Sheldon S. Shafer

The Courier-Journal;

Hoping to slow traffic and make the ride easier and safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, city officials are putting a handful of local streets on a "road diet."

The diet — planned for portions of Breckinridge, Kentucky and Hill streets, as well as a section of Grinstead Drive — involves shaving a driving lane to make room for bike lanes.

The city has already done that to two local roadways — on Brownsboro Road from Ewing Avenue to near Pope Street, two years ago, and on Grinstead between Cherokee Parkway and near Hilliard Avenue, last year. Both of those redesigns left the streets with one traffic lane in each direction and a center turning lane.

And the work has led to fewer accidents and traffic problems, said Rolf Eisinger, the bicycle and pedestrian program coordinator for the Metro Department of Public Works and Assets, who is overseeing the projects.

City officials say that, based on traffic studies, the redesigns will increase safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

The planned changes to the four streets — to be completed by June 30, city officials say — are drawing praise from bicycle riders.

"These are big improvements, and we are excited about them," said David Morse, a director of Bicycling for Louisville, a biking-advocacy organization.

Morse said the changes planned for Kentucky and Breckinridge streets — parallel one-way streets — will make them the city's best east-west bikeway.

However, the road diet projects have not generated universal support. A group made up primarily of merchants along lower Brownsboro Road called Save42.org opposed the narrowing project in the Clifton neighborhood.

Mike Willis, owner of the Lyndia R. Willis Salon, said Tuesday that the change to Brownsboro past his salon's former location at 2315 Brownsboro was a major reason he moved the business to the 2800 block of Frankfort Avenue late last year. He said it greatly reduced the traffic past his front door.

"It cut down on a lot of wrecks, but that was merely because it diverted so much traffic," he said.

Harold Adams, a spokesman for Metro Public Works, released figures showing that Brownsboro Road, where the narrowing project was completed in late 2012, had 23 accidents involving motor vehicles in all of 2012, compared with 18 in 2013. Public Works didn't have separate figures on accidents involving bicycles, if any.

Accident figures for a partial year's comparison on the portion of Grinstead Drive that was narrowed also weren't available.

But Michael Higgs, a spokesman for the foundation that manages Cave Hill Cemetery along Grinstead, said the recent redesign of Grinstead past much of the cemetery "has worked quite well. ... It has slowed traffic and made people more cautious."

Maj. Mark Fox, commander of the Louisville Metro Police Department's 5th Division, which includes both the Grinstead and Brownsboro diet projects, views them as a success because they have encouraged drivers to slow down.

Fox said police have especially noted a reduction in head-on collisions along the redesigned portion of Grinstead.

Eisinger said the changes to the four additional streets will each cost about $25,000 in city money that Mayor Greg Fischer and the Metro Council set aside for bike-related projects.

Here are the details on each project:

• Grinstead from Peterson Avenue to Springdale Road (east of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), which now has four driving lanes, will have a single driving lane in each direction, a center turning lane and one bicycle lane in each direction.

Eisinger said that city officials are not changing Grinstead between Cherokee Parkway and Interstate 64, a section of road for which the state is responsible.

Morse said the redesign of Grinstead "will provide a direct link to the Beargrass Creek Trail. Eventually, it is our hope that this link will be part of continuous bicycle facilities from Westport Road to Shawnee Park."

• Breckinridge from Barret Avenue to Seventh Street, and Kentucky from Eighth Street to Barret.

Breckinridge, which is one-way west, and Kentucky, which is one-way east, are considered couplets and now have three driving lanes during peak hours and two driving lanes during off-peak hours. The directional patterns on the streets will not change, Eisinger said.

Under the redesign, during rush hour both streets will have two driving lanes, one bike lane and one parking lane. During non-peak times, they will have one lane of traffic, one lane for bikes and the two outside lanes for parking.

• Hill between Sixth and 17th streets, which now has four driving lanes, will have a single driving lane in each direction, a center turning lane and one bicycle lane — next to the curb — in each direction.

On streets with a single driving lane and a dedicated turning lane, city officials said, traffic tends to move at reduced speed but with greater efficiency, because drivers don't have to stop behind motorists waiting to make left turn.

The studies show that drivers have fewer blind spots because they face only one lane of opposing traffic at a time, reducing crashes by about one-third.

Pedestrians also benefit from fewer blind spots, along with having to cross only three lanes of traffic instead of four.

Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at (502) 582-7089. Follow him on Twitter at @sheldonshafer.

Public meetings on road diets

• Grinstead Drive from Peterson Avenue to Springdale Road. Meetings are set for 5:30 p.m. April 8 and 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Peterson-Dumesnil House, 301 S. Peterson Ave.

• Breckinridge Street from Barret Avenue to Seventh Street and Kentucky Street from Eighth Street to Barret. Meetings will be at the Shelby Community Center, 600 E. Oak St., at 5:30 p.m. April 14 and 11:30 a.m. April 16.

• Hill Street between Sixth and 17th streets. The public meetings will be at the Parkhill Community Center, 1703 S. 13th St., at 11:30 a.m. April 15 and at 5:30 p.m. on April 21.