Going the wrong way?

They're thinking of making the one-way section of Magazine Street between Calliope and St. Andrew into a two-way.

At Councilwoman Stacy Head’s request, the city’s Department of Public Works conducted an initial study of converting Magazine to two-way traffic from Calliope to St. Andrew. The project would involve changing traffic signals, signs and road striping — in addition to a six-month trial period — for a total cost of approximately $100,000.

My only complaint about the way it's currently engineered is I have to make two extra right turns in order to get to Surrey's. That doesn't seem like a big deal but, if I'm going to Surrey's, I'm probably too hungover to be driving in the first place so I could use all the help I can get.

Last year while Magazine was being resurfaced, I remember seeing Pat argue more than once that, if anything, the city should be going the other direction here and extending the one-way throughout the Uptown business corridor presumably creating a "complete streets" haven of diagonal parking and bike racks made out of candy canes or something.

One thing we do know is that the two-way Magazine Street above St. Andrew is one of the most dangerous stretches of road for cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists in the whole city. Okay well we don't know that without the statistics but there sure do seem to be a lot of accidents there. Anyway, that was probably on the mind of at least some of the folks at this meeting.

Both sides of the debate claimed safety concerns as the rationale for their decision. Proponents said that two-way traffic generally flows more slowly than one-way, so it would lower speeds of passing motorists, in addition to eliminating crashes from drivers inadvertently heading the wrong way. Opponents countered that the move would increase traffic overall, crowding out pedestrians and bicyclists.

But what's probably going on is people interested in lower Magazine real estate believe two way traffic is good for business. I mean, I figure it might help idiots like me get to Surrey's faster anyway. Plus it's hard to argue with house flipper Stacy Head's noted eye for real estate opportunities.