Q: I know I'm known as a bicycle nut-case, but I'm just as much of a pedestrian nut-case when it comes to wanting our city streets to be vibrant and safe for all road users. The attached news article is about how Cincinnati recently turned a one-way street back to two-way along a commercial shopping district. It only took them 45 years to right the wrong. I wonder how much longer it will take for Allentown to come to its senses for Hamilton Street from 10th to 6th, and for 7th Street from Washington south to Union.
— John Sharpe, Allentown
A: It's been 54 years since Allentown took what you view as the wrong road regarding Seventh Street, John. Mayor Donald Hock converted the key city thoroughfare and business strip to one-way traffic in 1958, turning the key on the configuration of one-way streets much of which survives to this day.
Hock's one-way plan was controversial — so much so that six months after it went into effect, he said it would be rescinded. However, his mid-December announcement to that effect in turn faced so much opposing traffic that he delayed the change till January 1959, by which time more than 1,200 people had signed a petition favoring the one-way pattern, and the mayor backed up once again.
Some people felt that all the controversy and lane-changing on the one-way-street issue cost Hock his job: John T. Gross beat him in the 1960 Democratic primary, going on to become mayor.
That's just a short-cut look at this topic. One-way-street stories are stuffed into Morning Call archives like cheap goods in a big-rig bound for Walmart, as proposals and plan considerations have hit the road with regularity in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton and other municipalities.
In 2008 and into 2009, Bethlehem officials planned to convert portions of Fourth and Wyandotte streets and Broadway to one-way travel as a means of reducing traffic congestion and improving pedestrian safety. But the $2 million plan generated heavy opposition, and it was dropped in September 2009.
Easton currently is considering the opposite conversion mode: Turning the one-way streets surrounding Center Square to two-way traffic to help visitors reach Crayola Experience and other downtown attractions more readily — and also to make conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists safer.
In some cases, people propose changing streets from one-way to two-way traffic to improve pedestrian safety, while in others the same goal is cited for conversions the opposite way. Can safety gains be realized in either case, and if so, how? Which is safer for peds and pedalers, one-way or two-way streets?
Actually, each conversion does have the capacity to boost pedestrian safety, according to Steve Pohowsky, PennDOT's regional bicycle-pedestrian safety specialist. It's not a mater of which design is chosen, but how thoughtfully and carefully the design is implemented and under what conditions, he said.
For conversions in either direction, "If it's designed properly, it can help [safety]; if it's not designed properly it can hurt. That's the conclusion," Pohowsky said.
He steered me to a number of resources that verified this view, including reports from the Federal Highway Administration. These conclude, among other things, that one-way streets can be safer in part through simplifying things for pedestrians — for example, traffic is coming at you from only one direction. One-ways generally yield fewer cases of hoofers being hit, according to FHWA.
But they also tend to increase vehicle speeds, the feds conclude. And since one-way streets come in pairs, they can force motorists and bicyclist alike to go farther to reach destinations, which keeps vulnerable bikes on the street longer.
Just as one-way streets lead to higher traffic speeds, two-ways slow things down a bit due to the visual "friction" provided by adjacent opposing traffic. But the trade-off is that the pedestrian accident rate ticks up.
There's no one-way answer, John. From a bicycle-nut perspective, a two-way Seventh Street likely would slow traffic down and help you get off the street faster, but while you're there, your risk of being hit by a car is greater.
Many two-way proposals for Allentown streets over the past half-century have reached dead-ends, and only a few years ago, an engineering study commissioned to determine what alterations would be advisable to help deal with anticipated hockey-arena traffic recommended no such conversions, in part because one-way streets move traffic efficiently in a single direction, such as into, then out of, the city for arena events.
Cost is a factor cited in the FHWA data and most other reports on this issue, and it's one of the first brought up by Allentown Public Works Director Rich Young. I think it's fair to say he was cool to the issue, especially with construction underway on the arena and a fall 2014 opening date anticipated.
Obviously event centers like the arena create heavy traffic loads over short periods. "Basically with heavy traffic loads, it works better with one-way streets because of the increased capacity," Young said. "It would be expensive, too" to convert Seventh Street or others, he said. "To add another direction to all the signals and equipment … would probably be $175,000 for each intersection."
Cincinnati and some other cities might be driving some of their one-way streets off the road, but the timing of your appeal seems less than ideal, John. It might be best to put it in neutral for a few years, waiting to see how post-arena traffic patterns evolve.
Road Warrior appears Mondays and Fridays, and the Warrior blogs at mcall.com. Email questions about roadways, traffic and transportation, with your name and the municipality where you live, to hartzell@mcall.com, or write to Road Warrior, Box 1260, Allentown, PA 18105-1260.
