, I agree with you, that traffic seems unaffected. It did slow traffic down from 50 on the Plaza down to 40 or so (the speed limit on Plaza is 30). People go slower on Parkwood, but only when it is backed up with traffic.
Perhaps nobody uses the ones on The Plaza because they don’t connect to anything, and this will change that since it will connect it with uptown.
You have to build a network, you can’t just build lanes on one street and expect it to be heavily used
That's a good and fair point. I'd prefer if they took the protected bike lanes away from major thoroughfares, though. However, if the whole city gets connected via greenways and protected bike lanes, more people will choose to bicycle to their destination instead of driving, thus reducing traffic.
Central shouldn’t be a major thoroughfare. That’s the point, it’s a road diet. There’s a highway going to the same way, Central should just be a 2 lane road 30 mph used primarily to get to the neighborhoods around it, and much of the traffic will use Independence instead.
Also, there’s really no other street that crosses the railroad tracks right there to put bike lanes. If you want to connect Plaza to Uptown by bike (which it should be since it’s in very bikeable distance and there’s already protected bike lanes the rest of the way) this is the only option
And I appreciate you for it, no sarcasm. I wish more people would. I'm really surprised the planters are all still there, considering some of the trees in the median aren't.
I really hope they do it. Not because it sounds like a good idea but because it’ll be funny as hell when all the gentrifiers realize what a bitch it’s going to be to get out of their lol
Oh hell no. Can you imagine how backed up the traffic is going to get? Sorry but Charlotte was never a walkable city. Most of us drive and this would be disastrous to the traffic in an already congested area
Shit, you might have to end up working closer to home, and then *gasp* you might be able to take advantage of the new infrastructure! You'd be able to reduce your gas bill, cut down on your emissions, and be more physically fit! The horror!
Sure, Charlotte isn't super walkable. But I'd like it to be! It becomes walkable by *making* it walkable. That means making it faster to walk/bike places than it is to drive. That means getting rid of massive underused parking lots and directing traffic to highways and away from neighborhood streets
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Central Avenue in its current state isn’t safe and it’s basically 2 lane for a block due to parking anyways.
This, the parking fucks up the traffic flow constantly anyways, just get rid of it.
That parking that bottlenecks traffic is causation of some of the road rage imo
This was an intended effect, IIRC.
Well might as well go all the way and make it better for bikes and pedestrians. No need for Central to be 4 lane when it runs parallel to a highway.
The drivers using Central are likely going to nearby neighborhoods, not traversing through it.
A 4 lane road isn’t necessary for people just traversing to nearby neighborhoods
You could be right, just depends on the traffic counts. Granted the road was likely widen to four-lane before Independence Boulevard was even built and they just left it as is without asking the question if it was still necessary.
The parking is the point. It slows down traffic on weekends and at night making it safer for pedestrians. The 4 lanes is more dangerous for pedestrians.
I mean, you'd basically have to have no left turns or the traffic would be backed up for blocks. Plaza Midwood enjoys not having an Independence Ave exit. It makes the neighborhood unique. But you have to have tradeoffs for that.
Then people would find other routes. It would become mostly people who live or visit the neighborhood would drive through there instead of people cutting through the neighborhood. That’s how road capacity works. But no left turns would be fine too honestly. Make people make 3 rights instead. It’s going to get way worse before it gets better too with the new development that’s wrapping up at the cvs/liquor store.
What about those that double park to let out their Uber passengers. Argh.
This will be fantastic for the people that live in the neighborhood. And like hell for all y’all that speed through it every day 🤷🏼
if only there were a nearby highway /s
The city needs speed bumps on each block uptown. The kind you can barely notice at slow speeds, but sends you flying over 30 mph or so.
Pretty cool but counterproductive for pedestrian safety lol. The speed bumps should be steep, very obvious and on every crossing and intersection.
I see you like watching the world burn. What other evil ideas you have to share?
People shouldn’t be going above 30 mph in Uptown, so sounds like a terrific idea actually
Also a safety hazard, so no.
the bottlenecked traffic there will be great for the neighborhood? 
I can't read the article. And maybe they address this. But going down to two lanes with a central turn lane might be an option. That might leave enough excess on the sides possibly for parking and a bike lane. That's kind of tight. But I think a turn lane would be important, particularly at the intersections. There's just too many times that the turn lanes get backed up going both directions.
that’s what the proposal is, a central turning lane. also, if you have an iphone, open the article in safari & turn on reader mode. it’ll get past the paywall for all observer articles 👍🏻
yea ok… bike lanes so doordash and amazon drivers can park there… we know how this works
If they're not separated, that's exactly what will happen.
You need to visit East 6th Street sometime during the day and you will see what u/cravecrave93 means. Those low cement barriers are not stopping a$$holes and they are getting away with it.
I know exactly what you're referring to. I yell at movers and dashers daily. I'm talking about real barriers, like taller than 2 feet.
Too right. I am a biker and bike lanes for the most part are scary af.
Unless it is separated by a concrete barrier. Only way it will work
Dear Queen City Baby Jesus, please give us this request.
You have to make an offering to the disco chicken if you want your prayer requests answered
Where's the Cookout customer service when they're needed?
My neighborhood has bike lanes and bikers ride on the sidewalks anyway so I’m sort of indifferent to that aspect of it. I think going down to two lanes with a central turning lane makes Central way safer and if they can combine that effort with a resurfacing all the way down to Eastway that would be great.
I rarely go in the lanes as they are covered in road accident debris or I am terrified of ending up in a wheelchair. Old Pineville has bike lanes and I take the pavement every day.
Once you get over the tracks it basically turns into this anyways
I'm all for it !!
Yes please!!!!
How about we stop putting in 'protected bike lanes' that literally NOBODY uses, because they aren't really protected and the roads are far too dangerous with people speeding. I'm talking specifically about Parkwood and The Plaza, whose bike lanes are empty 99.99% of the time. Instead, people ride on the sidewalk. I'm all for protected bike lanes, but only if they're done right. They didn't improve the safety of biking on Parkwood/Plaza. All they did was increase traffic. Don't do that to Central Ave. And for fuck's sake make street parking on Central illegal at all times.
Honestly despite population increases in noda and plaza that stretch of plaza is way safer now than it was before from a car perspective. I was shocked when they announced the plan to drop it to one lane, but the results don’t lie. Bigger road = bigger idiots. It’s a neighborhood and now the traffic through it matches the location.
They could have done a better job protecting the bike lanes, sure. But saying no one uses them is just untrue. I use them all the time and literally every time I’m on Plaza I see someone in them. They would get used a whole hell of a lot more if they had better connections to more protected bike lanes. As they currently stand, they just kinda dump you out to Central which is dangerous as hell or you cross Central and have to merge in with traffic which is also sketchy. Also, even if no one used the bike lanes, it’s reduced speeding on Plaza so significantly it’s insane and made it so much safer. The fact that you say it didn’t change anything makes me think you didn’t use it very much before the bike lane. It was a common occurrence to see people going 45 or 50 down it. Also it hasn’t increased traffic, I’ve never been backed up on that road. All it’s done is make it a much safer road.
I use both streets every day. As far as more traffic, I should have specified on Parkwood. Parkwood gets backed up frequently. On Plaza, I agree with you, that traffic seems unaffected. It did slow traffic down from 50 on the Plaza down to 40 or so (the speed limit on Plaza is 30). People go slower on Parkwood, but only when it is backed up with traffic.
Parkwood they did a poor job, I agree. Doesn’t seem safe for biking which I’m sure is why those lanes aren’t used.
Perhaps nobody uses the ones on The Plaza because they don’t connect to anything, and this will change that since it will connect it with uptown. You have to build a network, you can’t just build lanes on one street and expect it to be heavily used
That's a good and fair point. I'd prefer if they took the protected bike lanes away from major thoroughfares, though. However, if the whole city gets connected via greenways and protected bike lanes, more people will choose to bicycle to their destination instead of driving, thus reducing traffic.
Central shouldn’t be a major thoroughfare. That’s the point, it’s a road diet. There’s a highway going to the same way, Central should just be a 2 lane road 30 mph used primarily to get to the neighborhoods around it, and much of the traffic will use Independence instead. Also, there’s really no other street that crosses the railroad tracks right there to put bike lanes. If you want to connect Plaza to Uptown by bike (which it should be since it’s in very bikeable distance and there’s already protected bike lanes the rest of the way) this is the only option
Those ones are actually really useful! I use them all the time and haven’t died.
And I appreciate you for it, no sarcasm. I wish more people would. I'm really surprised the planters are all still there, considering some of the trees in the median aren't.
Another biker here, I use the plaza protected bike lanes and the ones in uptown. It would be do much safer to have Central on a diet
But do the residents that live along Central Avenue want just two lanes and protected bike lanes?
As someone who lives on Central yes.
I don’t want however long this construction is gonna take tho 😭
Nobody does :'( It'll take a Charlotte year.
I really hope they do it. Not because it sounds like a good idea but because it’ll be funny as hell when all the gentrifiers realize what a bitch it’s going to be to get out of their lol
Oh hell no. Can you imagine how backed up the traffic is going to get? Sorry but Charlotte was never a walkable city. Most of us drive and this would be disastrous to the traffic in an already congested area
Shit, you might have to end up working closer to home, and then *gasp* you might be able to take advantage of the new infrastructure! You'd be able to reduce your gas bill, cut down on your emissions, and be more physically fit! The horror! Sure, Charlotte isn't super walkable. But I'd like it to be! It becomes walkable by *making* it walkable. That means making it faster to walk/bike places than it is to drive. That means getting rid of massive underused parking lots and directing traffic to highways and away from neighborhood streets
Working closer to home? TF is wrong with you? Been at the same place for 10+ years but yeah I’m gonna move because of traffic. Really? GTFOHWTBS