Editorial: Kasold questions

A major north-south route across Lawrence isn’t a good place to experiment with new street designs.

The Lawrence City Commission’s consideration of a plan to narrow Kasold Drive between Eighth and 14th streets was delayed last week because of an already lengthy agenda.

That’s good because this issue deserves careful consideration by city commissioners, who are likely to hear a considerable amount of public comment on the plan when it is discussed.

City engineers are recommending that this current four-lane stretch of Kasold be narrowed to two lanes — one lane in each direction — with a center turn lane. The four-way stop at Harvard Road would be replaced by a single-lane roundabout.

Engineers say narrowing the street would make it more feasible to add bike lanes and pedestrian features on both sides of Kasold. Bicyclists would share the one-lane roundabout with motor vehicles.

Advocates for this plan like it because they think it will provide an incentive for more people to leave their cars at home and either walk or bicycle along Kasold to reach their destinations. The idea that enough people will change their mode of transportation to have a significant impact on motor vehicle traffic in this six-block stretch is questionable if not downright fanciful.

Never mind, say the engineers, it doesn’t matter if traffic doesn’t decrease. In fact they predict that traffic will increase in the next two decades but that a narrower Kasold will easily handle the load. The street currently has peak traffic of 651 vehicles per hour, which is expected to grow to 736 vehicles per hour by 2040. By some calculation, they have determined that a two-lane road can carry up to 1,900 vehicles per hour, nearly three times the current traffic load. That capacity drops to around 1,250 vehicles per hour with a single-lane roundabout.

Engineers must have a firm basis for these estimates, but they also seem to border on fanciful. Even if traffic increases are minimal, why would the city consider narrowing Kasold, which is one of just a handful of major north-south routes across Lawrence? How sure can the city be that traffic volume on this section of Kasold will grow by only about 0.5 percent per year between now and 2040? Just one factor that might affect that count is the unknown impact of the new South Lawrence Trafficway interchange on Bob Billings Parkway. If the predictions are wrong, will the city go back and restore the street to four lanes?

Encouraging safe bicycle and pedestrian travel in Lawrence is a good goal, but city streets also must be designed to provide for the smooth movement of motor vehicle traffic. Lawrence traffic engineers always seem willing to embrace the “latest thing” in street design, but the proposed narrowing of Kasold could end up being a costly failed experiment for the city.