The city of Eugene hopes to remove some of downtown’s one-way streets starting this summer, erasing 50 years of street planning that has left the area’s downtown region “inhospitable” to shoppers and businesses, according to Transportation Planning Engineer Chris Henry.
The city’s first big move, recommended by the Eugene Public Works Department, would convert the one-way section between 13th Avenue and 18th Avenue of Willamette Street into a two-way street.
The plans, which will receive final approval from the Eugene City Council on May 24, also include the eventual removal of one-way street sections of Lawrence Street, Lincoln Street, Charnelton Street and possibly Eighth Avenue. The changes to Eighth Avenue would be part of an effort to strengthen the link between the downtown area and the planned site of the future federal courthouse and civic center on East Eighth Avenue and Ferry Street.
Henry said the idea to change the streets originated in a 1993 Central Area Transportation Study that made recommendations for the elimination of some old one-way streets.
“They weren’t necessarily mistakes,” Henry said. “The one-way street grid system is very good at moving traffic rapidly. What we’re looking for is smaller roads and calmer traffic to make a different kind of atmosphere, one that is more conducive to people living and working in downtown.”
He added that while one-way streets are good at moving people around, they are not “community-friendly.”
Henry said the changes will spawn new traffic flow that will benefit the downtown economy by providing better access to businesses and slowing traffic to speeds that will encourage pedestrians and shoppers.
“We’re actually trying to go back to a different time,” he said.
Nicole Campbell, who works at Cravings Catering at 1530 Willamette St. and within range of the two-way conversion, said the switch might be a temporary inconvenience that will be worth it in the long run.
“It will certainly be a little bit harder to tell people how to get here because the street won’t be one-way, but it’s odd to have five blocks of one-way and the rest of the street two-way,” she said. “I’ve seen people pull out of the driveway across the street and head down Willamette in the wrong direction.”
Campbell said the two-way streets would make the entire downtown easier to navigate.
“It’s definitely easier if there’s a two-way street,” she said. “I usually have a bike and I don’t really know which way the streets go, so if I’m driving and I miss something there’s a lot of going in circles.”
Henry said the department chose to start redirection on Willamette Street because a new fire station is being built at the corner of 13th Avenue and Willamette Street, and plans had already been laid to resurface the street’s pavement.
“There’s going to be an overlay, which is just the best time to put down new lane markings because the street is completely redone,” Henry said. “Also, there’s going to be the new fire station and the two-way traffic will make it more accessible.”
The paving overlay project, scheduled to begin in late July, should mean that Willamette Street will be ready for the two-way traffic switch by September, Henry said. The project will also add bike lanes to Willamette Street between 13th and 17th Avenues without losing any curbside parking.
Dagua Web owns Deluxe, a vintage clothing store at 1331 Willamette St., which sits right across from where the new fire station will be located. Web said she couldn’t tell for sure whether the two-way traffic in front of her store would be a positive or negative change.
“I guess, in some ways, all change is bad for business, but I think that in the end it’s neither here nor there,” she said. “There was so much concern about the fire station construction, and it hasn’t made any difference — it might be a great thing. I see at least once a week someone drive down that street the wrong way; it can’t be so terrible.”