Lines of packed-in cars can slow the drive from 72nd to 90th Streets to a crawl.
The increasing traffic has the city considering how it could widen Dodge in the area.
In fact, the intersections of 78th and Dodge and 76th and Dodge rose into the top 10 on a new list of Omaha's busiest intersections.
Six of the top 10 intersections now are along Dodge from 72nd to 93rd Streets, according to the study by the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency.
With the continued traffic growth on Dodge, the Omaha Public Works Department says an extra lane on Dodge each way may be needed for several blocks west of 72nd Street. That area of Dodge now has three lanes in each direction.
The city is telling developers along the stretch - including Children's Hospital and the owner of the Piccolo's flower shop property - to make sure that their new buildings are set back far enough from the street to permit the city to easily widen Dodge. That space is called right of way.
Purchasing and removing buildings for road construction can be expensive for the city, said Todd Pfitzer, the city traffic engineer. It's better, he said, for the city to get the word out now.
He said a possible widening of Dodge in the area has not been placed on a specific timetable, but the city is looking to the future and making sure there would be room.
I don't like this. Just like widening I80 from Omaha to Lincoln by one lane, this is going to be quite expensive and also a temporary solution. We need to start looking a lot harder at alternative transportation like streetcars, light rail, commuter rail, etc. Denver has opened it's first couple of phases of light rail there and they are already over their 2020 projections for number of riders. It's time to start thinking like a big city because that's were we are headed quite rapidly.
Yes - Why don't we cease light rail discussion on this thread and post specifically about the widening project. There already is a thread on light rail. And please let us not resort to questioning each other's intelligence. We can simply agree to disagree and move on.
The light rail posts were moved in to the light rail discussion.
So, does this mean that Dode will be TEN lanes wide (not including turn lanes) in this area? Â That's absurd.
Yes, it's time to start looking at urban transit alternatives.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
I'm pretty sure that's what it already is, at least for several blocks East of 90th St.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963