Trump administration reverses long-held steerage on ‘street diets’ for visitors security | EUROtoday

A stylist was simply beginning her shift at a salon in Kansas City, Missouri, when a automotive smashed via the storefront window and landed within the ready space a couple of ft away.

Such crashes had been so frequent alongside thirty first Street that enterprise house owners recurrently texted each other pictures exhibiting the injury brought on by automobiles rushing alongside the four-lane street lined with outlets, bars and eating places, which drivers used as a shortcut between main highways.

“A wide road makes people think, ‘We’ll just drive as fast as we want on it,'” said Ryan Ferrell, who owns the property housing the salon, a bookstore and apartments above.

When concrete sidewalk barriers didn’t work, Ferrell and other business leaders campaigned to put the street on a “road diet.”

Removing lanes has been a tool numerous cities have used for years to calm traffic, despite resistance from some Republican governors. President Donald Trump’s administration doesn’t like it either.

Federal transportation officials once heralded road diets for cutting crashes by 19% to 47%, but criteria for an upcoming round of road safety grants say projects aimed at “reducing lane capacity” must be thought of “much less favorably,” the administration said.

Forcing travelers into more constrained spaces “can lead to crashes, erratic maneuvers, and a false sense of security that puts everyone at risk,” the U.S. Department of Transportation said in an email statement to The Associated Press. “The update reflects the Department’s concerns about the safety hazards associated with congestion.”

Add a gas line, subtract some traffic lanes

Kansas City saved some money when it converted 31st Street in 2022 because a gas line was going in anyway. It reopened with one lane in each direction instead of two, a shared turn lane near the signalized intersections, better pedestrian crossings and protected on-street parking spaces.

Road diets are now an almost automatic part of the process in Kansas City whenever a street is up for repaving. For years, federal guidelines said lane reductions were usually appropriate on roads carrying fewer than 25,000 vehicles a day. Most of the city’s four-lane roads don’t meet that threshold.

Bobby Evans, an urban planner at the Mid-America Regional Council who has worked on Kansas City’s road diets, calls the strategy “a smashing success” and one of the crucial efficient instruments at decreasing pace, crashes and accidents.

“In the architectural world you’d call it environmental determinism,” Evans stated. “You want to make it so they don’t feel comfortable going too fast. You’re really not slowing them down. You’re bringing them back to the speed limit.”

Rethinking the necessity for pace

Numerous different cities have credited street diets with bettering security.

Philadelphia cited a 19% drop in harm crashes. Portland, Oregon, noticed a greater than 70% decline in automobiles touring a minimum of 10 mph (16 kph) over the pace restrict. The common pace in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, fell by 5 mph (8 kph) on some roads inside months.

But Jay Beeber, govt director for coverage on the National Motorists Association, an advocacy group for drivers, stated most street diets characterize an ill-advised effort to power automobiles off the street. The variety of automobiles could decline on dieted roads, however then surrounding roads have to soak up the visitors, he stated.

“Those cars have to go somewhere,” he stated. “Cars are like water. They seek their own level.”

Leah Shahum, who directs the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit advocating for avenue security, stated street diets are cheap and supported by years of analysis. Cities in Republican-led states are among the many converts and Shahum is not certain if the Trump administration’s new steerage will make them rethink.

“I certainly hope that does not bleed over into indirectly discouraging communities from using this proven safety countermeasure,” Shahum stated. “That would be a real loss.”

No unfavourable affect on emergency automobiles

Trump’s transportation division cited supply and emergency automobiles amongst its issues.

When University of Iowa researchers surveyed first-responders in Cedar Rapids, their research revealed final 12 months discovered no noticeable distinction in response time when a street food regimen was in place. There was, nonetheless, a perceived want to teach drivers about what to do when an ambulance makes use of a middle flip lane to cross.

Cara Hamann, an affiliate professor of epidemiology who co-authored the research, stated she recalled no main examples of EMS or hearth vans being unable to get via.

“The road diet didn’t cause a level of congestion that slowed them down,” she stated.

Road food regimen resistance earlier than Trump

Even earlier than Trump, skepticism was rising in some purple states.

San Antonio spent years planning to repurpose a previously state-owned portion of its Broadway Street by eradicating automobile lanes and bettering a stretch for bikes and pedestrians. But Texas abruptly reclaimed the street in 2022 and nixed the venture as GOP Gov. Greg Abbott ran for reelection and known as for an finish to anti-car insurance policies.

“They basically used Broadway as a political football,” stated Bryan Martin, proprietor of Bronko Bikes, an electrical bike restore store.

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a invoice final 12 months a 180-day assessment interval and different quite a few steps earlier than a neighborhood authorities can get rid of a lane. He stated it will forestall activists from deliberately clogging roads to gradual automobiles.

Not all of the pushback has come from Republican-led states. During the pandemic, Culver City, California, carried out a street food regimen to prioritize strolling, biking and transit. But when vehicles returned and visitors backed up for miles, town reversed the plan.

Some residents sued in Vancouver, Washington, saying town ought to have put its street diets up for a public vote.

“I’ve seen people passing in the shoulder or the bike lane,” stated Justin Wood, one of many opponents. “It creates more opportunity for conflict.”

Evans, the planner in Kansas City, stated street diets cannot cease all reckless drivers.

“If you are bound and determined to go 12 miles over the speed limit on a three-lane road, you’re going to have to engage in some stupid, dangerous driving,” Evans stated.