One month after the city began a two-lane traffic pattern trial on Northwest Eighth Avenue, residents’ reactions to the change continue to evoke passionate yet divided opinions.
While feedback about the project — which is aimed at reducing traffic and increasing pedestrian safety near Westside Park — has been both positive and negative, project manager John Veilleux said the ability to run a trial instead of simply estimating possible changes has been a successful choice.
“It’s not often where you can do a trial like this,” he said. “In this case, it was so controversial and diverse, we decided on the trial period so we could see for ourselves what the impacts were going to be.”
In early August, the City of Gainesville Public Works Department cut the number of traffic lanes from four to two on Northwest Eighth Avenue from Northwest 23rd Street to Northwest 31st Drive.
Chip Skinner, Regional Transit System marketing and communications supervisor, said confusion about the trial acting as a permanent configuration may account for some of the negative feedback.
“Some people feel it’s definitely going to be the final configuration because they don’t realize it’s a test to monitor the traffic situation,” he said.
Skinner said the valuable data the city will receive about the impacts of the traffic pattern change is worth the cost of the trial.
“The feeling behind that is that it’s better to spend a little money now and see how the traffic flows,” he said.
As residents become more familiar with the traffic pattern, some have said they’ve grown to appreciate it.
“After driving the redesigned part a few times now, I found it much better than before,” wrote resident Stephen Perz in an email to the City Commission. “I suggest the redesign is an improvement for motorists as well as cyclists, since they are now in their own lanes. This looks win-win to me.”
However, some residents think limiting the lanes is a step in the wrong direction.
Stephen Thomas, a 25-year Gainesville resident, said that after giving the redesigned pattern a few days consideration, making it permanent would be restrictive.
“While I was originally hopeful, I have to give it the thumbs down,” he wrote in an email to Commissioner Susan Bottcher.
“A lot of stressed-out people will be making poor decisions as they are funneled into two lanes so close to 34th Street.”
Data for the study will continue to be collected for an additional three months.
It will end after the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the Gainesville Public Works website.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/5/2013 under the headline "Opinions on Eighth Avenue a two-way street"
