John P. views one-way streets not as high-speed arterials, but as the means to preserve New Albany as a sort of modern-day Mayberry enclave. That's about as counterintuitive as it gets, and yet as proponents, we must be prepared to answer the objections, even if they lack factual support.
Like I said we're a small town and I think a lot of people would like to keep it the way it is. That's my outlook on it.
Jeff Gillenwater replied to John P.
Two-way streets are actually much more "the small hometown we have always been". The streets in question were originally built as two-way and remained two-way throughout much of the city's history, a lot longer than they've been one-way. Two-way streets are the more traditional, hometown option.
He then explained how this iniquity came about in the first place.
"The conversion of two-way streets to one-way occurred in New Albany prior to the completion of the Sherman Minton Bridge. That project was completed in 1962. I don't know the exact date but I think the conversion may have occurred in the late 40s/early 50s.
"After World War II, a lot of people around the country started moving out to newly constructed suburbs. Most jobs, though, were still in town so commute distances got longer and people drove into and out of town a lot more. Street were converted to one-way to handle larger traffic volumes, to move people in and out as quickly as possible. New Albany was no different at the time and had several large employers downtown.
"Since the Sherman Minton was completed, though, our downtown and midtown areas have become cut throughs to the interstate. Much of the traffic isn't coming to and doesn't live in New Albany but is just speeding through as fast possible. Wide-laned, one-way streets encourage high speeds. Since speed is a significant factor in the number and severity of crashes, it makes our streets and neighborhoods more dangerous. That's what the Speck plan seeks to limit--that speeding, pass through traffic that treats our neighborhoods like highways.
"It includes several strategies for doing so. With the advent of bridge tolls on all the interstate bridges except the Sherman Minton, that speeding, cut through traffic will increase as people seek to avoid paying tolls. Likewise, because they create indirect routes for people actually coming to New Albany (having to go around the block all the time), one-way streets actually increase the number of miles driven and the number of turns necessary, again making our streets more dangerous and increasing pollution. There's a lot of good information, including a brief history concerning one-ways and a onlinepubs.trb.org/.../circulars/ec019/Ec019_f2.pdf">comparison of one to two-way streets in this study."
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