A small drop in collisions on a narrowed stretch of Ninth Street in no way supports a similar narrowing project being discussed on Kasold Drive.

A report released last week shows that Ninth Street between Mississippi Street and Emery Road had an average of 29 collisions per year from September 2011 through September 2014. The next year, through September 2015, after the street was reduced from four lanes (two lanes in each direction) to three lanes (one lane in each direction and a left-turn lane), there were 24 collisions.

That’s a 17 percent reduction, which is nice, but it may not justify traffic backups that regularly occur on that stretch since Ninth Street was narrowed. Because the city doesn’t have any traffic counts that correspond with the collision figures, it’s also difficult to know whether collisions were reduced because of the narrowing or because of some other factor — perhaps that Ninth Street was simply handling less traffic in the latest counting period.

The intersection of Sixth and Iowa streets was under construction in the summer of 2014, which likely increased traffic on Ninth Street and perhaps contributed to more collisions during that time period. It also seems likely that traffic backups that occur since Ninth Street was narrowed have caused more drivers to avoid that route, perhaps lowering the number of collisions in the latest year.

During a public meeting last September about a proposed plan to narrow Kasold Drive between 14th and Eighth streets, City Engineer Dave Cronin noted that the city needed to look at whether the narrowing of Ninth Street had an impact on the number of collisions. Although Cronin said the projects and areas are different, even the small reduction in collisions on Ninth Street might be used as evidence to support narrowing Kasold, a project that has drawn substantial local opposition.

The Kasold project has been on the Lawrence City Commission’s back burner for several months, but Cronin said it probably will be back on the agenda soon. When that happens, city commissioners shouldn’t place too much stock in the minimal reduction in collisions along Ninth Street as a recommendation for pursuing a similar strategy on Kasold. Safety certainly should be a concern but so should the fact that Kasold is the only major north-south route across Lawrence between Iowa Street and Wakarusa Drive.