Here’s why residents want to cut lanes on 2 busy Plaza Midwood streets

Some folks in Plaza Midwood think Central Avenue and The Plaza need to go on a diet.

Residents there crafted the “Stroll and Roll Plaza Midwood” petition, which calls for putting the two busy roads on a “road diet” to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

What the heck is a “road diet”?

Usually, a road diet means taking away a lane of traffic with the goal of making cars drive slower through the area, making it safer for people walking and biking. The most obvious Charlotte example is East Boulevard in Dilworth.

A road diet could also mean adding on-street parking, traffic circles and/or medians — anything that slows traffic down.

Why does Plaza Midwood need this?

Plaza Midwood is a vibrant, pedestrian-heavy neighborhood that’s getting more and more dense as apartments keep getting built in the area.

In the neighborhood, Central Avenue has four lanes of traffic (two in each direction) with relatively skinny sidewalks on both sides. The Plaza is also four lanes (two in each direction) with a grass median in the middle.

The residents behind the Stroll and Roll petition, which had 785 signatures as of late Sunday night, think the streets are dangerous for pedestrians.

“As we speak over 2,000 new apartment units are being added on Central Avenue,” Stroll and Roll Plaza Midwood Chair Renee Bradley said at last week’s City Council meeting, according to the Charlotte Observer. “The risk of accidents will only increase if we don’t address this problem immediately.”

Steven Talevski, who lives on The Plaza, said he’s worried about his two kids crossing the street.

“There are no crosswalks,” he said. “There is a great deal of work needed in this area.”

So what does Stroll and Roll want?

In addition to reducing the number of traffic lanes, the petition calls for:

– Protected bike lanes on both The Plaza and Central.

– Additional pedestrian crossing points with warning signs on The Plaza.

– Wider sidewalks on Central Avenue.

– A central turning lane on Central.

– More pedestrian crossing points on Central, using “refuge islands” in the center turn lane.

Will it happen?

If it does, it probably won’t be easy.

Here’s the tricky part: Streets need to carry 20,000 vehicles per day or fewer to be candidates for a road diet, according to Charlotte Department of Transportation Director Danny Pleasant. The Plaza has 24,000 vehicles per day and Central sees as many as 30,000 a day.

“My gut reaction is it will be pretty tough (to reduce lanes on Central Avenue),” Pleasant said. “It’s a narrow roadway already and a pretty significant commuting corridor. We can look at slowing things down. …

“The Plaza is also a pretty tough nut to crack.”

This area isn’t the only one being considered for traffic calming. The city is also taking a look at Parkwood Avenue (where a cyclist was killed in 2015), South Boulevard, South Tryon and West Boulevard.

Read more about the Stroll and Roll Plaza Midwood petition in this CharlotteObserver.com story by Steve Harrison and on the Stroll and Roll website.

Feature photo: Eric Zaverl/UNC Charlotte Urban Design School

This story was originally published March 12, 2017 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Here’s why residents want to cut lanes on 2 busy Plaza Midwood streets."