Reconfiguring Streets

[Coyote]

Omaha looks into reconfiguring one-way streets downtown
City officials hope to increase walkability for pedestrians and retail on streets like Harney, Farnam, and St. Mary's Ave.



A consultant will start looking into the conversion of one-way streets into two-way streets downtown — delivering results to the city of Omaha sometime next year. City council members approved an effort to hire a consultant Tuesday. The city hopes to increase walkability for pedestrians and retail. "There's always a safety component that's baked into these projects," said Derek Miller, long-range planning manager for the city of Omaha's planning department.

[Louie]

This is certainly intriguing.

[PWL73316]

I know Leavenworth has a few pockets of retail but it's part of the 'frame' of downtown that I think should move a little quicker. I am all for safety and walkability but we have already seen how much the Old Market has been struggling. Fair or not there is a perception among the blue hairs that going downtown is a higher level of difficulty than anywhere else. Making things even slower can backfire.

Two lanes that still move might be great, but I don't think narrowing funnels into downtown is a good idea, generally.

[Dusty]

I love the one way streets! I used to live a few blocks off Leavenworth. I felt like it was safer for pedestrians because all the traffic is coming from one direction. We just don't need 4 lanes of it. Narrow it down to 2 and convert the rest with widened sidewalks, transit only lane, and protected bike lanes.

When you convert to 2 way we just fill them up with street parking. More push to put the car first and disregard the rest. I remember seeing Stothert on the news one day saying the there are many that have a hard time navigating one way streets. She was pushing to convert these to two ways. WHAT? If you don't understand how a one way street works, then you shouldn't have a drivers license!

[Louie]

If you don't understand how a one way street works, then you shouldn't have a drivers license!

Valid point

[Garrett]

The vast majority of streets in NYC are one way and it definitely makes me feel safer crossing.

[Dusty]

The vast majority of streets in NYC are one way and it definitely makes me feel safer crossing.

I'm all for changing street configurations if it's to improve transit, pedestrian, or bike infrastructure. I feel we spend a ton of money on studies for the wrong result. You can't solve pedestrian safety with traffic flow studies. The results are the same failed answers: roundabouts, widen lanes, parking stalls on every nook and cranny.

I would be more supportive of an urban ring road through downtown for cars. This would take cars off certain corridors, but allow other modes to function better. Results could be: a transitway on Farnam as you mentioned before, network of protected bike lanes, or pedestrian streets.

[Renovator2559]

I know Leavenworth has a few pockets of retail but it's part of the 'frame' of downtown that I think should move a little quicker. I am all for safety and walkability but we have already seen how much the Old Market has been struggling. Fair or not there is a perception among the blue hairs that going downtown is a higher level of difficulty than anywhere else. Making things even slower can backfire.

Two lanes that still move might be great, but I don't think narrowing funnels into downtown is a good idea, generally.

That's a suburban mindset. In fact here in the urban core, we want to bring down part of i480 into a boulevard with roundabouts, to slow down traffic and cater to pedestrians first. Walkability can not be accomplished if we try to improve the speed of cars to the likes of suburbanites who are used to their streets being empty of pedestrians.
The Old Market and downtown in general is not struggling one bit, in fact activity has actually increased by a lot with the addition of pedestrian centric amenities, like the GLM and soon to be the full riverfront.

[PWL73316]

Well every restaurant that went under in the OM and the tons of empty bays there would beg to differ. 480 is entirely unrelated to what should be done with Leavenworth. I am all for slowing traffic on the majority of streets, but Leavenworth is one of the main roads in and out of downtown and doesn't need to be slowed, IMO. It's already a bad thing that there is basically only one road (Dodge) going west from downtown. You know, west, where like 90% of Omaha lives compared to downtown. Leavenworth takes some pressure off by connecting to Saddle Creek and onwards. The point is to pick one or the other, streets or roads, instead of trying to do both, and Leavenworth is definitely a road.

[Renovator2559]

Well every restaurant that went under in the OM and the tons of empty bays there would beg to differ. 480 is entirely unrelated to what should be done with Leavenworth. I am all for slowing traffic on the majority of streets, but Leavenworth is one of the main roads in and out of downtown and doesn't need to be slowed, IMO. It's already a bad thing that there is basically only one road (Dodge) going west from downtown. You know, west, where like 90% of Omaha lives compared to downtown. Leavenworth takes some pressure off by connecting to Saddle Creek and onwards. The point is to pick one or the other, streets or roads, instead of trying to do both, and Leavenworth is definitely a road.

Are you sure 90% of Omaha lives out west?
It appears that west omaha has a lot of people but that's an illusion

Also, those restaurants and stores you mentioned, that went under; was in the past. Omaha downtown activity has picked up these past few years.
There are plenty of cities that intentionally slow down traffic and even make it so cars have to take the longest route. That ends up improving pedestrian and business activity. Sinc faster cars move through streets, faster and noisier cars end up making pedestrians less likely to walk through that route and less likely to come across those stores as often.

Though we need the streetcar to further aid the moment as well.

[Athomsfere]

Well every restaurant that went under in the OM and the tons of empty bays there would beg to differ. 480 is entirely unrelated to what should be done with Leavenworth. I am all for slowing traffic on the majority of streets, but Leavenworth is one of the main roads in and out of downtown and doesn't need to be slowed, IMO. It's already a bad thing that there is basically only one road (Dodge) going west from downtown. You know, west, where like 90% of Omaha lives compared to downtown. Leavenworth takes some pressure off by connecting to Saddle Creek and onwards. The point is to pick one or the other, streets or roads, instead of trying to do both, and Leavenworth is definitely a road.

Are you sure 90% of Omaha lives out west?
It appears that west omaha has a lot of people but that's an illusion

Also, those restaurants and stores you mentioned, that went under; was in the past. Omaha downtown activity has picked up these past few years.
There are plenty of cities that intentionally slow down traffic and even make it so cars have to take the longest route. That ends up improving pedestrian and business activity. Sinc faster cars move through streets, faster and noisier cars end up making pedestrians less likely to walk through that route and less likely to come across those stores as often.

Though we need the streetcar to further aid the moment as well.

I think 90% was an exaggeration. But also, half the metro doesn't even live in Omaha.

Most of the denser tracts are also in midtown, with a couple exceptions in downtown.

Of course, with the 30/20/20 plan, the argument is still pretty fluid.

[S.O.Boy]

3 Months ago they installed islands on Cass st from 72nd to 76th. Today I see they tore part of the island out at 74th for a temporary crossover.

[daveoma]

I like the idea of perimeter roads that circle downtown to facilitate automobile traffic. 480 (eventual boulevard) on the north and west perimeter, and Leavenworth on the south.

I think the point about the majority of the population being outside downtown is a good point. Perhaps bringing more pedestrian traffic to the downtown core would involve a combination of extending the streetcar, improvements to the bus system, and encouraging more dense residential development downtown.

[iamjacobm]

https://keepomahamoving.com/projects/ur ... tion-study

Apparently this study is in process. Should have findings next May.

[Garrett]

The sheer success of Blackstone after the two-way conversion of Farnam should make it clear that doing this all over downtown is an easy slam dunk

[skip]

Hopefully they include some dedicated bike lanes in the reconfiguration. I reached out to the project team to provide my feedback. Anyone can do that through the link iamjacobm provided above

[mcarch]

One-way streets allow for more traffic and less congestion, easier and safer pedestrian crossing, also allowing more modal access into and out of the downtown area.

Just imagine 16th street all over downtown and waiting for someone to cross traffic to park on a busy *Creighton game, Orpheum Show, Holland Concert, CHI Area Concert, and/or Festival. Now imagine just being able to go around them safely because there are 3 or 4 other open lanes instead of just the one your "parked" in along with 100 other people waiting all while looking at white barricades coning off 2-3 lanes for bicycles - which also happen to reduce the amount of street parking.

[Elkhorn_Urbanist]

One-way streets allow for more traffic and less congestion, easier and safer pedestrian crossing, also allowing more modal access into and out of the downtown area.

Just imagine 16th street all over downtown and waiting for someone to cross traffic to park on a busy *Creighton game, Orpheum Show, Holland Concert, CHI Area Concert, and/or Festival. Now imagine just being able to go around them safely because there are 3 or 4 other open lanes instead of just the one your "parked" in along with 100 other people waiting all while looking at white barricades coning off 2-3 lanes for bicycles - which also happen to reduce the amount of street parking.

Just what I love as a pedestrian, cars speeding around me on a fast moving 4 lane one way street instead of waiting for me to cross for the 7 seconds that it takes. One way streets facilitate nothing other than the fast movement of cars. They are not safer for pedestrians due to the demonstrably faster speeds of vehicles, limit circulation by eliminating bidirectionally, and do not support multimodal uses unless forced. Downtown should not be the speedway and parking lot for suburban commuters or people going to a Creighton game. It should, be a pleasant place 24/7 where the fear of being struck by a fast moving car while you are in a bike lane that apparently takes up 2-3 lans of traffic for a bike that is no wider than a single person, or as a pedestrian is not ever-present.

[skip]

One-way streets allow for more traffic and less congestion, easier and safer pedestrian crossing, also allowing more modal access into and out of the downtown area.

Just imagine 16th street all over downtown and waiting for someone to cross traffic to park on a busy *Creighton game, Orpheum Show, Holland Concert, CHI Area Concert, and/or Festival. Now imagine just being able to go around them safely because there are 3 or 4 other open lanes instead of just the one your "parked" in along with 100 other people waiting all while looking at white barricades coning off 2-3 lanes for bicycles - which also happen to reduce the amount of street parking.

haha that is what a majority of streets are downtown and that |expletive| is scary to walk across since cars are flying by. you should get out of your car and try it out some time!

[Garrett]

One-way streets allow for more traffic and less congestion, easier and safer pedestrian crossing, also allowing more modal access into and out of the downtown area.

Just imagine 16th street all over downtown and waiting for someone to cross traffic to park on a busy *Creighton game, Orpheum Show, Holland Concert, CHI Area Concert, and/or Festival. Now imagine just being able to go around them safely because there are 3 or 4 other open lanes instead of just the one your "parked" in along with 100 other people waiting all while looking at white barricades coning off 2-3 lanes for bicycles - which also happen to reduce the amount of street parking.

haha that is what a majority of streets are downtown and that |expletive| is scary to walk across since cars are flying by. you should get out of your car and try it out some time!

He'd get out of his car, but the 20 lane bike super highways mean he can't

But on a serious note, everything mcarch claims is just flat out wrong. There's a reason the best district in the urban core, the Old Market, has two way streets. Blackstone would not have revived like it did had Farnam not turned from one way to two way traffic. One way streets in downtowns are relatively new; they were only converted mid century as a way to favor car traffic, and it shows. They are functionally car sewers that whisk people in and out of downtown as fast as possible, pedestrians, residents, and all others be damned. Many cities are seeing this error and converting their networks back to two way operations, and are seeing the benefits.

https://www.kittelson.com/ideas/myth-bu ... 0conflicts.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

One-way streets allow for more traffic and less congestion, easier and safer pedestrian crossing, also allowing more modal access into and out of the downtown area.

Just imagine 16th street all over downtown and waiting for someone to cross traffic to park on a busy *Creighton game, Orpheum Show, Holland Concert, CHI Area Concert, and/or Festival. Now imagine just being able to go around them safely because there are 3 or 4 other open lanes instead of just the one your "parked" in along with 100 other people waiting all while looking at white barricades coning off 2-3 lanes for bicycles - which also happen to reduce the amount of street parking.

haha that is what a majority of streets are downtown and that |expletive| is scary to walk across since cars are flying by. you should get out of your car and try it out some time!

He'd get out of his car, but the 20 lane bike super highways mean he can't

But on a serious note, everything mcarch claims is just flat out wrong. There's a reason the best district in the urban core, the Old Market, has two way streets. Blackstone would not have revived like it did had Farnam not turned from one way to two way traffic. One way streets in downtowns are relatively new; they were only converted mid century as a way to favor car traffic, and it shows. They are functionally car sewers that whisk people in and out of downtown as fast as possible, pedestrians, residents, and all others be damned. Many cities are seeing this error and converting their networks back to two way operations, and are seeing the benefits.

https://www.kittelson.com/ideas/myth-bu ... 0conflicts.

Not to mention mcarch's considerable contradiction between his first and second paragraph:

First paragraph paraphrased: One-way multilane streets create safe pedestrian access and multimodal options.
Second paragraph paraphrased: Just imagine if you had to sit and wait in your car for pedestrians to cross safely on two-way streets while staring at multimodal options that are keeping you from parking your car. Ugh. Plus, with a one-way, multilane road, you could zoom by in one of the empty lanes, potentially plowing into a pedestrian at greater speed.

[Dusty]

I like one-way streets when they are a single lane. You see this in older neighborhoods like Field Club. It's a pedestrian/bike friendly street that allows cars at a slow pace. Downtown is a different story. Multi-lane one way is all about pushing car capacity and becomes a pedestrian nightmare.

The key for downtown is having a multi-modal approach where transit does the heavy lifting. You can reduce car lanes by giving a road diet. This will give the space to widen the sidewalks and slow the pace down. Plus, it would be nice to give space back to the businesses to improve the pedestrian experience. Space to add outdoor patio, a covered canopy or veranda, etc.

[guy4omaha]

Regardless of one-way or two-way, what I would like to see for pedestrian safety is for all lights in all directions go red at the same time with no turns on red. During this time pedestrians would have the complete and only right-of-way. This would include pedestrians using crosswalks directly across a street at the corner and also crosswalks that would extend diagonally across the four corners of the intersection.

Where I have experienced this elsewhere, a lot more pedestrians can move through the intersection and far more safely since there are no moving vehicles. Also the diagonal crosswalks allow for moving across the intersection only once instead of twice with Omaha's current set-up when you want to go to the other side of a street and then at a right angle across the other street again.

[locoluke]

Christmas came six months early! The long awaited results of the Urban Core Street Reconfiguration Study have been posted to the Keep Omaha Moving website. Both the report and the exhibits are worth looking at. The following are the recommendations I found most interesting or exciting:

Road Reconfigurations

• 31st & Leavenworth reconfigured

• Capitol west of 19th proposed one lane eastbound only with separated bike lanes and sidewalk connecting to 20th

• Reconfigured 19th/20th street off-ramps to dump out at an intersection with 17th

• 31st dead ends on the south side of Harney

• Howard dead ends on the west side of 17th

Protected Bikeways

• St. Mary’s protected bikeway from 30th to 16th
  Parking protected northbound bike lane on 14th from Jones to Harney

• Protected bikeway on 17th from St. Mary’s to Farnam

• Protected bikeway on 40th from Davenport to Cuming

• Protected bikeway on 20th from Leavenworth to I-480 with possible connection to Creighton

Bus Platforms

• Bus island platforms on 13th between bike lane and travel lanes

• Bus island platforms on 30th

Other Bike Infrastructure

• Parking protected bike lanes on 10th Street bridge

• Bike lane w/ delineators on 13th under railroad tracks

• North Omaha Trail planned to connect to protected bikeway on Mike Fahey via ROW formerly used by UP to deliver to Omaha World Herald

Beyond this list, there are a bunch of other proposed two-way conversions with and without buffered bike lanes and on-street parking reconfigurations. The study estimates the cost of full implementation at around $50 million, with a number of the roads being reconfigured during already-planned resurfacing to save costs. Again, the reports and exhibits are definitely worth looking through.

[BRoss]

Are they going to put a street through the DoubleTree?!

16th St Dodge-Capitol.JPG

Another thing that I've wanted to see since I lived down in that area is the ramps to 30th reconfigured to 29th St so that huge area can develop. It's interesting seeing Park Ave extended to Chicago.

I-480+US-75.JPG

[skip]

Road diet on leavenworth needs to continue to at least 42nd or even saddlecreek. has to be one of the most dangerous roads to walk along or across in Omaha. plus a lot of density and businesses are popping up along the corridor.

[halgy]

Connecting 16th street would be great, but I'd also be excited to reconfigure Capitol and add a bike lane. Both 16th and Capitol have a lot of potential if they are implemented correctly.

[locoluke]

Road diet on leavenworth needs to continue to at least 42nd or even saddlecreek.

The report mentions that it excludes Leavenworth west of 31st because there is already an ongoing project looking at reconfiguring Leavenworth between 31st and Saddle Creek.

Also, in regards to 16th, they only mention reconnecting it should the DoubleTree vacate its building. I don’t know enough about Omaha’s hotel market to guess how likely that would be.

[iamjacobm]

A lot to look through and I am generally pro converting streets to 2 way but I one thing I noticed is this proposes a lot of street parking reductions. 866 less stalls according to the study. Not sure what the more urban planner focused types on here think about that but that seems like something that could be a big hurdle in pulling this off.

[ita]

A lot to look through and I am generally pro converting streets to 2 way but I one thing I noticed is this proposes a lot of street parking reductions. 866 less stalls according to the study. Not sure what the more urban planner focused types on here think about that but that seems like something that could be a big hurdle in pulling this off.

I haven't looked through it, but do they talk about the city's growing emphasis on building parking garages? That is a big part of the Streetcar system and I could see how reducing street parking could help to reduce people driving around looking for street parking/holding up traffic trying to parallel park. They could easily cover those 866 less street stalls in a couple new garages spread throughout the core. Just a thought.