APPLETON (NBC 26) — A year and a half ago, the city of Appleton reduced a stretch of College Avenue from four to three lanes to improve safety as part of a test. Now, they’ll soon decide if that change will be permanent.
- Appleton tested reducing part of College Avenue from four to three lanes to improve safety
- The Municipal Services Committee voted to make the change permanent, citing reduced speed, noise, and crashes
- It will now go to the Common Council for a vote next week
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Denise Fenton, chair of the Municipal Services Committee with the City of Appleton, says the goal was to slow traffic and reduce noise.
“The speed on College Avenue, the noise, the fact that those two wide lanes along College Avenue sort of encouraged people on the weekends to treat it as sort of a drag strip,” she said.
Her committee voted to make the three-lane configuration permanent from State Street to Drew Street, believing it makes the road safer.
“We like to think of downtown as a place you’re going to, not a place you’re going through,” Fenton said.
Over the year-and-a-half trial, the committee says reportable crashes are down nearly 13%, traffic volume has decreased just over 1%, and average speeds have dropped 3%.
One of the businesses I spoke to says they have noticed a difference—ACOCA Coffee, right on College Avenue near downtown.
“Bike and car accidents started to appear around the time we had the street change,” said Johnnie Powderly, a shift lead at ACOCA.
He says congestion has also been a concern.
“Especially up here by ACOCA, you know, like I said earlier, we get a street closed off if a train is blowing through or people need to go pick up their kids on time,” he added.
Now that the Municipal Services Committee has voted on it, the proposal will go to the Common Council for review on Wednesday, March 5.
