Quote:

I don't love the Jersey Ave. bridge, but for me it's those wide, suburban racetrack "arterials" in our city that need to be beaten back ASAP.

These roads are the deadliest type around, ramming highway speeds and attitudes into crowded, complicated urban traffic, including bikes and pedestrians, and carving up what should be livable city neighborhoods like asphalt scars.

Governmental and traffic engineering groups and institutions, recently including the Federal Highway Administration, have now endorsed some excellent, proven solutions to this kind of 1950s nonsense: They explicitly recommend that a deathtrap like Grand Street, with 4 car lanes, be put on a "road diet," shrinking to 2 through lanes with a middle turning lane. The extra room is usually used for protected bike lanes in each direction, pedestrian islands, and other engineering designed for people, instead of cars.

That's exactly what my colleagues and I at the bike advocacy group Bike JC want done on the full length of Grand Street. We call it the #GrandStreetVision, and I hope many of you will support it as we move the proposal forward.

Center Street was reworked so that Columbus could be turned into a 6 lane highway to help suburban commuters get to the office district downtown. The city wants everyone to use Columbus to get to and from the Turnpike. But don't worry! Since they widened Grand Street and turned that into a speedway, they are going to build a 4 lane bridge connecting Jersey Avenue to the Turnpike by Liberty State Park so that suburban commuters will have to highways to get to the office towers downtown.

You used to be able to take a right off Center St to get to the Turnpike until they built the off ramp. I think height is the issue with that. Running a section of road under the Turnpike itself creates maintenance headaches for both the roadway and the Turnpike itself. Ever notice that areas under bridges have a lot of potholes?

In one way I like the mess at the Montgomery light. It calms traffic around Ferris. People drive insanely down Montgomery and off the Turnpike. Forcing a stop before the school is a good thing.

Sooo I was thinking the city should reroute Center St. Basically, reroute it underneath the Turnpike. This will help all the traffic from Grand Street headed toward the Turnpike to avoid the Montgomery Street light. This will also cut down the light time for Montgomery street and people coming off the Turnpike because you can make Center St. right only at the light. Anybody see any issues with this?