Excessive speeding was so common on parallel one-way streets in Indianapolis that residents called them a 'racetrack'. Originally two-way, Michigan and New York streets were switched to opposite one-way routes in the 1970s to help RCA workers commute. After the plant closed in 1995, the barren roads encouraged speeding until officials converted them back to two-way last year.
'The opening and conversion of those streets has just been transformative,' said James Taylor, who runs a nearby community centre. Transport planners across the US are turning unidirectional streets back to multidirectional ones, viewing it as an easy way to improve safety and make downtowns more attractive.
Dave Amos, a professor at California Polytechnic State University, said almost no major US streets originated as one-way routes. Two-way streets were standard before mass migration to suburbs prioritised faster commutes. 'One-way streets are designed for moving cars quickly, making pedestrians and cyclists secondary,' he said.
Wade Walker, an engineer with Kittelson & Associates, noted a misperception that one-way streets are safer because pedestrians only look one direction. The confusion arises when one-way and two-way streets form a grid, creating 16 potential vehicle sequences at intersections. 'It's not the number of conflicts, it's the way those conflicts occur,' he said.
Louisville, Kentucky, has been restoring one-way streets to two-way, including a stretch past landmarks like the Louisville Slugger Museum. In the western part of the city, roads changed to one-way in the 1970s to feed a new interstate bridge, which decimated local businesses. Michael King, assistant director of transportation planning, said connectivity was lost.
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, business vacancies skyrocketed after two-way streets became one-way, but after reconversion, the campus of the University of Tennessee expanded and business construction surged. In Lynchburg, Virginia, a restaurant owner who initially opposed the change later admitted he was 'flat-out wrong'.
