14th Street What If...?

[mrsticka]

What if in 2011-2012, 14th and Superior was not turned into a roundabout?
-Instead, the intersection is left the way that it had been for years; As a traditional intersection with traffic lights. The horizontal lights are swapped out for the more common vertical ones.
-14th Street itself is widened from 2 lanes (1 north, 1 south) to 3 (1 north, 1 south and a center turn) between Superior and Fletcher. Sidewalks are laid on both sides.
-The 14th Street bridge over I-80 is not torn up. Instead, it's left the way it is. However, a pedestrian bridge is built next to it on its west side.
-14th Street is widened from 2 lanes to 3 all the way from the Fletcher Avenue north of the I-80 overpass to Alvo Road. Sidewalks are of course laid on both sides of the street. There are street lights posted along 14th. But instead, they're all little brackets mounted on wooden poles and the poles have either 1 or 2 power lines attached to them.
-14th and Alvo is also not a roundabout. Instead, it's still a traditional intersection. But the stop signs on Alvo are both removed and traffic lights are put in their places. In all 4 directions, of course.

So if 14th Street had been redone like this between Superior and Alvo, would you still drive on it? I mean, if you had to.

[almighty_tuna]

[Linkin5]

Would I still drive on a street if I had to? Probably.

[mrsticka]

14th Street is kind of a secondary way in and out of Lincoln on the north. 56th is obviously the main route.

[GenX]

Lincoln grew far faster than they had planned. It started as the village of Lancaster, became Lincoln and the state capital virtually overnight, and. Period of rapid expansion began, well before they could establish an effective grid. As Lincoln grew east, they adopted a 14 block per mile grid with major roads at the mile lines.

Other than a massive redevelopment, which would include taking lots of property, 14th, 27th, and many others through central Lincoln are about as good as they’re going to get.

The roundabout at 14th & Superior can actually handle an additional lane of capacity. It originally opened that way, but it was too much for people who aren’t used to roundabouts. It was previously a signaled intersection, and it had a very high crash rate.

[mrsticka]

I never saw a crash there before it was turned into a roundabout.

[Brad]

What if the railroad built a block to the east and 14th street was actually 13th street….

[mrsticka]

What if the railroad built a block to the east and 14th street was actually 13th street….

That would be unusual.

[GenX]

I never saw a crash there before it was turned into a roundabout.

You may not have seen them, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. I haven’t seen any of them either, but I’ve sure read news articles about major collisions at that intersection.

Don’t take my word for it, look it up yourself.

[PotatoeEatsFish]

Lincoln would've become the new Austin with a 1 million+ population by 2030.

[mrsticka]

Lincoln would've become the new Austin with a 1 million+ population by 2030.