3rd Avenue conversion coming soon

The one-way-to-two-way reconversion of 3rd Aenue SE begins this summer, and will be completed by fall, according to the latest word from the Cedar Rapids Public Works Department. The entire project covers the stretch from 10th to 19th Streets, some of which is already two-way; the part from 13th to 19th will be converted.

3rd Avenue, along with its partner 2nd Avenue, was made one-way in 1958, in an attempt to facilitate traffic flow into and out of downtown. I don't know for a fact that they were widened at the same time, but I suspect they were; in any case both streets were for about 60 years three-lane, one-way streets. The results were what you'd expect they'd be. The neighborhood, shown in yellow and blue on the 1930s HOLC map above, declined into one of the city's poorest. Whatever traffic there was at first declined as business moved out of downtown, and with the construction of I-380 through town. For most of my time in Cedar Rapids, 2nd and 3rd Avenues have been relatively low-volume: In 2017 average daily traffic count for 3rd Avenue was 3260. 2nd Avenue, whose traffic dropped precipitously after a block was closed to accommodate Physicians Clinic of Iowa's expansion, had only 2060. Thanks to the inviting design of the street, though, speeds are high--hardly conducive to the residences that remain.

Two-way streets in residential areas are better than one-way streets. Slower auto traffic speeds mean more pedestrian safety, as well as an improved sense of community.

Conversion of 2nd Avenue was completed a couple years ago, and was straightforward (though we still haven't figured out how not to park in the bike lane). 3rd Avenue is going to be more complicated, because a number of intersections feature three streets coming together. Making 3rd Avenue two way means there'll be an additional direction from which traffic will come i.e. five at these intersections. Thinking this might create a safety hazard, designers sought to uncomplicate the intersections by blocking auto access from one of the streets. These are currently planned for 17th Street where it approaches 3rd Avenue and Blake Boulevard from the south...

...and Ridgewood Terrace, where it approaches 3rd Avenue and 18th Street from the east.

Another cul-de-sac, planned for 16th Street where it approaches 3rd and Grande Avenues from the south, was removed after neighbors objected. That intersection will retain most of its current bizarre design, except that they will remove the slip lane that allows traffic to move from 3rd to Grande at speed.

A roundabout planned for the intersection of 3rd and 15th was also removed from the design.

As an urbanist I am reflexively against cul-de-sacs, albeit in these cases bicycles and pedestrians would be able to proceed across 3rd Avenue. Also, as someone who finds the late Hans Monderman at least credible, I am not against complicating the built environment in order to reduce auto speeds. My preferred solution, drawing on my semester in Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood last spring, is to put more traffic controls on 3rd. Currently there is a stoplight at 10th, and then nothing until 19th (currently a traffic signal, to be converted to a four-way stop).

I would like to see four-way stops at two or maybe even three intersections along the way. (Heck, I'd add another four-way stop on 19th, where cars currently get quite the head of steam between 3rd and Bever Avenues. Call me Scrooge, but people live around here!) I rather assumed this would be about as popular in car-dependent Cedar Rapids as that roundabout was, and so mentioned it only in confidence to city traffic engineer Ron Griffith. But then my table was discussing 17th Street during the breakout session, so I tried it out on them. A woman who uses 17th Street to get to and drom Johnson School was in favor; a guy who lives nearby on Blake and is (to my mind, irrationally) concerned with traffic noise was against. Everyone else ignored me. So much for my "scientific survey research."

17th Street as currently configured, approaching Blake and 3rd from the south

The months-long project will be, I think, worth the inevitable inconvenience. While I might have done it differently, that's easy for me to say from my comfortable chair at leafy Coe College. Two-way traffic will benefit the neighborhood sociably and financially, and enable safe and comfortable travel in a variety of forms. There will be complaints about the changes, but I think it will be worth those as well. Eventually, I hope, the culture will catch up to the infrastructure...

...and we can have and enjoy a prosperous urban neighborhood.

SEE ALSO:
"One Way or Two," 22 September 2015
"Is 3rd Avenue a Barrier to Redmond Park?" 25 June 2014