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Union avenue traffic


hgupta

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I hate driving down Union in midtown. Its ugly and the traffic is horrendous, but I end up using the street a lot because of the shops on the street. Although traffic is better since the street was converted to 3 lanes in each direction, I can't help but think that most of the traffic on the street is due to a lack of a turn lane. The left lane regularly gets blocked by a car waiting to turn into a store, leaving cars trying to merge back into the middle lane, and disrupting the flow of traffic. You can't even turn left onto most of the streets that you need to turn left on!

Wouldn't it be better for the street to be 2 lanes in each direction with a center turn lane in the middle? The leftover 6th lane could be split on either side to be used as a bike lane.

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Memphis ought to consider "Road Diets" on many of their current seven lane arteries.

Road diets, essentially reduce the number of lanes to provide wider lanes and buffers from the roadside in the form of bike lanes or shoulders. These buffers help expedite traffic in and out of driveways, curb cuts and side streets by improving the turn radius, thus not requiring the vehicle to come to a near stop to turn. The wider lanes, up to 12 ft max, allow the driver a more comfortable road to drive on at a more efficient speed.

The existing section:

Roaddiet1.jpg

A diet road:

Roaddiet2.jpg

Union may be one and most certainly, Poplar Avenue ought to be considered. Driving down Poplar near the White Station Tower is a nightmare with narrow lanes and no shoulder.

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Memphis ought to consider "Road Diets" on many of their current seven lane arteries.

Road diets, essentially reduce the number of lanes to provide wider lanes and buffers from the roadside in the form of bike lanes or shoulders. These buffers help expedite traffic in and out of driveways, curb cuts and side streets by improving the turn radius, thus not requiring the vehicle to come to a near stop to turn. The wider lanes, up to 12 ft max, allow the driver a more comfortable road to drive on at a more efficient speed.

The existing section:

Roaddiet1.jpg

A diet road:

Roaddiet2.jpg

Union may be one and most certainly, Poplar Avenue ought to be considered. Driving down Poplar near the White Station Tower is a nightmare with narrow lanes and no shoulder.

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How 'bout instead of the center lane having a landscaped median? Or a combination of center lanes and medians? It would be more expensive, but it would help control traffic, perhaps, and certainly would beautify streets..
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Speaking of making a change, I emailed TDOT about the maintenance (or lackthereof) of the I-40 midtown interchange. If you have driven through here, you can notice piles of trash, car parts, and ten foot tall weeds. I actually got a personal email back telling me that someone forgot to tell the litter and grasscutting department to start maintaining the road again after the construction was finished. He said the oversight will be fixed.

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Speaking of making a change, I emailed TDOT about the maintenance (or lackthereof) of the I-40 midtown interchange. If you have driven through here, you can notice piles of trash, car parts, and ten foot tall weeds. I actually got a personal email back telling me that someone forgot to tell the litter and grasscutting department to start maintaining the road again after the construction was finished. He said the oversight will be fixed.
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Speaking of making a change, I emailed TDOT about the maintenance (or lackthereof) of the I-40 midtown interchange. If you have driven through here, you can notice piles of trash, car parts, and ten foot tall weeds. I actually got a personal email back telling me that someone forgot to tell the litter and grasscutting department to start maintaining the road again after the construction was finished. He said the oversight will be fixed.
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Lucky you...I have Barbara Swearengen Holt/Ware (or whatever her last name is this week). Not much help there, but HG is right, city engineer Wain Gaskins ([email protected]) and his group seem to do a pretty good job.

From my experience, they quickly corrected the initial mistake of putting yield signs in all directions of the Mud Island roundabout after a few others and I made some phone calls. I have also let them know about some ill-timed traffic lights that were recalibrated quickly. Government service is not bad at this level.

While I want Union to look as nice as possible with a flora-lined median, it's not practical given all the commercial property that exists between Parkway and Downtown. Limiting the left turns to traffic lights only creates the need to make a U-turn to go back to a business you missed and that's not a good idea in traffic that intense. A full turn lane will have enough traffic conflicts as it is, but it will be more convenient than a median. If the businesses were spaced farther apart, I'd be all for a median, but since it's continuous, a turn lane with side bike lanes is better.

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Lucky you...I have Barbara Swearengen Holt/Ware (or whatever her last name is this week). Not much help there, but HG is right, city engineer Wain Gaskins ([email protected]) and his group seem to do a pretty good job.

From my experience, they quickly corrected the initial mistake of putting yield signs in all directions of the Mud Island roundabout after a few others and I made some phone calls. I have also let them know about some ill-timed traffic lights that were recalibrated quickly. Government service is not bad at this level.

While I want Union to look as nice as possible with a flora-lined median, it's not practical given all the commercial property that exists between Parkway and Downtown. Limiting the left turns to traffic lights only creates the need to make a U-turn to go back to a business you missed and that's not a good idea in traffic that intense. A full turn lane will have enough traffic conflicts as it is, but it will be more convenient than a median. If the businesses were spaced farther apart, I'd be all for a median, but since it's continuous, a turn lane with side bike lanes is better.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Diet roads would be great for a suburban artery like Kirby, Appling, or Ridgeway. But not Union or Poplar. Can you imagine the traffic backups that would result from that??? Congestion would be unbelievable if you slash capacity on either of those two roads by 33%!!!

Give me the narrow lanes any day of the week - just keep me moving.

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Diet roads would be great for a suburban artery like Kirby, Appling, or Ridgeway. But not Union or Poplar. Can you imagine the traffic backups that would result from that??? Congestion would be unbelievable if you slash capacity on either of those two roads by 33%!!!

Give me the narrow lanes any day of the week - just keep me moving.

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